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U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., is pressing the Senate to approve legislation that would expand flood prevention initiatives in McDowell County.
"We are making progress in protecting lives and property from severe flooding. But there is more to do. The legislation before the Senate would expand the Tug Fork Flood Control project to an estimated 500 homes in McDowell County," Byrd explained.
The current Tug Fork initiative is targeted at those structures which flooded during the 1977 floods. The provision that Byrd included in the new Senate legislation would open the project to buildings that were damaged in the floods of 2001 and 2002.
"In 1977, we thought that the flooding would have no equal. We were wrong. The 2001 and 2002 flooding smashed through that 1977 level. By expanding the Tug Fork work, we will be able to expand community safety in the area and ensure that, should flood waters rise again, we will come nowhere close to the damage from past years," Byrd explained.
The water levels from the floods that hit McDowell County in 2001 and 2002 were substantially greater than those of the April 1977 flood. The May 2002 flooding in some areas of the region was nearly a 500-year flood.
The legislation would authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work with community residents to flood-proof approximately 500 more homes, at an estimated cost of $52 million. This work would expand the ongoing Tug Fork efforts, which includes work on as many as 1,000 homes throughout the county, four new schools (one in War, two in Bradshaw, and one in Iaeger), and a building housing both the fire station and town hall in Kimball.
Byrd’s McDowell County provisions are included in the Water Resources and Development Act, a vote on which could occur in the Senate in the next few days.
"Right now in our state, we have an opportunity to achieve great things together, and to help ensure economic prosperity for many years to come. But we must work together. This is a time for cooperation. It does not matter whether one is from Bluefield or Welch, Wheeling or Martinsburg. We must all pull together to improve the prosperity of our state," Byrd said.
"In Southern West Virginia, we have great opportunity ahead of us, with the new federal prison and the highways. But we cannot sit back and wait. We need to move forward on these projects and unite behind a better future for the region," Byrd said. ###
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