MORGANTOWN — If utility testing goes as planned, agencies will be able to resume at least some operations out of Hazel’s House of Hope as early as Saturday.
That’s less than one week after straight line winds estimated at 90-100 miles per hour peeled the building’s roof off, tossed a 3,000-pound air conditioning unit some 120 feet and destroyed at least two others.
During an update Thursday, members of the Morgantown Community Resources Board of Directors briefed city and county officials as to the progress of repairs.
“The good news is through the efforts and the pulling of people from every direction, and the generosity of everybody involved, a very substantial disaster has been turned around very, very quickly, and those spaces will be back up and operating,” MCR Board Member Mark Nesselroad said.
MCR owns and operates the HHH property, acting as a facilitator for the various social service agencies that have made their home in the repurposed hotel building located on Scott Avenue.
Thursday’s meeting was actually scheduled as an opportunity to discuss the facility’s future long before Sunday’s storm. It took on additional interest once the building’s roof was forcibly removed.
“When you were on the fourth floor, you squished in your shoes when we were up there the night of the incident, and the day after. I can tell you when I walked through today, it’s dry,” Nesselroad said, offering thanks to businesses like Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration and March-Westin for their quick response, which began the night of the storm.
“March-Westin, as a community player in this community, what they did to step up to help us, I mean, there were 35 people on-site the next morning,” Nesselroad said, explaining that 30,000 square feet of roofing was in place before the skies opened up again Tuesday evening.
By all accounts, the pace of the work has been impressive, but not everything will be back to normal immediately.
Bartlett Housing Solutions had a number of tenants renting units on the building’s fourth floor. It will likely be weeks before those apartments can be reopened.
In the meantime, Bartlett House is using hotel rooms and working with the Fairmont Morgantown Housing Authority to secure emergency housing vouchers in light of the natural disaster.
“The challenge is going to be finding units within the community. That’s always the issue. I’m hoping maybe, in conjunction with the city and county, that maybe there’s something we can do to get the word out for landlords to come on board,” Bartlett Housing Solutions Executive Director Keri DeMasi said.
DeMasi said individuals renting space at HHH who don’t wish to relocate temporarily will likely stay in the hotel until their apartments are once again ready for habitation.
“Our goal is going to be to get people to some type of normalcy. The clients that were there that night, it was really traumatic for them,” DeMasi said. “It’s been a tough adjustment, but they’re doing well at the hotel right now.”
