FAIRMONT – Food pantries in Marion and Ohio counties will be among the recipients of an emergency funding outlay to help them replenish their shelves in the wake of floods that swamped the state in February and June.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced the $767,000 offering Wednesday.
The dollars, the governor said, will be doled out to 63 food banks across 13 counties affected by the weather, including Marion and Ohio.
In Ohio County, the deluge turned deadly on June 14, when nine died in the floodwaters that ravaged the Wheeling area.
That following day, Father’s Day, Marion County was hit with pounding rains that swamped roadways and basements and led to the partial collapse of an apartment building in Fairmont.
“While the floodwaters have long subsided, we are still working in the affected communities to help them make a full recovery,” Morrisey said.
“These funds will help local pantries keep food on their shelves,” the governor said, “so they can continue to serve those who were hardest hit by this year’s floods.”
The funds are being distributed to food pantries in the following counties:
Greenbrier County – $13,000
Lincoln County – $30,000
Logan County – $54,000
Marion County – $66,000
McDowell County – $104,000
Mercer County – $119,500
Mingo County – $115,000
Monroe County – $26,000
Ohio County – $53,000
Raleigh County – $60,000
Summers County – $15,000
Wayne County – $60,065.75
Wyoming County – $52,000
Morrisey opened the application process in cooperation with Mountain Food Bank and Facing Hunger Food Bank – for pantries in the counties named under a federal disaster declaration from the inclement weather.
With lives lost and properties destroyed, West Virginians still never wavered, he said in June in Fairmont during a briefing of flood damage in the city and county.
“When you have a crisis, you run toward it,” he said then. “We’re all going to come out of this stronger than ever.”
