Flood Resilience and West Virginia

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The Environmental Protection Agency defines resilience as the “capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover [from disasters] with minimum damage to social well‐being, the economy, and the environment.” This Science and Technology Note discusses existing efforts and policy options for enhancing flood resilience in West Virginia.

Flood Damage and Mitigation in West Virginia

Flooding is the most common natural disaster in West Virginia and affects every county in the state. From 1960 to 1996, West Virginia recorded 252 flood-related deaths (resulting floods or flash floods); this is more than in any other state besides Texas and California. Floods create economic harm through damage to property and infrastructure and disproportionately affect low-income West Virginia communities. Flood mitigation activities seek to reduce these harms by investing in West Virginia and putting West Virginians to work implementing mitigation measures.

The June 2016 flood was the deadliest flash flood in the United States since 2010, with 23 deaths and an overall cost of approximately $1.2 billion dollars. West Virginia leads neighboring states in the number of National Flood Insurance Program payment amounts per person over the length of the program. Flood risks in West Virginia could rise 18% by 2050.

Flood mitigation activities include proactive measures taken to decrease the impact of flooding, like beyond-code requirement building, home acquisition, and wetland preservation and construction. Research has found every $1 invested in flood mitigation can save $6 in disaster recovery, and that in riverine areas savings can be $7 to $1. While flooding will always occur, man-made problems such as old dams and poorly maintained culverts or bridges can exacerbate flooding; these represent an opportunity to improve West Virginia’s flood resilience.

West Virginia Critical Facilities in Flood Zones

*MIDs refers to “Most Impacted and Distressed” counties as determined by the State and the Department of Housing and Urban Development *”100-year flood plain: 1% chance of being inundated by a flooding event in any given year. 500-year flood plain: 0.2% chance of being inundated by a flooding event in any given year “

Source: Statewide Flood Plan, West Virginia Conservation Agency

Source: WVU Bridge Initiative, based on data from National FloodInsurance Program, 2020 Census

Current Flood Resilience Policies in West Virginia

In 2017, the West Virginia legislature established the State Resiliency Office (SRO) to help coordinate and implement “disaster resilient strategies” across the state and the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding ( HB 2935). In 2021, SB 389 clarified that the SRO is responsible for emergency and disaster response planning. In 2023, SB 677 created the West VirginiaFlood Resiliency Trust Fund to be administered by the SRO and required the SRO to create a new “Flood Resiliency Plan” by June 2024, to be updated every two years thereafter. This bill also allowed up to 6% of the Community Development Block Grant’s disaster recovery funds to be directed to flood resilience planning and implementation. In 2024, Governor Justice requested that $50 million be allocated to the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund but had not allocated any money to the fund in the approved FY 2025 budget as of March 2024.

Benefits of Flood Resilience for West Virginia

Like other natural disasters, flooding causes economic harms beyond the property damage cost ( $464.1million from 2003-2023). Businesses may close and employees may need to take time off work or leave their jobs entirely. Clendenin’s lone grocery store, which was damaged in the 2016 flood, had not been rebuilt as of 2022. Road closures and infrastructure damage further depress economic activity, and fear of future flooding can discourage investment or reinvestment.

Flood mitigation activities thus will have benefits beyond decreasing the consequences when flooding inevitably occurs. It could spur greater investment, economic activity, and workforce participation. In addition, mitigation benefits such as preservation of family heirlooms and community culture can be difficult to quantify, indicating that the 6:1 benefit to cost ratio (BCR) estimate may understate the true economic and social value of mitigation activities.

Flood Mitigation Efforts in Other States

Other states have a variety of approaches to flood mitigation. Kentucky has a Flood Control Local MatchProgram, which uses state bond funds to help cities and counties unlock federal disaster funds with matching requirements. North Carolina has an Office of Recovery and Resiliency and provides funds to the Golden LEAF foundation to award local governments grants for flood mitigation activities. Since 1976, Maryland has had a Comprehensive Flood Management Grant Program.

In 2020 Virginia established the Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which has awarded $151.6 million to resilience studies and projects so far, prioritizing “community scale hazard mitigation activities that use nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk.” The fund is supported by the sale of carbon allowances through the state’s (former) participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

West Virginia Flood Resilience Policy Options

Policy options include allocating the $50 million requested by Governor Justice to the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Trust Fund administered by SRO. Legislators could relax disbursement requirements on this fund, which currently requires that a minimum of 50% of funds be directed to low-income geographic areas, 50% towards “nature-based” solutions, and 25% towards the acquisition of single-family homes in flood prone areas. While Virginia has a 25% low-income disbursement requirement, to date over 67% of funds have been disbursed to low-income areas. A local matching program could help local governments access federal resilience funds with matching requirements. These programs could be pursued with the Resiliency Fund at the SRO’s discretion.