Preliminary residential damage assessments conducted jointly by state and federal officials since February storms brought major flooding to Southwest Virginia reveal that 90 homes sustained major damage and the total number of those destroyed was 18 — and 17 of those were in Buchanan County.
Where to find help, how to help
Our list of resources includes information on how to donate and where to find flood-related assistance, including new details about a weekend telethon that will raise money for flood recovery.
Meanwhile, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has expanded the area for which he is requesting an expedited major disaster declaration. On Feb. 16, he asked President Donald Trump for a declaration for Buchanan, Dickenson and Tazewell counties, but on Feb. 26, he requested an “add-on” to include Bland, Giles, Lee, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth and Wise counties. Both requests are currently in process, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Virginia’s two senators, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, sent a joint letter to Trump urging him to support Youngkin’s expanded request. “Significant federal assistance is needed in Southwest Virginia to help our constituents who are already recovering from the widespread damage of Hurricane Helene, which was the most significant disaster in the Commonwealth in over a decade,” they wrote. “It is important to note this is the fifth major flood in this area in the past five years.”
Overall, 479 homes were affected by the storm, according to the numbers collected Feb. 18-28 in 11 counties by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and FEMA.
The flooding came the weekend of Feb. 15-16, following days of torrential rain and ending with several inches of snow in some affected counties. Rivers across the area crested at high levels, roads were closed, mudslides and landslides occurred and bridges, businesses and homes were damaged.
Some areas received as much as 7 inches of rain. Power was out in many areas, for days in some cases, and more than 150 swift-water rescues were conducted.
The hardest-hit areas were the Hurley and Slate Creek communities and the town of Grundy in Buchanan County, and parts of Tazewell, Dickenson, Wise and Russell counties.
The numbers released Tuesday were for individual assistance, which provides funding to individuals and households that have sustained losses as a direct result of a declared disaster.
Representatives of VDEM and FEMA are still in Southwest Virginia collecting the public assistance joint preliminary damage assessments, which are scheduled to wrap up this week for the 11 counties, according to a VDEM spokesperson. Public assistance can pay for repairing or replacing eligible public or nonprofit facilities and infrastructure.
The neighboring states of Kentucky and West Virginia already have received major disaster declarations as a result of damage from the same storm system; Kentucky’s declaration was approved Feb. 24 and West Virginia’s approval came Feb. 26.
The governor submitted the request for an expedited major disaster declaration for the counties of Buchanan, Tazewell and Dickenson on Feb. 16, which was followed by a joint request for a declaration and individual assistance for the same counties from Griffith, Kaine and Warner.
Youngkin is seeking individual and public assistance for all 11 counties now included in his request for a disaster declaration. As of Tuesday evening, no declaration has been approved for Virginia.
Officials have said the preliminary damage assessment numbers will be used to help determine whether Southwest Virginia receives a disaster declaration.
FEMA, which Trump has said he wants to eliminate, will evaluate the information included in the declaration request and approve all or a portion of the programs requested, according to the agency.
The agency has established four categories for damage to houses. Destroyed means the house is a total loss. Major damage means there is structural or other significant damage that requires extensive repairs. Minor damage indicates repairable, nonstructural damage, and affected means the house has sustained non-structural damage that does not make it unsafe.
The numbers released Tuesday showed that in addition to the 17 homes that were destroyed, Buchanan County had 26 homes that sustained major damage and 60 that had minor damage, and another 103 that were affected.
Tazewell County had 44 homes with major damage and 52 with minor damage and 76 that were affected, for a total of 172 homes impacted by flooding damage.
Russell County had four homes with major damage and 11 with minor damage, and another nine were affected. In Dickenson County, one house sustained major damage, four had minor damage and 11 were affected, according to the numbers.
Lee County had one destroyed home, one with major damage and four with minor damage, while two were affected. Scott County had three homes with major damage and two with minor damage, and another two that were affected. In Wise County, six houses sustained major damage and eight minor damage, and six were affected.
In Bland County, where the only death from the storm occurred when a man was swept away by floodwaters, three homes sustained major damage and five had minor damage.
