FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2025
CONTACT: Gina Pelusi, [email protected], 703-283-0855
APPALACHIA – As communities in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia respond to devastating flooding and mudslides and attempt to begin recovery efforts, a new wave of dangerous winter storms will reportedly batter Appalachia in the coming days. Amid the compounding disasters, local governments and nonprofits are facing unprecedented uncertainty about what resources are available to support response efforts across the region due to the Trump Administration’s funding freeze and attempts to dramatically alter or eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Already, elected leaders are making clear that they do not have the resources needed to adequately respond without federal assistance. Meanwhile, community partners doing work to increase resiliency have seen funding frozen, while funding used to clean up flooding and landslide liabilities at abandoned mines has been halted.
Appalachian communities and local advocates previously laid out a road map to offer a path to resilience amid these increasingly prevalent disasters. In the spring of 2024, ReImagine Appalachia, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center and the National Wildlife Federation worked with dozens of local elected officials and advocates to detail a four-pillar flood resilience policy roadmap for Appalachia.
Dana Kuhnline, Program Director for Reimagine Appalachia, released the following statement in response:
“The real world costs of cutting or eliminating federal disaster relief programs is being made clear in Appalachia right now, with a lack of response from the federal government to devastating floods in the region. Communities are without power, families are at risk of hypothermia, many lack access to potable water, all as new threatening storms roll in.
“The devastation from ongoing flooding in Appalachia is only being made worse by confusion generated by the Trump Administration’s executive orders freezing federal funds and staff layoffs. Strong leadership is needed in times of crisis, not inaction. It is unclear if the vital assets that our communities have relied on from the federal government in the past to respond and recover will even become available.. We do not know if a federal disaster declaration will be declared and – if one is – if FEMA will be functioning enough to do its job. Meanwhile, the federal investments targeted to mitigate flood and landslide risks like abandoned mines have been halted, putting our communities even more at risk, now and in the future.
“We need action and support from the federal government, as outlined in the flood resilience policy roadmap and created by advocates from our region before anyone else suffers amid the chaos and uncertainty coming from Washington.”
Chelsea Barnes, Director of Government Affairs and Strategy at Appalachian Voices, shared the following:
“We are working with communities in Central Appalachia to get aid distributed and help our neighbors clean up from these floods. But these events are happening too often, and we never fully recover. While there has been some progress on building our community resilience to disasters in recent years, we need our elected officials to seriously pursue solutions to protect us from this kind of devastation in future storms. We need the mines cleaned up and revegetated so the land can retain more water; we need better data so we can make smart building decisions, and we need to make it easier and more affordable for people to access flood insurance. We will continue to support our communities in the aftermath of disasters, but we urge our policymakers to invest in mitigating the impacts of future floods.”