Repeated W.Va. Flooding Prompts Flood Plain Study

(TNS) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Huntington District representatives met with Mullens officials and residents Monday to collect information concerning past flooding events in an effort to determine how best to reduce the damage from future flooding in the small town.

Designated as an economically disadvantaged area, Mullens has been subjected to repeated flooding over the years.

With the meeting Monday morning, the Corps began a new flood plain management study for the town with $125,000 in federal funding, authorized in February. The money comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding for the Corps’ Flood Plain Management Services Program.

The Corps requires funding authorization by the U.S. Congress before beginning a project, explained Ken Woodard, the district’s Plan Formulation Section chief.

The confluence of the Guyandotte River and the Slab Fork is located within the business district.

In 2001, the historic 500-year-flood destroyed 80 percent of the downtown business district, with 12 feet of water rushing through the streets in some locations. Coffins floated through the streets of Mullens, escaping from the local funeral home covered in water.

South Mullens has also suffered repeated flooding.

The two most devastating flooding events in Mullens occurred in 1963 and 2001, according to Sen. David “Bugs” Stover, R-Wyoming, who grew up in the area.

The Corps will seek input from local, county, state, and federal stakeholders throughout the course of the study, according to officials.

“We want to understand what needs you have,” Woodard told the group Monday morning.

Additionally, the Corps met with area residents Monday afternoon and also visited several sites along the Guyandotte and its tributaries.

Once the study is completed, the Corps will make recommendations concerning options to reduce future damage, such as dry dams, flood warning systems, headwaters retention, flood walls, among others.

Some of those options may pose more risk for people downstream, Sarah Glass, Corps’ Environmental Division, told those attending.

The suggested options will not be Corps-specific, will not include any cost estimates, or lead directly to a Corps’ construction project, Woodard emphasized.

There is no way to prevent all flooding, Glass noted.

Using current data and technical knowledge, the Corps will provide recommendations that are reasonable and affordable for the town, and “get the most bang for the buck,” Woodard said.

“We want to give you a study you can use,” he noted. “We want to help the community.”

In the past several years, the Corps has changed its scope on such projects and now looks at protecting people and communities in economically disadvantaged areas in addition to areas with high-end homes and large population concentrations.

The agency is looking at more than just the dollar-for-dollar ratio, or the damage costs versus prevention and rebuilding costs, according to officials.

“We’re here to protect the people, not just the dollar-for-dollar ratio,” Glass said.

The Corps will also look at such things as bridges, railroad crossings, culvert sizes, public safety, can emergency responders get into the area, how many people are cut off during flood events, how much of the town’s population is considered vulnerable, the potential for loss of life, the community impact of relocating some residents, among other issues.

The Mullens’ flood plain management study will be completed in September and final recommendations will be presented to the public, according to officials.

An additional $3 million, three-year study of the entire Upper Guyandotte watershed has been approved, but is still awaiting funding authorization by the U.S. Congress, Woodard said. Data from that study will also be utilized in the Mullens study.

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