The Federal Emergency Management Agency has distributed around $12.2 million in individual assistance money to about 1,300 families in Kanawha County, FEMA officials said Thursday at a Kanawha County Commission meeting.
FEMA's individual assistance program gives grants to families who were affected by natural disasters, like June's floods.
So far, 1,254 families have received the individual assistance for housing, whether to pay for temporary lodging or repairs to a home damaged by the floods, while 468 families have received money for property damaged in the floods.
The last day for flood victims to register for individual assistance is Aug. 24.
County Manager Jennifer Sayre stressed that individual assistance is potentially available to anyone in the county who was affected by the floods, not just people in Clendenin and Elkview.
The County Commission hosted FEMA officials to ask questions about the cleanup and thank them.
When asked if people attempting to rebuild their homes would have to worry about the floodplain changing, FEMA officials said that no changes to the floodplain were scheduled within the next two or three years in Kanawha County.
The Commission also gave a check for $25,000 to the town of Clendenin. The town currently has $60,000 left, including an earlier $25,000 from the Commission.
"If that becomes FEMA eligible," said Kent Carper, Kanawha County Commission president, "We want our money back."
About 99 percent of the businesses in Clendenin were damaged in the floods, said Clendenin Mayor Gary Bledsoe.
"We're going to bring Clendenin back and make it better than ever," Carper said.
Carper also announced that the county had heard from the contractor building the bridge for Crossings Mall and that the process was in motion.
The county still is waiting for a copy of the owner's right of entry before the permit can be issued. Right now, the estimate for the bridge is $680,000.
The county has almost $2 million in invoices received for flood debris cleanup as of Thursday.
"The good news is there's a substantial likeness that we will be reimbursed," Carper said.
The county received $287,083 from its last FEMA reimbursement from the mudslide at Yeager Airport.
About one-third of that money went to Kanawha Metro 911, $1,942 went to the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority and $5,393 went to the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association, which brought several small dogs and cats to the meeting.
The county distributed an additional $40,000 to the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association, money raised from the dog licensing collections.
Four children from the Sharks soccer team, wearing their bright green uniforms, attended the meeting in hopes to encourage the county to donate $50,000 to Trace Fork Soccer Fields.
It worked.
"You can't spend money any better than with athletics for kids," said Commissioner Hoppy Shores. "It kept me clean, and I would never had made it without athletics."
Carper said the staff was concerned how the contribution would look in lieu of the flooding.
"We spent a lot of time looking at this," said Commissioner Dave Hardy. "Not just in Trace Fork, but the big picture."
The Kanawha-Charleston Soccer Foundation, which owns the field, owes $1.2 million on a loan from BB&T. The foundation has been attempting to raise $400,000 to refinance the loan.
The commission's contribution brings the total donations to $200,000 which will be matched by an anonymous donor. The city of Charleston also contributed $25,000.
Just in time for the Aug. 10 meeting to resolve the issue of Kanawha County voters casting their ballots in the wrong senate and delegate districts, the county now has an interactive map that will allow it to check for other potential mistakes and to visualize the problem.
Doug McKenzie, the man who built the map, charges $150 per hour.
Karen Haddad, a local businesswoman, has been appointed to serve on the Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Commission.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.