Cord Byrd: “I have often spoken of the grandeur of West Virginia's mountains and the abundance of tranquil mountain streams that…”

“I have often spoken of the grandeur of West Virginia's mountains and the abundance of tranquil mountain streams that gurgle quietly throughout the State. However, these same majestic mountains and streams are also conduits for disaster and devastation. When the heavy rains hit, waters from the mountaintops surge to the valleys and turn once peaceful meandering mountain streams into angry, raging, muddy torrents of horror, rising up over their banks and destroying anything in the way. In West Virginia, such torrential flooding seems to be an annual event--since 1993, the State has had eleven federally declared disasters. In this year alone, the State has had two federally declared disasters. In the latest round of devastating flooding in the state earlier this summer, twenty counties were declared Federal disaster areas. Homes were damaged or destroyed, and the severe impact on the infrastructure in the southern part of the State--from roads, bridges, water and sewer, to power sources--brought a normal way of life to a screeching halt once again.”