Senator Warner concerned FEMA may underserve rural communities

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - US Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) says he is continuing to fight for FEMA dollars to help a community in southwestern Virginia that was damaged by flooding in August.

The Senator called it disappointing that FEMA denied the request to provide individual assistance to residents of Buchanan County, which was devastated by flooding, landslides, and mudslides. That’s why he is helping the effort to repeal that decision. Senator Warner says he was “offended” when FEMA said the community hadn’t sustained a high enough level of harm to receive the funding, and is concerned that this measurement could discriminate against rural communities needing assistance.

“This FEMA approach, where they say to these rural communities ‘you didn’t get to a high enough level of harm’, they oftentimes do that as a percentage of homes hit on a size of a community, and I think that measurement tool sometimes just doesn’t make any sense,” he explains.

Senator Warner says the community sustained six to seven million dollars in damages.

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