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New officer briefs flood committee

CHARLESTON — The state of West Virginia is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but lawmakers received a briefing Friday from the office working to fight other kinds of emergencies and disasters, such as flooding.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding met Friday in the House of Delegates Chamber for their first meeting since January before the start of the 2020 legislative session.

Committee members were spread out for social distancing with most wearing masks to avoid spreading COVID-19.

The committee heard a report from Bobby Cales, the new state resiliency officer who was appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to head the new agency that was born from meetings of the flood committee.

“I am both humbled and honored to have been entrusted with the opportunity of being a key member in establishing and operating the State Resiliency Office,” Cales said. “Furthermore, I look forward to working with this committee and receiving guidance from you as well as that of the state resiliency office board in support of the resiliency office mission of increasing the state’s resiliency to disaster.”

Cales, who previously worked in the Adjutant General’s office of the West Virginia National Guard and who also worked on the RISE West Virginia flood relief and reconstruction program, became the first leader of the State Resiliency Office in May.

The office was created by legislation drafted by the flood committee, formed to address issues that arose after the 2016 floods in southern and central West Virginia. The Governor’s Office first proposed the idea of a state resiliency officer in 2019, but Justice’s representative worked with the flood committee to create what would become Senate Bill 586 in January.

S.B. 586 reorganized and re-designated the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety as the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the West Virginia State Police, the Intelligence Fusion Center, the State Fire Marshal, the Division of Protective Services and the Parole Board. The bill renamed the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management to the Division of Emergency Management. The West Virginia National Guard, which had been in the Department of Military Affairs, became a separate agency.

S.B. 586 laid out the role and responsibilities of the State Resiliency Office and the state resiliency office. The office works with state agencies to ensure that parts of the state hit with natural disaster and man-made emergencies can bounce back quickly. It also manages non-federal disaster and hazard mitigation grant funding.

The office is assisted by an advisory committee of state cabinet and constitutional offices as well as other state agencies and legislative appointees.

Cales said the office coordinating several working groups with specific projects, including an annual review of the statewide flood protection plan, reviewing all county and city hazard mitigation and comprehensive disaster plans, creating a model for a long-term recovery plan, and creating a comprehensive debris management plan.

The first quarterly meeting of the State Resilency Office Board is Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m.

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