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ELKINS – The Tygart Valley United Way and United Way of Central West Virginia will team up to host seven separate Disaster Preparedness Workshops over the next two months.
One of the workshops will take place in Elkins, at the West Virginia Wood Technology Center on Oct. 6. The session will run from 5-6:30 p.m. at the facility, located on 11th Street.
“We are going to give away door prizes and there will be a light meal at each one of the workshops,” Tygarts Valley United Way Regional Engagement Director JoLynn Powers told The Inter-Mountain. “The Tygart Valley and Kanawha Valley United Ways are the agencies who are now working directly with disaster assistance. We assisted with the flooding in Upshur and Lewis counties back in July and we learned that disaster preparedness is a need that we are seeing more and more every day.”
At the workshops, Powers said residents will learn how to prepare for disasters, and learn what they need to do after a disaster strikes.
“To tackle the problem, we thought that we would start by sharing these preparedness classes,” Powers said. “We want to teach people how to prepare for these events, what to do with documents, what they need in their homes, and what is a good list of items they need to have on hand. We are going to share all of that with them and give them information about what they need to do financially after a disaster hits.”
Powers said that the United Way donated more than $200,000 in assistance to Upshur and Lewis counties after the flash flooding that hit July 21.
“Moving forward, we want to be kind of a depository and distribution service for agencies and profit businesses that want to help,” Powers said. “So we are moving more into that type of direct assistance as one of our core missions with the Tygart Valley United Way.”
Those attending the workshops will receive a ‘disaster bag,’ light snacks, raffle prizes, and a chance to win a solar power station. Other than Elkins, there will also be workshops in Fairmont, Keyser, Wheeling, Clarksburg, Romney and Martinsburg.
“The workshop idea all kind of started after the flood on Father’s Day last year in Fairmont,” Powers said. “After that we realized that there’s not a lot of community coordination or preparation when disasters hit. Then we suffered several major floods between July 21 and Aug, 1 in several different counties in our state. We want to be able to help communities before and after disasters hit.”
Powers said the United Way wants to have workshops across the state, and that more will be be added in the spring of 2027. For more information or to RSVP for a workshop, visit www.tvunitedway.org. Information can also be obtained by calling 304-636-0516.