The flood victims will have a new temporary shelter as of 11 o’clock this morning. The new home will be at the First Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Dumfries Road. Democratic State Delegate (52 district) Luke Torian, pastor of that church, said church leadership voted unanimously to provide the shelter.
Del. Torian certainly has stepped up to the plate to provide community leaderhip in solving a critical problem. We are fortunately to have him representing Prince William County both as an elected official and as local pastor. This is certainly not the first time the good people of First Mt Zion Baptist have stepped up to the plate to highlight the needs of those less fortunate and those in temporary need. They have been community leaders who have talked the talk and WALKED the WALK.
Chairman Corey Stewart provides a stark contrast to those folks over at First Mt. Zion Baptist. He simply could not take off his political hat long enough to show human compassion. He had to play tough guy. He said a curt NO when he should have said that county officials were doing all they could do to relocate the flood victims until permanent housing could be found. Instead, he chose to look like some cruel Dickens character who directed the county to throwing families out in the cold. He should have been right out there on the media front lines, appealing for housing and reassuring the public that the county was on top of solving the problem.
According to the News and Messenger:
The church on Dumfries Road will be available to flood victims after 11 a.m. Friday. The shelter will be operated by the Red Cross and will be open until Sept. 23.
After flooding on Sept. 8 and 9, at least 66 of 108 homes at Holly Acres in Woodbridge were declared unsafe for residents.
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the flood damage in Woodbridge on Thursday. In order for flood victims to receive federal aid, Gov. Bob McDonnell must make a request of the federal government. As of Thursday, he had not.
Following the floods — which killed three in Northern Virginia and left the Marumsco area of Woodbridge under 15 feet of water — families in need of temporary shelter were housed at Woodbridge Senior High School, and then at the Dale City Recreation Center.
That shelter is closing Friday at 5 p.m.
“The Park Authority was happy to provide emergency residential housing for our neighbors in their time of need,” Park Authority spokeswoman Dianne Cabot said.
Governor McDonnell needs to request federal funds, while he is at is. At last report, he had not done so.
Perception is reality and Corey came up very short, Regardless of what really happened or why the flood victims had to leave the shelter (and there were some good reasons why this had to happen.) Corey should have been the mouth piece since he is the County Chairman. Instead, he looks like the zero and Del. Luke Torian looks like the hero.
Corey, you can do better. We expect you to show a more compassionate Prince William County. Take off the immigration hat. That ship has sailed. This was a F-L-O-O-D.
My husband and I came home from separate work travels this week to find that our basement had flooded during those rains. What a mess. We’ll be fine, but my heart goes out to the folks who have gotten displaced.
How horrible! What a thing to come home to. Do you need anything, Emma?
I’m sorry to hear about your basement Emma, hopefully the damage is minimal.
Emma,
Sorry to hear that. My BIL is in the same situation. Insurance won’t cover his damage.
I was talking to a member of Mt. Zion and she mentioned emails were being sent out last night to inform the congregation about the decision and how it’d impact service(s).
We both thought it was great of Mt. Zion to step up.
It will need to be gutted, since the drywall is wet. The carpet is already at the dump. Mold had already started to grow around the wooden furniture and wet bar, so that all goes away this weekend. And some framed stuff–college degrees and some other things–got wet because they were temporarily sitting on the carpet while we were doing some other work in the house. And the icing on the cake is that our insurance won’t cover any of it. I am so glad for a cool, dry day like today so I can have every window and door open to air it all out.
Are you near a creek or did the water table just get up too high?
Can you even buy flood insurance?
I have it for plumbing etc but not for the kind that comes up in the back yard.
And our wonderful Manassas churches once again step up to the plate. Three cheers for Mt. Zion.
@Moon-howler No, we’re not near water. We have a drain outside the basement door that was probably overwhelmed, and also possibly a crack in the foundation, judging from the water pattern. We’ll see when the drywall comes down.
Could you have sustained a crack in the earthquake? @emma
I am so sorry you have to deal with this and especially since it becomes an out of pocket expense. I think I am going to look in to the flood insurance again.
Yes, cheers for the caring, compassionate folks who opened the doors at Mt. Zion! Sorry for your flooding, Emma.
The PayPal donation site has been posted on the new open thread.
It goes through the Prince William Educational Foundation. I feel confident it is safe.
Paypal is neat. I would rather use it than a credit card on the internet.
From insidenova.com :
These things needed to be explained to the community. Those folks familiar with Dale City know that the Dale City Community Center is in many ways the life blood of the community and that it can’t be shut down to the community for an extended period of time. All sorts of activities are provided through that center than the residents depend on. However, that was never explained in the media.
All most of NOrthern VA heard was Corey snapping out a NO. There are good people in Prince William County and I am glad that the outside world is finally seeing the kindler, gentler PWC.
I was very angry over what I saw on TV and heard on the news. Our supervisors have a responsibility to make PWC look like a good place to live. At least one of those supervisors was NOT putting our best foot forward and he could not resist the temptation to put on his political hat.
“They [church/Red Cross] are in a better position to provide shelter and other basic life services,” Nohe said.
Grant said anyone wishing to donate clothes or other items should contact Volunteer Prince William instead of bringing them to the church
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the flood damage in Woodbridge on Thursday. In order for flood victims to receive federal aid, Gov. Bob McDonnell must make a request of the federal government. As of Thursday, he had not.
What the hell is the governor waiting for? Another flood? I hope the county has learned a lesson from the flooding last week. Flooding is NOTHING new for PW. There are plenty of neighborhoods that have had flooding issues for decades when there’s a heavy rain, let alone a 1,000 rainfall.
Lafayette, It seems to me that Corey Stewart, as chairman of the BOCS, should be communicating with the governor. Has he done that? What did the governor say?
I expect they are probably all too busy paving over the parking lot at the women’s clinic to give a rat’s ass about 140 flood victims.
Corey should be keeping the entire county apprised of the flood victim situation.
Corr:
1,000 YEAR rainfall.
I wrote some whr e in one of these threads–the governor and Stewart don’t want to do anything because doing nothing may force these people to go somewhere else. Flood=forced moved. Flood + do nothing = forced move to somewhere else–maybe Fairfax County, Loudon County, or ????
George, I expect you are probably on to something. Mother nature’s own little deportation system?
@Moon-howler
I certainly think so. If there is no affordable housing and the county is not willing to get into the affordable housing business, then these poor people are going to go somewhere else–IMHO.