Flooding recovery efforts ongoing in McDowell County
February 19, 2025
McDOWELL COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – All McDowell County residents are asking for is help following the floods that devastated their community. While the Jobs for West Virginia’s Graduates program usually helps students achieve their dream career goals, now they are helping those in need.
“And so now with the ability to do this and help with the helpline my students will see what really goes into working, and a job, and kind of in the community when we have a situation like this,” said Jobs for West Virginia’s Graduates instructor Debbie Krabbe.
Bradley Justice is one of those students. With a lot of roadways being closed in the area, it’s making travel hard but that didn’t stop him from helping.
“Because I know I couldn’t be down here while it was going on to make sure people were safe, so I’m trying to do my best now to really show my commitment to the community,” Justice said.
Abagail Diaz and her family expected to find their restaurant Latin Appalachian flooded but once they saw it wasn’t, they have been using it as a vessel to help anyone and everyone they can in their community.
“We opened the restaurant and we were going to cook everything we had here, we were going to give away food. We were contacting people saying where they needed it,” Diaz said.
The Diaz family has given away 4,000 cups of soup to people impacted by the flooding and says there are still areas they can’t reach but are working on ways around it.
“We’re having people come in with ATVs, getting to places that are really hard to get accessing to right now,” Abagail Diaz said.
Volunteers in the community are asking any and all for help.
“Yeah, we definitely need help, as many people as we can get,” Justice said.
Donations ranging from clothes to cleaning supplies to blankets are all needed.
Click here for more information about how to help.
Story by Addie Smith, WSAZ