The Charleston Job Corps Center students and staff stepped up to assist homeowners and business during the devastating WV Floods, June 2016. The floods have affected at least 1,200 homes including 500 in Roane County, Kanawaha County had 400 homes and 70 businesses destroyed and 200-300 severely damaged, said Brooke Hylbert, a county spokesman. Twenty-three individuals have lost their lives. The raging waters moved quickly preventing some from escape It’s the nation’s highest death toll from flash floods since May 2010, when 27 people died in Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi.

President Obama has declared West Virginia a disaster area. But some of those residents accepting federal assistance may be forced to relocate, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin told CNN. “To get assistance, they’re gonna have to move out,” Manchin said. “They can’t rebuild back or be in the same area where it could happen again.”

Carpentry and facilities maintenance students have worked to clean out debris and mud of a local restaurant in the Clendenin area. Office Administration students worked with the office of Senator Joe Manchin to provide information on FEMA in Kanawha County at Capital High School, a temporary shelter and donation site and an outside support site in the Clendenin area.