Rainelle Mayor Andrea Pendleton and Walter Crouch, president and CEO of Appalachia Service Project (ASP), invite the public to join them at the groundbreaking of Rebuilding Rainelle, ASP’s long term recovery effort to help rebuild the community of Rainelle, the epicenter of June’s deadly flood. ASP has served in Rainelle the last two summers, developing strong relationships with many families in the community. Some of these families have lost everything. The flood, one of the worst in state history, destroyed over 1,000 homes statewide and 23 people lost their lives. Rainelle was devastated, including 90 percent of the homes near the downtown area. Five people in Rainelle did not survive. With initial relief efforts coming to an end, many of Rainelle’s low-income homeowners are unable to rebuild their homes, having no insurance, unable to qualify for emergency loans and having few, if any, personal resources. These families are the target of ASP’s longer term recovery efforts through Rebuilding Rainelle. Rebuilding Rainelle will bring volunteer and financial resources together to build new homes and perform major rehab on homes that are repairable. Working alongside the Mayor of Rainelle and other community leaders, ASP has identified as many as 50 homes that will need to be replaced and countless others that will need to be repaired.
