Hurricane Helene bore down on areas of Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia on Friday, cutting a swath of devastation and major flooding after making landfall in Florida. By Monday,local agencies, businesses and others were working to help those in hard hit areas like Asheville, N.C.
- The Patrick County Food Bank and Food Country in Stuart loaded water and paper products that will be sent to those in need in Asheville N.C. For more information, call (276) 694-6300.
- Disaster Relief Food Ministry, Inc., will be accepting donations to fill the truck as many times as needed to get the supplies to Asheville NC. The group will have a pickup truck parked this week inside EMI Imaging’s gate in Stuart for drop offs. The truck may remain as long as people want to donate. For additional information, call Jimmy Willard at (276) 229-6272.
- Uptown Stagecoach will be collecting any donations to be sent down to Asheville and surrounding areas affected. Items sought include diapers and wipes, formula, water, nonperishable foods and monetary donations. Any monetary donations to bring fuel down for relief efforts, and can be dropped off at 121 N Main St., Stuart.
Also on Monday, schools were closed in Patrick County due to power outages, as local residents were among the thousands in Appalachian Power’s service area without electricity and other essential services.
In a Saturday update – and the most recent available – the electric company expected service would be restored by Monday, Sept. 30, 11 p.m., to the areas of Christiansburg, Fieldale, Stuart, Pulaski and Rocky Mount, Va. Service was expected to be restored on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 4 p.m. for the Roanoke, Va., area; Tuesday, Oct. 1, 11 p.m. for Kingsport, Tenn., and the areas of Bluefield, Glade Spring, Glen Lyn, Grundy, Floyd, Lebanon, Roanoke, Tazewell, Woodlawn and Wytheville, Va.
Most customers without service will have power restored before the above estimates. Customers were encouraged to view the company’s outage map or sign up for outage alerts for information on their specific outage.
Restoration may extend further in isolated instances where extensive repairs are needed. As power is restored in Southern West Virginia, workers are moving to join those already working in Southern Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Crews will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible.
To help until electricity was restored, Patrick County Schools offered the facilities at Patrick County High School for showers on Sunday and provided a hot meal for those who were interested.
“We served 16 meals to people in need, and two people came and used the shower facilities,” Assistant Superintendent of Administration Shannon Brown said Monday.
In the aftermath of the storm, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) stands ready to investigate complaints regarding the gasoline and motor vehicle fuels portion of the Anti-Gouging Act in Virginia. If you suspect price gouging in your area, please submit a report using the form at www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pdf/pricegouging.pdf.
For price gouging complaints involving other consumer goods or services, e.g. water, ice, food, generators, batteries, home repair materials and services, and tree removal services, please contact the Consumer Protection Section in the Office of the Attorney General at (800) 552-9963 or (804) 786-2042 or visit www.oag.state.va.us and select “Citizen Resources.”
“Hurricane Helene’s impacts were felt across Southwest Virginia and the impacts are heart wrenching,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said after learning a federal emergency declaration was approved. “Immediately, we went to work to request additional federal assistance on top of the state and local assistance that we are already providing. Thank you to President Biden, Senator Warner, Senator Kaine and Congressman Griffith for their support and continued coordination to provide assistance to Virginians in need.”
Youngkin also listed additional resources:
*For tips on recovering from a disaster, visit www.ready.gov/recovering-disaster.
*Additional information on the damage assessment process can be found at www.fema.gov/disaster/how-declared.
*For roadways, report any concerns such as flooding, downed trees or road hazards to VDOT’s 24-hour Customer Service Center by visiting my.vdot.virginia.gov or calling 800-FOR-ROAD (367-7623).
*For those who need help with cleanup/debris management you can contact the cleanup hotline for Hurricane Helene at 1-844-965-1386.
*Contact your local emergency management office for details on local sheltering operations and supply needs at: https://lemd.vdem.virginia.gov/Public/.
*The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) has more information and resources available on Hurricane Helene. More information can be found on the VDEM website.
