CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Before coming to Charleston to serve as Mayor, Amy Shuler Goodwin originally hails from the Wheeling area, and she said what has happened there with the devastating floods cuts particularly deep for her.
As of Wednesday, the body of an eighth victim from the flooding event that occurred Saturday night and early Sunday morning was recovered, and more are currently being searched for. Those search and rescue efforts resumed Wednesday in the Elm Grove, Triadelphia, and Valley Grove areas.
Amy Shuler Goodwin
Goodwin said on Tuesday, she reached out to the mayor of Wheeling to see if she could offer her assistance in any way and to thank him for a job well done in responding quickly and efficiently to such a devastating event.
She said she has such close ties to the area, and she wants to send all of the love and support she can.
“You know, that’s the hometown I grew up in, my parents live in Elm Grove, I have a girlfriend who I graduated school with who lost everything and another girlfriend who’s mother died,” Goodwin said. “It is a sad and tragic day for the northern panhandle.”
However, Goodwin said that through the support the people of Wheeling give to one another, she knows the communities there are resilient.
She said her mother works in a soup kitchen there and from her direct source, she knows the people there will never stop until everyone is taken care of.
“On my way home last night I called her to say how’re you doing, and she said I’m so filled with gratitude, because, the outpouring of support we have seen throughout our whole community has been so outstanding,” she said.
Goodwin said her mom had told her that donations came pouring in and there’s been an extra set of hands at the soup kitchen making sandwiches and putting together fruit trays for those who are displaced after their homes were destroyed, as well as those working in the recovery efforts.
She said this notion of giving your all to those in need is commonplace throughout West Virginia.
“In tough times we seem to do a really good job of coming together and by golly, our folks in the northern panhandle and north central really need it right now.”