Resiliency

The Office of Economic Resiliency arose from both response to an immediate need due to the devastating flooding in June 2016, as well as long term strategic planning need for the state. Its overall purpose is to better prepare communities for extreme events (i.e. floods, storms, severe downturn in economic sectors) through innovative resilience projects. In the immediate future, it will focus on the intermediate and long-term recovery needs in the impacted communities in southern West Virginia after the devastating floods, including plan development and community engagement.

The unit will serve as the conduit for federal funds and initiatives that become available and will aggressively engage in the pursuit of additional funds and resources to assist not only with long term sustainable recovery efforts but also long term community and state wide resiliency efforts. The work of the unit will not only improve community preparedness, but also community competence and social capacity. Because economic resilience is not something that just occurs after a flood strikes, this unit will be permanently charged with the ongoing process of community development that increases out capacity to avoid, mitigate, and recover from the impactful events that hit our state. Its mission will be to assist West Virginia with reducing future economic exposure to hazards while increasing short term revenues and gains. It will collaborate with federal, state, local and private sector partners to further economic objectives while improving resilience. The unit will be the center of resiliency activity for the state, coordinating and supporting efforts and programs.