In the three and a half years since West Virginia’s “Thousand Year” flood, West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (WV VOAD) and its state and national member organizations have led the way in returning families to safe, sanitary and secure housing. The historic event caused the loss of twenty-three lives and destroyed over 1200 homes along with personal property, vehicles and businesses.

In the days following the 2016 disaster, many organizations arrived to participate in relief efforts, later later transitioning to assist in long term recovery. 

One of the first on site was Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), a volunteer network of Anabaptist churches “dedicated to responding in Christian love to natural and man-made disasters in the United States and Canada”. Since the early 1950’s, MDS has become a highly relied upon mainstay in disaster relief and recovery.

Initially, MDS established base camps in both Kanawha and Greenbrier County where they remained for approximately twenty-four months building and repairing homes as well as private bridges for flood survivors. The commitment to West Virginia’s recovery was punctuated by the acquisition of an abandoned church in Clendenin which has been converted to volunteer housing for the continual influx of MDS teams. In Greenbrier County, MDS set up camp at a Christian Retreat Center and Rhema Christian Center in Lewisburg, where they helped finish unused space for bunk rooms and showers.

In the fall of 2019, WV VOAD Executive Director Jenny Gannaway made a request to MDS leadership for them to return to West Virginia to help with the remaining construction projects. On January 4, 2020 MDS once again populated two base camps in Greenbrier and Kanawha counties. They have committed to help WV VOAD construct up to ten homes for Rise WV applicants by the end of March. Typically, each base camp will house a long-term core leadership team that includes the project manager, a cook, a driver and additional supervisors. Volunteer teams from multiple states and various Anabaptist congregations rotate every week over the next three months. Volunteers have visited from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas and Canada among other locations.

Since the day after the 2016 disaster MDS has made a tremendous impact in the Mountain State dispatching, to date, 2859 volunteers who have given nearly 17,500 days of service resulting in the completion of forty-one clean-up jobs, thirty-three home repairs, fifty-four rebuilds and sixty-one bridge replacements. Executive Director Jenny Gannaway remarks, “The State of West Virginia owes tremendous gratitude to MDS. Their work has and continues to make a significant impact on disaster recovery over many years. WV VOAD can only accomplish what it does because of long term partnerships like we have with MDS.” Three of the current MDS projects for Rise WV applicants are pictured below.