The Director of West Virginia’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, James Gianato, testified July 24 before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.

He said of the June 29 storm that impacted the Mid-Atlantic states: “I have been Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for the State of West Virginia since 2005, and previously served for twenty-two years as a local, county and state official dealing with numerous disasters. I can honestly report to you I have never witnessed anything of the magnitude it had on our state. The wide spread devastation this storm produced in West Virginia was without precedent.”

During his testimony Director Gianato presented a long list of sobering statistics of the impact of the storm on the state. The loss of electrical power impacted “almost 700,000 customers, or roughly 1.6 million citizens.” The loss of power also resulted “in as many as 87 Public Community Water Systems going offline.”  Director Gianato also said: “At one time during the storm, up to 40-50 percent of the hospitals reporting were on generator power, 38 long-term health care facilities were on backup power, 79 percent of community water systems in the state were impacted by the storm and at least 146 used generators in one or more water plants.”

In  discussing the restoration of electrical power throughout the state, Director Gianato noted that: “Information provided by two of the major utilities that serve West Virginia showed that 226 transmission lines were replaced, 1,457 transformers were replaced, 2,328 poles and 5,030 cross arms were replaced. Current numbers show that 8,875 total personnel were involved in the response and that 1,610, 400 feet of wire was replaced.”

Director Gianato also spoke to the “immediate” response from FEMA, the work of the West Virginia National Guard, his own Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the voluntary agencies and the private sector, whose support was “tremendous.”