The heavy storms began on Friday, May 8 pouring into West Virginia from Eastern Kentucky which was hit with Tornado warnings that afternoon. Torrential rains continued into the next morning filling creeks and streams which overflowed their banks. Approximately 4,000 homes sustained significant damage or were completely destroyed in Mingo County. Over 120 private bridges were either damaged or destroyed. The county was quickly declared a federal disaster area by President Obama. The disastrous flood was the worst to hit the area since 1977. The Gilbert area where trail riding is extremely popular was particularly hard hit.
Like other residents and businesses in the coalfields of Southern West Virginia, the trails have been hit hard by the tragic flood.
"Everybody is hurting," noted Executive Director Jeff Lusk of the HMRRA, who told The Logan Banner that up until the floods came, Hatfield-McCoy was having one if its best years and that revenues were up 20 percent over last year. Lusk's comments came during an interview on May 18.
"Our permit sales are down by 18 percent now," Lusk said, explaining that even with the tragic flood and that the trail systems there is one glimmer of hope — sales are still about three and a half percent higher than this time last year.
"We attribute all of this downturn to the flood because things were up big time until the flood hit. We were up by 18 percent in most of our first quarter and up by 20 percent by May 1. After the floods we went down to three percent over last year," Lusk explained. "However we are recovering and doing better."
However another factor has affected the Hatfield-McCoy Trails and those visitors who wanted to come ride them this spring.
"In the aftermath of all this tragedy in the Gilbert area, and in much of Mingo County, much of the available lodging there has been taken up by FEMA personnel and flood recovery workers," Lusk explained. "Riders are having a hard time finding accommodations."
Lusk had submitted his 2009 budget to the HMRRA Board of Directors earlier this year which expected its best year ever. That budget was revised on Thursday.
"We are now projecting that our net income will be down by over $150,000.00," Lusk explained. "We are going to be down $90,000 due to flood related expenses and we will be out over $100,000.00 in repairs for overtime pay for employees and to pay contractors to fix damage to our system. Our field people are still working on repairs. We have had to put our entire 2009 Development Plan on hold at this point. It's at a standstill."
Lusk said all the news is not bleak — even with the extra work and expenses the revised 2009 budget for Hatfield-McCoy has some good news.
"Our new budget still projects our net income to be about $50,000.00," he said. "We are going to wind up being in the black. Bit it's not going to be as good of a year as we had expected due to the flooding."
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