Governor Tom Wolf’s visit to Bald Eagle Area High School and Milesburg was a fact finding mission to see if the state can do a better job supporting flood victims.
Most residents shared concerns about the high costs of flood insurance. As of now, the state says there isn’t much that they can do about that but the governor says there is work to be done on this issue. Governor Wolf says he was there to listen to what the community needs. He visited to find out if there was anything the state could do better in regard to responding more effectively or constructively than they did.
Governor Wolf said he wants to know, “are there things we can do to make this less likely? Are there things we can do to respond more quickly? Are there things that the state in this kind of local emergency can do to make the lives of those that are suffering a little easier?”
Centre County Commissioner Mark Higgins said that bringing disaster and recovery experts here to investigate can help the community. He explained, “When we call them, they’ve seen what’s happening. They know what’s going on, they’ve met the players, and I think that is going to expedite the process.”
One of the stops was at Eagle Valley Personal Care Home where severe damage forced residents out of their rooms. The owner, Steve Stem, believes the governor’s visit made an impact. Stem explained, “The most impact that he had with me was the fact that he brought people from PEMA here to investigate why it happened because this has happened only this time in 20 years of us being here.”
Now that the governor has assessed the damage, he will have official investigate how this damaged occurred and if anything could have been done to prevent it.