What happened in Texas on July 4 was unfathomable. Flash flooding and its aftermath took the lives of -at this writing — approximately 120 people. Families and communities are devastated. Help from all corners is still desperately needed.

And it is coming, even from the federal government, which rightly wasted NO time in quickly delivering a robust response. President Donald Trump approved Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for a major disaster declaration only one day after it was submitted. That activated Federal Emergency Management Agency resources and help for survivors and local governments.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spun the lightning fast response this way, “We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate.”

Again, not a single person begrudges Texas the help they need. What is happening for them is exactly as it should be.

So why isn’t it happening for West Virginia? Why are families and communities in Ohio and Marion counties still being told THEY have to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops before the federal government will consider sending the help they, too, need after deadly and devastating flash floods?

Recently in Charleston, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he and his office have continued to press. Even in the midst of delivering some good news for the West Virginia International Yeager Airport, Morrisey’s mind was on getting “back to the office (to) launch another call in there, because we’re going to push.”

But what he’s being told is that, in West Virginia’s case, they are “processing, analyzing the data in terms of some of the financial thresholds that (the federal government) thought had to be met.”

For goodness sake, why are Mountain State residents not deserving of quick action that prompts FEMA to do its job delivering help in the way that it “should operate?”

Morrisey says he will not let up the pressure to get West Virginia communities the support they need. We have no reason to doubt his tenacity when it comes to dealing with those in Washington, D.C.

Surely the president will not make Ohio and Marion counties wait much longer for help that is so badly needed.

— Weirton Daily Times