Health Right volunteers hand out supplies to families without natural gas

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Martec Washington walked up to Emma Woodfell’s porch to deliver supplies from Health Right to anyone affected by the natural gas outages on Charleston’s West Side.

“Of course you know that we have no gas at all our hot water tank and furnace and probably our kitchen stove will all have to be replaced,” Woodfell said.

Woodfell said she expects to be without service for weeks and her appliances will have to be replaced.

“We have not been told anything. I don’t know what we are going to do. I have not been told anything specific; the gentleman came here last night. I think he was from the gas company,” Woodfell said. “I said, ‘well, can you give me an estimate as to how long it is going to take?’ and he said ‘not really,’ and I said ‘well will it be months?’ and he said ‘no,’ and I said ‘how about weeks? and he said ‘weeks.’ ”

Mountaineer Gas Company officials said customers’ restoration is on an individual basis and they are not able to confirm when customers will have service restored.

For Woodfell it is emotional to see the support for her West Side community.

“It is emotional because,” Woodfell said, “if he was back over here, I would give him another hug.”

Washington described the smell as he delivers supplies.

“It is wild to me that all you smell on the West Side is gas, so not only are we going to have to check up on these people to make sure they have heat we are going to have to check up on these people to make sure they are safe,” Washington said.

Woodfell said the Charleston Fire Department installed smoke detectors in her home after the outage, so if she runs a heater, she feels safe.

If anyone affected by the outages need supplies contact West Virginia Health Right, other agencies like United Way or the 211 hotline.

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