A statewide effort by the Red Cross is making cleanup much easier in the Mountain State.

"By Sunday it was obvious that there was a lot of damage throughout the entire state and we needed to turn this into a state wide relief operation," says Red Cross Public Affairs Organizer, Debra Palmer.

That operation, headed by The Red Cross is continuing their ongoing support throughout West Virginia and they're hub for disaster relief is set up right here in Parkersburg.

"The local chapter here in Parkersburg was already working with an office here and a feeding set up over at the National Guard Armory and it turned into a distribution point instead."

The Red Cross is sending out thousands of volunteers on a daily basis. Organization is key for such a big disaster relief effort and the behind the scenes work for the entire state of West Virginia is being done at Parkersburg South High School.

"This was such a nice set-up with power, air conditioning, and it was easy for loading and unloading food product from this kitchen."

It's not just food and shelter they're offering to communities hit by the storm. "We're now sending out disaster assessment teams to see how bad the damage is in the various neighborhoods. We're sending out health and mental health services to check on folks. We've had a lot of situations where someone needs to be on a ventilator or something that's a life or death situation and our health teams are out there constantly assessing the need and seeing what we can do to help."

A help that starts from the community.
"The people here are wonderful. I've been all over the place with the Red Cross and this is one of the nicest groups of people I've ever run into and worked with."

Mayor Bob Newell says the Red Cross will be here for at least the end of this week. They will stay for another week if the need is still present in the area.