FAYETTEVILLE — With most of Fayette County’s power restored and calls for help dwindling, county officials and the National Guard are starting to phase down the relief effort here.

On Tuesday morning, they began talking about which cooling stations, feeding operations and supply distribution sites might be downsized or eliminated in the coming days. The Guard relieved 10 troops in Fayette County on Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a group effort,” Maj. Tom Mills said of the scale-back process.

West Virginia National Guard members, county commissioners and other volunteers will be asking for assessments from individual communities and mayors, with the expectation that some closings were to be announced yesterday.

“The points of contact in communities who have their feelers out will help us,” says Mills. “What we need to do is reach out to communities and really get an idea of how much support they really need. (...) How can we shrink our footprint in an economical manner?

“The National Guard is very expensive,” he added. “There’s a lot of people who need public assistance, but the National Guard isn’t the most efficient means to distribute public assistance.”

A side-effect of the storm has been bringing the serious pre-existing needs of people in Fayette County to the attention of authorities.

Several whose concerns go beyond the effects of the storm have been referred to other agencies like the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Fayette County Sheriff’s deputies have been working on the ground with the Guard, distributing supplies and doing welfare checks in rural areas of the county, but Sheriff Steve Kessler says residents also need to take care of themselves now that power and water are restored.

He added praise for the Guard’s concerted efforts with his own deputies during the relief effort.

“The National Guard and Sheriff’s Office have worked very well together. (...) It has been a high point of everything we did out here,” says Kessler.

“This is probably one of the most proactive sheriff’s departments in the state,” says Mills.

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Outages were down to 8 percent of Fayette by Tuesday afternoon.

“These might be numbers we have to live with for a while,” says Fayette County Commission President Matthew Wender.

At Tuesday morning’s meeting, areas still with spotty or no power included Mill Creek, Pax and Glen Jean.

Phase 3 power, used for industry and other heavy loads, was still down in places like Main Street in Mount Hope, which is looking at days and potentially weeks until full restoration.

“That’s a huge economic impact when they’ve already been slammed. It doesn’t stop when people’s power is restored,” says Fayette County Emergency Services Director Theresa White.

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Meanwhile, the Office of Emergency Services (OES) staff was tied up on Tuesday compiling damage assessment reports to hand over to the state, which may then request a disaster declaration at the federal level to financially assist individuals who have lost property to the storm.

Rep. Nick Rahall stated at a previous Fayette County meeting that a disaster declaration was unlikely. Nevertheless, his office reports it is stepping up efforts to request the designation.

Individuals with any level of building or structural damage are encouraged to call 304-574-3285. Businesses and municipalities should also be in touch with estimates of loss.

Specific information that should be provided to the OES from businesses includes a description of damage, an estimate of cost, whether it was covered by insurance and the economic loss due to lack of power compared to normal sales. Fax a report to 304-574-3287, ATTN: Steve Cruikshank, or e-mail to scruikshank@fayettecountywv.org.

Municipalities should contact Theresa White at 304-574-3287 or twhite@fayettecountywv.org with employee time, hours of volunteer time, travel and vehicle expenses, equipment rentals, fuel purchases for generators, etc., used during recovery.

Officials, for example, were worried about Fayette County Park, where as of Tuesday morning there were still no phones, power, or access to reservations. Camp Kismet and this year’s 4-H Camp were canceled and the pool is closed until further notice, perhaps all summer.

“This is a massive hit for the park,” says White.

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All public service districts in the county are up and running. All have water fine to drink except the following, which still have boil water advisories in effect: Kanawha Falls PSD; Pax PSD in Bee Branch, Knob Branch and Willis Branch; Gauley River PSD; Page-Kincaid PSD; Bellwood; and Boonesborough.

The boil water advisory has also lifted for all West Virginia American Water customers in Fayette County.

A reported breakdown in communication between the Gauley River PSD, which supplies water to the Mount Olive Correctional Complex, and the Department of Corrections has raised some concern.

Sen. Bill Laird reports that once water service was restored to the prison, 560 gallons per minute were being consumed, which took a big bite out of the system’s capacity.

A meeting between the two organizations is planned for Thursday.

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Going forward, the Fayette-Nicholas Chapter of the Red Cross will assume responsibilities for running the Fayetteville Church of God’s shelter in Fayetteville.

Laird and others praised the volunteers and church leaders who operated the shelter, and the delicious food that church members cooked for their neighbors in distress.

“They’ve been anchor-bolting this whole time,” says Laird.

— E-mail: cmoore@register-herald.com