Beginning today, the Mountain State will for the first time host Vigilant Guard, a Federal Emergency Management Agency exercise co-sponsored by the U.S. Northern Command and National Guard Bureau. West Virginia National Guard and state Emergency Management Division officials will welcome more than 300 military personnel, public-safety first responders, private sector partners, and volunteers from across the country for the effort.

International partners from Qatar, Peru, and Oman will be on hand, too.

“Vigilant Guard 2021 will test West Virginia’s ability to respond to a large-scale disaster,” said Gov. Jim Justice. “Seamless coordination during emergency response is really important to saving lives and requires the cooperation of all levels of government. I applaud the efforts of everyone involved for their hard work showcasing West Virginia’s response capabilities to the nation and making this exercise a success.”

Mountain State residents are no strangers to natural disasters and emergency response scenarios. Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha and Nicholas counties, where the exercises will take place, are a perfect spot.

“Vigilant Guard allows us to practice our emergency response plans with the whole community. It will make us better able to serve our citizens and make our entire state safer,” said WVEMD Director G.E. McCabe.

Wonderful. It sounds as though residents of our own state as well as those in the rest of the country — and beyond — will benefit from the four-day exercises.

Now, while FEMA and the West Virginia National Guard have officials in the same place at the same time, let’s do a little work on the speed and effectiveness of post-disaster recovery efforts. Recall that just a few months ago there were approximately 100 Mountain State families still waiting for cases to be resolved after flooding more than five years ago.

It is a great comfort to know this week’s exercises will help responders save lives in the heat of a disaster, and it is good to see West Virginia is playing a part in that effort. Now let’s work on improving what those families will face in the aftermath.