{"id":795826,"date":"2026-07-31T17:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795826\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T17:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:19:13","slug":"weston-shop-n-save-express-reopens-federal-disaster-declaration-remains-up-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/795826\/","title":{"rendered":"Weston Shop ‘n Save Express reopens, federal disaster declaration remains up in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

WESTON, W.Va. \u2014 The Shop \u2018n Save Express reopened in Weston one week after record flooding in Lewis County.<\/p>\n

The company was founded by the father of Del. Chris Phillips, R-Barbour, in 1983 and now operates stores in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and New York.<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Phillips<\/p>\n

Phillips said he\u2019s been around the grocery business most of his life, and that also includes floods. The first store was opened in Belington, and in 1985 Phillips was there to bring that store back to life after that flood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in business since 1983 when my dad founded this company,\u201d Phillips said Thursday on MetroNews \u201cTalkline.\u201d \u201cAs a matter of fact, in 1985 I was standing in floodwater up to my chest in our first store in Belington.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t think the flood of 2026 was even possible because the finished grade of the Weston store is above the floodplain elevation. None of the areas in the town or county could hold up against the estimated five inches of rainfall in a little more than 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had about two feet of water on the sales floor of the store,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cThe night the flooding started, my fianc\u00e9e said Weston is looking pretty bad. Is your store going to be ok?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the seven days after the storm, Phillips said they had refrigeration issues to solve, product that had to be discarded and replaced, and the entire point-of-sale system at the front of the store had to be replaced. Workers from across the state worked almost around the clock in shifts to bring the store back to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of really long-term relationships with vendors and our suppliers,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships, having trust, and having people you can pick up the phone to call to expedite what you need to get what you need the next day or that day if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips gave all of the credit to workers from across the stores in West Virginia that pulled together to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got great people all across northern West Virginia, and we had store managers going in at 4 in the morning and then coming down to work an extended shift, and folks working all night,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n

Lewis, Upshur, and five other counties continue to wait for the federal government to act on the expedited request for a federal disaster declaration.<\/p>\n

\"\"Shelley Moore Capito<\/p>\n

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito said the federal delegation from West Virginia is pushing to get a decision in order to speed up recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t heard yet (that) the president has done that,\u201d Capito said. \u201cWe are pressing daily with the White House to make sure that declaration comes as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WESTON, W.Va. \u2014 The Shop \u2018n Save Express reopened in Weston one week after record flooding in Lewis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-795826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}