Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell toured earthquake-stricken Louisa County Wednesday with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who cut short a trip to Israel after getting news of the earthquake.
The epicenter of the 5.8 magnitude quake was the Louisa County town of Mineral, which is in Cantor’s district.
“The tour today was fairly revealing. The damage is more widespread and significant than the preliminary reports we had gotten yesterday,” McDonnell said.
Both McDonnell and Cantor remained mum about the possibility of state or federal recovery money flowing to Mineral. Though McDonnell announced the creation of a disaster relief fund earlier in the day, that fund’s $1.1 million is already slated for victims of the April tornadoes.
McDonnell said the businessmen of Mineral told him a “heartbreaking story” about hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, but said the state had no program that could help uninsured losses.
McDonnell also said Mineral schools would be closed for several weeks while experts conduct structural inspections on the buildings.
