Jan 2024 ESF Partner Seminar

FRANKFORT, KY - Staff members from Kentucky Emergency Management (KYEM) and the Kentucky National Guard's (KYNG) Joint Operations Center organized an interactive seminar for various emergency response and support partners on January 24, 2024, in Frankfort, KY. The exercise theme: Thinking about the next tornado in the Commonwealth. The seminar approach was a departure from the monthly meet-ups that the organizations had previously hosted. “People just kept asking me, what do we do – up till this point, all I was doing was handing loose dog calls, road complaints, and reports about beavers blocking up the dams,” said keynote speaker Jack Whitfield, Jr., County Judge Executive, Hopkins County. “It was the worst day of my life -- It was the worst day of all our lives.” Whitfield spoke candidly about the challenges he has encountered in the hours, days, weeks, and now, years since the long-track tornadoes ripped through his county in early December 2021. He humbly shared his fears of making life-altering decisions for his constituents, coupled with having no experience in emergency tornado responses, much less for an incident of this magnitude. On December 10, 2021, a significant tornado outbreak occurred, producing numerous tornadoes across multiple states. However, the most severe tore across the western part of Kentucky. The storm produced 21 tornadoes in Kentucky throughout the storm system's entirety. One being an EF4 with estimated peak winds of 190 mph tracking ~162.6 miles across 11 counties in Kentucky, and another was an EF3 tracking 29.8 miles crossing through Bowling Green,” reported Brian Schoettmer of the National Weather Service. The storms were so intense they had debris carried over 100 miles away into Louisville, Southern Indiana, and Ohio. The storms claimed the lives of 81 Kentuckians, 16 of whom resided in Whitfield's county. "The large disasters over the past three years have been extremely challenging,” said Dustin Heiser, Interim Director, KYEM. “That being said, I am confident that exercises such as this will continue to enhance our response, operations, and internal communications; if a similar incident were to occur today, our response would be significantly more effective.” During the seminar, it was emphasized that many affiliated agencies have gone beyond documenting lessons learned and have proactively sought to educate and, in some cases, change laws to be better prepared for the future. One example of this is House Bill 157, which was passed into legislation last year. It sets the foundation for the formation of a Kentucky Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, managed by KYEM. For many judge executives, such as Whitfield, who may face an immediate influx of responsibility but have limited exposure to disaster response and recovery, assigning a Liaison Officer to provide guidance and assistance with terminology, expectations, timelines, and resources has proven to be an invaluable asset during their most challenging times. The partner group also heard from KYEM’s Public Information Officer about their vital role in information sharing, along with Col. James Richmond, KYNG, MSgt Rudy Parsons, Kentucky Air National Guard on search and rescue operations, and KYNG’s Civil Support Team representatives. “Today we are more prepared then yesterday to handle the next event.” said Heiser. “While we hope never to experience incidents like this again, we cannot remain idle. We must continue to train, educate, evolve, prepare, mitigate, and work together for the betterment of the Commonwealth.”