RECENT FLOOD COSTS
Eric Gibson, Kentucky's director of emergency management, gave a detailed overview Monday of the impact of last month's flood emergency that left 23 Kentucky instead.
At the peak of the event, over 40,000 households were left without power, 18,000 without water, and 1,500 people were saved in water rescues. The response efforts were made up of 150 first responders from Kentucky, 50 out-of-state responders, and a 170 federal responders.
Gibson says the immediate response was swift and that preparation made the difference.
"We pre-staged teams as we saw this event come in. The National Weather Service talked about this event for several days. We knew it was going to be a significant rain event," he said. "We moved 33 of the state teams into position. We actually had a few more teams, with high-wheel vehicles, staged across the Commonwealth. From east to west, we had teams pre-deployed, ready to respond to wherever the disaster started to be an issue."
So far, the state has spent approximately $21.5 million of the annual $50 million allocated for disaster response on the flooding. The total estimated public assistance costs are projected to grow with early estimates at $58 million in damages.
To meet those needs, the administration is asking for a transfer of funds, $25 million from the Western Kentucky Safe Fund and $20 million from the Eastern Kentucky Safe Fund, the establishment of a new safe fund to cover expenses related to debris removal and infrastructure repair, and an increase in the current cap on disaster response spending.
"We know we put money in there," Senate President Robert Stivers said last week, referring to the capped $50 million. "The governor sent us a letter saying they spent $21 million of the emergency fund. We don't know what on, since July."
FUTURE DISASTERS
With repeated mass flooding events in the eastern part of the state, tornadoes in the west, and damaging windstorms in central Kentucky, the word "historic" is being thrown around more and more often.
That's got the attention of state Sen. Robin Webb, who says the area she represents — parts of Boyd, Carter, Greenup, and Lewis counties — is hardly immune.
"My district is in this newly-formed ice storm belt, and you've got tornadoes and flooding, in areas that historically haven't seen the magnitude — where instead of a 100-year flood, we're getting 500-year floods and 200-year storms in a period of years," she told a committee Monday. "So, this task force will bring individuals together to identify risks, resilience factors, how the state can best prepare."
Webb wants her proposed task force to study disaster mitigation, building more resilient structures, technology, planning, and insurance. The panel would include lawmakers, agency directors, a state university president, and a representative from a disaster related nonprofit, among others.
"Other states are looking at this too, whether they're coastal or otherwise. Everybody's got a different issue," she noted. "But what we're finding now is we've got to address these historic and wind and different patterns that are affecting us."
The turnaround would be relatively quick for a state task force, with the group set to return with recommendations in hand by December 1, 2025.