"This is the warehouse over in Lexington and you can see the equipment is starting to arrive," Kentucky Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson says, pointing lawmakers to an image of the department's growing fleet of vehicles.
"1,500 lives have been impacted by this program already — saved, evacuated, airlifted, rescued, all kinds of different categories that we capture."Eric Gibson, Kentucky Emergency Management Director
The Urban Search and Rescue Program looks to have nearly 300 highly-trained first responders ready to deploy from twin locations in the state. The goal is to either have them in communities ahead of anticipated weather disasters or in affected communities within a matter of hours.
For now, the department is still in the interviewing process, as it constructs a simulated disaster-struck city to be used for training.
In the meantime, Gibson says the increase in resources and attention on search and rescue has helped emergency departments respond to this year's flooding and storm-related events.
"1,500 lives have been impacted by this program already — saved, evacuated, airlifted, rescued, all kinds of different categories that we capture," he said. "But that's touching a lot of people to not be fully operational."
The full Urban Search and Rescue Program is slated to come online by June 2026, if not sooner.