The Disaster Prevention and Resiliency Task Force heard from a variety of experts in and outside Kentucky on how the state can better prepare for and coordinate during and after major flooding, tornadoes, and other events.
Task force chair Sen. Robin Webb said, on the question of whether the large-scale disasters will continue at their current pace, the jury is already in.
"We've all seen folks suffer and... those occurrences are going to increase on all the things we've talked about," Webb warned. "The projections are billion-dollar events are going to increase well into the future, and they already are."
The recommendations include legislation shoring up the state's sheltering programs, crafting a Kentucky-specific model for dealing with the disasters, and keeping the task force going into future years.
But at the top of the list is the creation of a State Resiliency Office.
"Many states have this already. It would be a coordinating body for preparedness, resilience, and mitigation efforts," she said. "It would the focus initially primarily on data. I think data is the keyword that we've heard all over the country and the world in regard to this as far as tracking, mapping, history, projections."
While prevention was a major topic of conversation in the group's work over the summer, the committee did not devote time to examining efforts to cut emissions or otherwise address climate change.