The Kentucky National Guard has concluded a series of meetings with local government leaders. The information gleaned from 120 visits should help in response to future natural or manmade disasters.
The statewide initiative was aimed at gauging the interoperability of state resources to respond to emergencies. Only three states in the country have more counties than Kentucky, so it took a multi-month effort. Jason Rhodes is a first sergeant with the Kentucky Guard. Rhodes says the idea for this initiative came following responses in west Kentucky to tornadoes and east Kentucky to flooding.
“Maybe we could get out to the counties ahead of time and learn about their capabilities and meet the decision-making in those counties and that would give us a better idea of how we could provide support to them in the future,” said Rhodes.
Rhodes noted the meetings across the Commonwealth can help in providing a jump state for Guard members when an emergency arises. Rhodes added the data collected will greatly benefit first response in emergencies.
“Before the State or before anybody even starts calling us the notes out, the information that we took from that county and start mission analysis and say we know just from the meetings we had with them they’re already going to be lacking in these identified areas. And we can figure out with the resources that we have available how we can assist in those areas,” said Rhodes
Rhodes said small rural counties typically will have fewer resources when an emergency occurs. The National Guard sergeant said the meetings offered beneficial information both ways, for the Guard and local government leaders.
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