Lexington’s public safety commissioner says within days of the March 3rd storms that battered the Bluegrass, city organizations were working on an after-action report. Ken Armstrong briefed the urban county council earlier this week. He said one finding is that having the Emergency Operations Center operate virtually, as many cities do, did not work as well as hoped.
“So we've changed that we're only going to do it in person, which, you know, up to this point, we had always kind of done it that way on most events anyway. So it was something that was tried, probably prematurely, I will admit that. Also, we didn't know to what scale this windstorm was going to be.”
Armstrong said the police department didn’t have enough inverters – equipment that can power a traffic light from a cruiser – and barricades need to be better weighted, so they don’t blow over. Also, the fire department needs more battery-powered chainsaws.
“Obviously, LFUCG has a lot of chainsaws in our parks department, streets and roads and everything. But to actually equip some of our fire apparatus with those chainsaws in emergency situations would be very advantageous to us going forward.”
Armstrong said there’s no price tag yet for the cost of new equipment and procedures, but he expects grants will pay some of that.
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