City leaders are getting more guidance on how to respond when disaster strikes.

The Kentucky League of Cities has released the Disaster Preparedness and Response Handbook borne out of lessons learned from recent disasters in the state.

Mayfield Mayor Kathy Onan was among the leaders who worked on the guide.

She said it offers the information she wishes she had after a tornado devastated her city in 2021.

I call them helpful hints that you can have in place and be familiar with prior to any any disaster.

You've got this document in your hands.

That is a great reference for as many things as they can.

We think we could think of to possibly put in it.

What we learned going into this process over the last 21 months is there's so much help there for rebuilding.

SEMA is a it's so big, it's so overwhelming at that point.

What do we need?

They have everything you do need, but you have to know the questions to ask and say, what can we how can we help you?

I said, Give me a manual.

Well, of course, the whole FEMA process is so huge and so cumbersome that that's difficult.

They are there to help you.

But there are there are strategies, not strategies.

The pathways in this preparedness document from KLC that will help navigate that, that that's more of a go to, okay, where can I find this with FEMA?

And so that's one of the big parts of this disaster plan.

Every county in Kentucky has an emergency manager that works, you know, from every day and coordinates with the state came on that.

But what this is too also this this was so big that it kind of helped cities know, okay, what can I do in conjunction with the emergent the county emergency management is doing?

And although you work hand in hand with them, there are certain things that cities can do as well.

We learned from the ice storm of 2009.

We we learned from that.

We will learn from this tornado.

We already have we will continue to learn and then we will from the flooding.

We will learn as well.

And I think that was what's what KLC has done with this by keeping it a living document.

That is easy to add and supplement it that that is how it is exactly as it should be, because this is going to be something that is easily, readily attained by anybody who needs it, any city governments who need it, and hopefully nobody ever will.

But that's a ridiculous thing to say because there's, you know, there's you never get it.

You get up in the morning, you don't know what your city is going to be faced with.

But this is another tool to help the navigation of any type of crisis.

The handbook is available for free to cities and counties.

As Mayor O'Nan mentioned, it's a living document.

The Kentucky League of Cities says it will continue to work with federal, state and local leaders to regularly update the guide.