>> Weather in Kentucky is sometimes extreme and sometimes dangerous.

[MUSIC] Being unprepared when severe weather strikes can be deadly for you and your family.

What do you need to know to stay safe?

Welcome to severe weather.

Staying safe.

>> Good evening.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight.

I'm Kristi Dutton, and welcome to Severe Weather.

Staying safe.

Over the next hour, we're going to talk about Kentucky's dynamic weather and what you can do now to be ready for the worst of it.

We'll look back at recent severe weather events in our state, and we'll look ahead and discuss what's next to come.

But first, I want to introduce you to our expert panel guests that will help us prepare for the severe weather season ahead.

We have Eric Gibson, the director of Kentucky Emergency Management, Jerry Raines, the director of the Laurel Whitley County Emergency Management.

Tiffani Miesel, program manager for the Kentucky Mesonet.

And John Gordon, meteorologist, recently retired from the National Weather Service in Louisville.

Thank you all for being here.

I want to start with the devastating tornado outbreak that happened on May the 16th, 2025.

Six tornadoes touched down in Kentucky that day from a powerful storm system.

You're seeing drone footage from the strongest and deadliest tornado that day that left a trail of destruction through parts of Russell, Pulaski and Laurel counties.

This long track EF4 tornado reached its peak wind speeds of 170mph in Laurel County.

It stayed on the ground for 60 miles through three counties and caused 19 deaths.

17 of those were in Laurel County.

A map of the tornado touchdowns in Kentucky from May 16th of last year from that date, shows two EF one tornadoes in Lyon and Logan counties, two EF two tornadoes in Christian and Todd counties, and EF three tornado, which left a ten mile long path of destruction in Union County, injuring four.

The strongest tornado was the final one of the night and it touched down in Russell County, killing one person.

Moved through Pulaski County, claiming another life, and then it gained top strength in Laurel County, claiming the lives of 17 people.

I want to start with Jerry Raines, Laurel Whitley County Emergency Management.

Can you walk us through when it truly hit you that something had happened there in Laurel County that was going to change that community forever?

>> I was on the phone with my deputy, Brooke C, and we were watching different weather stations and weather channels, and we were discussing that it was coming and then listening to the radio traffic, and we knew that it was coming.

Just really didn't know how bad it was going to be or where exactly it was going to hit.

But that is a very sickening feeling to know that you're you're facing that and where it's going to go and how bad is it going to be.

So then that got us in motion to start heading to the EOC.

>> And with roads blocked, power out, destruction already occurring.

What's the first thing you do?

What do you prioritize?

>> Well, life safety number one.

But as I was going up I-75, I was met by a state trooper that was walking on the interstate, clearing the road of debris.

And then it was the same for my deputy having to dodge power lines, power poles, having to pick a way to get there.

But then when responders started calling and saying, we need a command center set up here, and I said, sure, make it happen.

They're on scene.

They're looking at it.

I'm going to support them and I'll get them whatever they need to make that happen.

And then we started coordinating resources.

Ambulances from all over the state, medical transport.

Then search and rescue teams, confined space teams, structural collapse teams.

You know, all that comes into play.

And Kim was very gracious and had a lot of stuff coming our way before we even called home.

>> When you were on the scene there, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods, Sunshine Hills.

You were on the scene there.

Was there anything that you saw, witnessed, heard that really drove home?

How much devastation had just occurred?

>> Well, the the Sombering fact for me was I knew less Leatherman lived in Sunshine Hills and had known less for years.

And matter of fact, I text him at the start of the tornado and was checking on him.

And it wasn't until we were probably an hour and a half, two hours in, that I found out that nobody had heard from Lewis.

And when you take a person that you personally know that that really hits home and it that really gets you and it gets the other first responders.

So that was that was a hard one.

And then trying to get to his house was another feat that it took the fire department several hours to get there.

But it was just unbelievable devastation.

>> Eric Gibson, what's going on at this time in your office?

What do you prioritize?

Getting help out?

>> Well, we saw the storm coming, like Jerry's talking about, and we had been tracking that storm for a while.

We saw the National Weather Service, had a meteorologist in the EOC, and we were watching it.

And when that signature started to develop over Russell County, we knew we had a bad storm and we started seeing the debris signatures.

So we were calling out in front, making sure people like Jerry, like the director over in Pulaski County, were being made aware of.

This is a serious event that's coming, reaching out to those local officials that have the ability to to make sure they can set those sirens off, to make sure that they're given that warning out to their first responders.

We also talked to the state police post over in London very early on, and talked to them and made sure they were aware that it was coming up.

And we started reaching out and hearing from troopers that were on the ground and talked to.

And so we knew that this was a significant impact to those areas all along that path.

And so, like Director Rains is talking about, we started going ahead and rallying the resources that we thought would be needed to take care of that.

And we had no idea what the exact scope was.

But we know that there's lives impacted by that event.

We could hear over the state troopers that were on scene that he was talking about giving us reports from the ground that, you know, many, many houses were down.

They were sending in, you know, those reports very, very quickly to their post and directly to us.

The chief of staff from the governor was there in the office at that time, made sure that we got the commissioner of the state police on board really early on to make sure he was rallying all his people to get there to the scene, to be assisting with the fire departments that were all responding.

Our urban search and rescue team was we had people in our office working that coordination piece, and that's where a lot of the efforts came from that that Director Raines is talking about, about getting those other fire departments down there as quickly as possible to augment that staff, because many of their fire department members were also victims in it.

So we wanted to help them with everything that we could to save lives, really.

First thing on the on the books, like director Raines is talking about is life safety.

We can rescue and save lives in those first few minutes.

The faster we can get to people, the more likely they are to survive.

So all effort went into life safety first, and then obviously trying to stabilize the scene and understand the overall scope of the event that we're looking at, and then we start working through that process.

But that that first level communication, having a good relationship with our local managers, our local state police folks down in that area, and in working with those state agencies and local agencies to provide that immediate response that is needed to save people's lives.

And then ultimately, it turned into a very tragic event, as you reported, a lot of lives lost that night across three counties there.

But, you know, then the impact become even down to the corners.

We had to bring in multiple corners to assist in that part of the work.

So our office is that office of coordination among state and local agencies, and we work really hard to support Director Raines and those other directors.

Director Mason over in Pulaski County, as we try to bring those resources together to meet the needs of that local county.

And that's what our job, really, at the state level is, is to help them fill anything that they may be missing in this event because of the scale of the event, the magnitude of the event, the direct impact to their county and their first responders.

That's what Kentucky does, is come together to help solve these problems.

And we do it together as one state, solving the same problem.

>> Having everybody lined up, all the assistance ready and being prepared for an event you hope never happens.

But it does.

Well, a few days after the EF four tornado ripped through Laurel County, we spoke to tornado survivor in the Sunset Hills neighborhood, one of the hardest hit areas there in Laurel County.

About her experience.

>> Take the moment we heard the tornado was near, I assume it was probably behind me up the hill or I don't know exactly.

We could hear it and it was like nothing we'd heard ever before, and we knew that was it.

And I just remember texting my kids, you know, in a group text saying it's going to be a direct hit, you know, as I could hear it coming.

And I love you, mom.

You know, thinking that might be the last communication I had with them the rest of the night was we had first responders.

Well, neighbors first calling anybody alive in there.

And so that's really when when we first knew that it was going to be like bad, because basically what we heard was the rush and things hitting.

And then I felt the wall, the tub was on vibrating as things hit it and as it came closer.

And I remember just thinking, it's going to come through this wall next.

But it didn't.

And that's the miraculous thing.

Thank you, Lord, that in our house right now, if we walk in there, there's no ceiling rooms or on any room except the bathroom that we were in and it's still intact.

>> As homes just obliterated.

So, Jerry Raines, what does this neighborhood look like now?

>> It looks a whole lot different than in that shot.

>> A lot of the houses have been rebuilt.

If the house has not been rebuilt yet, they're either in the process or the lot has been cleaned off.

It it doesn't look anything like that, which that's a good sign of hope.

But we had a great turnout of volunteers and support that came from all over the country that we were truly blessed with a lot of people that came and helped us.

And for those that didn't have insurance or didn't have enough insurance, we had folks that stepped up and offered their services free of charge just to get the materials.

So there has been a lot of rebuilding and a lot of hope that's back in that part of Laurel County.

>> Yeah.

Were there any lessons learned or something you wish you would have done differently or or something that would change how how you might respond to a similar event from this?

>> This is something that you could not take a class and train for.

A lot of the responders, you know, placing tourniquets.

They ran out of tourniquets.

They were having to use belts, they were having to use rope, whatever they had.

There was a lot of of dealing with this that they had not seen.

You take the classes and you watch the video, but that really didn't do it justice to you're right there with it having to deal with it.

And then when it's when it's people, you know, in your own hometown that adds another layer to it.

>> And this tornado hit at night, late at night, just before midnight.

So with nighttime tornadoes.

Tiffany, what are some of the unique risks that can make them more dangerous?

>> I mean, just the fact that people aren't in front of their TVs watching the local news or, you know, you're watching your show and that that piece cuts in at the bottom and says, special announcement.

We're not doing that at night.

All of us, you know.

It's just harder to get the warnings to the people in time in the middle of the night.

Yeah.

>> So yeah, yeah.

>> So our big problem is tornadoes at night, right.

So December 2021, when did it happen?

People in Bowling Green said there was I it's the first it's the first weekend in December.

I have a Christmas party to go to.

I had a couple drinks.

I'm going to bed.

Weather radio will save your life.

Right, Director Gibson?

It will save your life.

You need a system like weather.

Call weather radio to wake your butt up in the middle of the night to save your life.

40% of our tornadoes are at night.

Have a plan?

>> Yeah, well, that's why we have John Gordon here.

Because he just calls it like it is.

I like that.

Okay, well, preparing for severe weather that's expected overnight may take a few extra minutes, though, but it could save your life, like John said.

So take a look at this graphic, this illustration showing some of the easy steps to be prepared.

Charging your phone, making sure emergency alerts are turned on on your cell phone, having shoes and a flashlight nearby, having the NOAA weather radio on, and a lot of those have the batteries in them too, so making sure those batteries are on too.

If power goes out and having a safe place in your home already picked out if you need to take shelter.

So since we're talking about nighttime tornadoes, and we're here in Louisville in the Louisville studio, let's take a look at the damage from the EF three tornado that hit Louisville on April the 2nd.

There.

You're taking a look at some of that, John, tell us about this one.

>> Oh, I know this one really well.

Yeah.

So most of that tornado.

So we had a line up of different storms.

That was the event that you just talked about down in Laurel County.

That was an Oklahoma tornado.

All right.

That happens very rarely happened in December 2021.

Happened in 1974.

Very rare.

Most of our tornadoes are on lines or embedded lines.

Well, that line kept coming through with these little cells.

And one of them was rotating into Louisville and had a little curlicue on it, and the warnings went out.

Most of that tornado was EF1.

80% of it was EF1.

But in one small area in the Bluegrass Industrial District that's near Blankenbaker.

In 64 it imploded several.

You see these several of those big rooftop metal buildings and collapsed the electrical company.

I can't remember the NRB electrical, I think it was, and it was only an EF3 for about 450 yards.

It doesn't matter.

A tornado is a tornado.

And once again, what time did that happen?

>> Right at night.

>> At night?

Midnight?

Yeah, just after midnight.

>> There was also a daycare there in that, in that line that was in that industrial park that was there for those employees to use.

And that daycare was was destroyed.

Had there been children in there in the middle of the day, that would have been a tragedy.

The the walls and the windows were completely destroyed.

So in some situations, like I said, there is a little bit of light.

The fact that there was not people in those commercial buildings, as many as would be in the daytime, especially those children in that daycare.

That daycare was a place that we visited and specifically looked at.

And I remember thinking, wow, this is just a full this is an area for small children and this area is completely collapsed.

It would have been very, very difficult for those workers to manage had that happened during the daytime.

So but nighttime tornadoes that John's talking about the preparedness part.

You got to know there's a problem right to do something about it.

So having that ability to receive that alert, whether it be that cell phone alert that goes off in the night or it be your NOAA weather radio, make sure you have a way to receive the information during the night.

If you're under one of these tornado watches or tornado warnings, and then also you follow that up with know what your plan is.

Have that preparedness.

Now have the alert.

What am I going to do about it?

Am I going to a safe place?

How am I going to get to that safe place?

What do I need?

If I go to that safe place, I need my cell phone.

Maybe to let someone know where I'm at.

I might need my shoes on in case there's broken glass.

When I come outside to make sure that you are, you know, can walk around safely and get out.

So one knowing about the event and then two, having your plan to do something about the event when it actually unfolds in front of you.

>> Right.

>> And if you have a family making sure the whole family knows.

That's right.

That plan where to meet up.

So we're the Louisville tornado that happened just after midnight.

The Russell, Pulaski, Laurel County tornado that happened at night, the December the big western Kentucky tornado in December 2021.

That happened at night.

So John is it just my imagination or are we seeing more nighttime tornadoes in Kentucky?

>> There's been no statistical study.

I called Ryan sharp Ryan.

If you're watching our science officer at the weather service in Louisville, and there's no really static study on the last so many years where they were at night, I would like to see someone do that.

40% of them I know happen after 9:00.

That part I do know most of our tornadoes are on squall lines.

That's what Director Gibson cannot stand.

And Director Dossett before them.

Those are terrible.

We are seeing.

When I moved here in 2005, we averaged about 12 to 14 tornadoes across this Commonwealth.

Now we're running 25 to 30.

>> A year.

>> Yes.

And the reason is, I believe, is because the weather service.

And when I went to college, we knew nothing about squall line tornadoes, the lines.

We knew nothing.

And now we start surveying them and realizing the one I think about the most is February 2008.

That was the worst event I ever worked where we had long track.

Oklahoma tornadoes came out of Tennessee.

They went down into Adair and Monroe counties in the south part of the state, and then we had a squall line that was the worst I have ever seen.

We had over 20 tornadoes, all between Louisville and Lexington.

It was not good, and it was mostly at.

>> Night, so.

Well, that doesn't make sense to me as a meteorologist.

I know you know the heat humidity that fuels these tornadoes.

So you think after the sun goes down, the temperature drops.

What's going on?

>> That seems logical, but it's not that way, unfortunately.

Yeah.

So warm air.

Everyone gets excited when we have warm air in the winter.

You should not.

You should be happy when it's in the 40s.

You should be thankful.

It's in the 50s.

When you get warm air in the cool season, you always have wind energy, jet stream energy, and the jet is always moving in the winter.

And when you get warm air, bad things happen anywhere east of the Mississippi River with warm air at night in the winter is not good.

>> All right, well, I know the tornado sirens may be fresh on the minds of many of you out there having the warning in just after 10:00 in the morning for March 4th.

And why are these drills important?

>> Well, they have a lot of different purposes, Kristi.

You know, you think about testing the equipment to make sure that we're that we have our stuff in place that is going to work when we have an event, but then also an opportunity for people to hear it, to know what that sound is, to understand that Kentucky is prepared, or working towards a preparedness goal of making sure that we have working sirens in communities where people can be made aware of those events.

Those are outdoor warning sirens.

That's what there's always a conversation about outdoor warning sirens.

And I couldn't hear it in all these kind of, you know, we hear that often, and it's meant to alert people that are out of doors that aren't able to receive those emergency alert system warnings that may come across your TV or your NOAA Weather Radio.

But all those things work in in unison to alert that individual of those events.

But right, those those siren tests are coming.

We're having that severe weather awareness day and the statewide tornado drill.

And I think that's going to be on March the 4th.

And so that's going to be something that we've just been talking about a lot.

And we want to make sure people are aware that there is a warning going on.

And of course, we we had a tornado, a Monthly test that was going to the EAS system just a few days ago, and it was about the same day that we had some severe weather on the forecast, and we postponed it that one to avoid that severe weather day in the, you know, so we try to make sure that we're not scaring people with them.

We want it to be at least a decent day when we set those off.

But having that statewide tornado drill on March the 4th is what we're planning on.

>> Okay.

Another thing to raise awareness about, and we talk about this every year, the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning.

I think that watch warning, they should have used different words.

I mean, they both start with the W, right.

So so Director Gibson, tell us what is the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning.

>> Right.

Well, I think a watch is when you would want people to know that a tornado is possible.

The conditions are favorable, that there could be a severe weather event, including up to a tornado that might impact your area.

And that's usually a broad area that's under that tornado watch.

And when we talk about a tornado warning, that's time to take action.

That means that things are about to happen.

That means, like the conditions are right.

The radar is indicating that there's likely a tornado or some circulation in the air.

That may indicate that the tornado is very much impending on your location.

So when you get the watch, get that state of readiness, when you get the warning, it's time to take action to move to a safe place.

>> Okay.

And I've also seen tornado emergency John.

What is that?

>> Yeah, that started in May 3rd, 1999.

In Oklahoma City.

There was a tornado on the ground approaching the southwest side of Oklahoma City, and they put out the tornado Mercer and got people prepared and ready and to take their safe plan to do it.

Now, this moment, it's on the ground.

So the weather service has a guide, a bunch of guidelines to do this.

So there's a lot of room.

I look, if you're hitting a major population, a county seat of Laurel County, whatever county it is, Pike County, Montgomery County, whatever it is, or it's going to be on a major interstate major population, they'll put out a tornado emergency.

We also do that with flash flooding.

Same thing.

Flash flood emergency.

To get the word out, I will be Paul Revere and scream and yell.

I used to talk to Doctor Gibson all the time.

Or the governor.

You need to have a plan for these big events.

We're seeing more and more big events.

So you need a plan of action, folks, to save your family.

>> Okay, so tornado emergency sort of supersedes even the tornado warning.

>> The top of the line.

>> Top of the line.

Okay.

Well, Kentucky averages about 28 tornadoes a year over the last 25 years.

However, the last five years, we have far exceeded that average.

For instance, according to NOAA, in 2021 and 2024, Kentucky had over 60 tornadoes on each of those years.

So John, what is causing this surge in tornado activity?

>> Yeah, so when I moved here in oh five, we had very busy years from oh 5 to 2012.

That was the Big West Liberty Tornado Sawyerville, Henryville, Indiana.

Then it was very quiet.

It was very quiet.

The jet stream was further north.

But in the last five years the jet came back further south.

So we're having these waves that come out of the western US with the jet stream energy.

Jet stream imagery enables rotation, lots of rotation, and it causes these bloody squall lines which drive us nuts.

That's why I have gray hair and they're very, very difficult to deal with because you have a lot of wind being pushing from the west to the east.

And on there you get these little bumps and ridges and they produce tornadoes.

And we have trained and trained and trained at the weather service to try to put those out as quick as we can to give you some advance notice, because they're not like the tornado where you knew that sucker was coming.

>> Okay.

So is the jet stream going to when is it going to give us a break.

>> That's at a higher level than me right now.

It's a busy year.

I will tell you this in a week after this show airs, it will be a very busy pattern for Kentucky.

We have a bunch of lows that are coming out of Oklahoma and a lot of moisture.

And what have we seen in the last few winters?

A wet spring, it looks wet the later part of March.

You heard this here first.

>> Okay, okay.

Well that makes us think about flooding.

So with sort of this surge in tornado activity and flooding, it seems like we're talking about flooding every year, a new flood disaster.

So that makes me think.

And I'm just going to ask the question, with the recent workforce reductions for federal employees, for NOAA, National Weather Service, for FEMA, is this going to impact Kentuckians?

>> Well, the thing is, the weather service is modernizing.

And I'm going to let Director Gibson I'll tag off on you.

Is now there is a full time employee that's going to be at the Emergency Operations Center, working directly for Director Gibson.

The weather service is going to be doing more short term warnings, less forecasting in the medium long range and focus on providing our partners, like in Laurel County, information right then and there to give them information to make decisions.

We call it decision support services, and the weather service will be working with partners like the Kentucky Mesonet with Tiffany and doing more and more partner messaging, short term, focusing on the first 24 hours of the forecast.

That's what Jackson did.

The Jackson office during the tornado.

They had what's called surge staffing.

Everyone who has a pulse come in.

We are working this big event.

This is the big event, and you're going to see that happen more and more at the weather service offices.

So I'll let Director Gibson.

>> Follow up.

Yeah.

So with this sort of switch in personnel, is that going to keep Kentuckians safer or are we something we're trying.

What do you think?

>> Well, I certainly hope it does.

I think, you know, the early warning stuff, working together with our partners at the National Weather Service.

When you talk about safer as it meaning a change, I would say that the National Weather Service has been an excellent partner of Kentucky Emergency Management during events.

John, when he was working there, would visit us and stay with us during these events.

Most recently, Mike from the National Weather Service has been a partner and he's there in those events in the EOC, providing direct information to us real time on what's going on and what we should be expecting or or you know, what we are going to see coming in these events.

Kentucky has the unique opportunity to be a pilot state for the National Weather Service, something I've really went all the way to Ken Ken Jennings.

I say Ken Ken Graham.

Ken Jennings was at the wrong show.

>> Yeah.

>> Wrong show.

I apologize, we've given him credit.

>> Wrong show, right?

>> Big fan, wrong show.

Ken Graham I've said that more than once and people make fun of me every time.

So Ken Graham from the National Weather Service, he and I had a meeting in, in a at one time and we discussed it, and I told him about the idea of having a National Weather Service meteorologist full time there at the EOC to continually one, you know, spread the information about, you know, severe weather to talk about warnings and watches and the things that we're talking about now, but also to be there during those events.

And then we would keep those forecasts in front of us, and we would be able to provide it to other state agencies as well.

So it's kind of hopefully it's a good model that we're going to use the National Weather Service staff member to be there.

They will also be able to support those other offices.

Kentucky has five National Weather Service offices that cover our state, so we're not under one.

And so when we look all the way from Paducah to our partners out east in Jackson and Louisville, and then we have Wilmington and Huntington that cover us.

And so we have five different offices that are trying to to put that mosaic image together across this Commonwealth.

Having a person in the office that can do that for us and provide that view of all five of those offices forecasting and what they're seeing, especially when we deal with and I know we're going to talk about flooding.

Flash flooding is a serious incident that is very much life threatening.

And those are very dynamic as well.

And just like a tornado, things are changing very, very quickly.

Rainfall, concentrated rainfall over a small vicinity.

Small area in eastern Kentucky can have significant impacts that that threaten lives, cause fatalities.

I mean, they just they're terrible.

And we saw that in our 22 flood, you know, terrible tragedy.

But then again, last year, you know, NE Jackson joined us last year on this show.

And he was impacted in the February event.

And then we also had another event that impacted almost our entire state that was more of a riverine type flooding, but that severe flooding that impacts that flash flooding event takes lives.

And we saw that in that February event as well.

So partnering with the National Weather Service, building our staff there at the EOC to be integrated on every day.

So those relationships are built, those connections are made with our partners, with our Western Kentucky University meteorology students down there.

We're continually building relationships because that is what emergency management is really good at trying to do is those relationships that we build when the skies are blue, help us when the skies turn gray.

>> Yeah, I like that.

Well, to that point, I do want to switch gears and talk about the major severe weather impact in Kentucky.

And that is flooding, as you mentioned, and beginning on the same day as that Louisville tornado, the nighttime Louisville tornado, which was April 2nd of 2025 and lasting several days, multiple rounds of heavy rain and storms caused flash floods and river floods.

Right now, you're taking a look at the rainfall map from the Kentucky mesonet, and you can see the heaviest rain there in portions of western Kentucky.

And that really I mean, we had heavy rainfall experienced in the Louisville area.

We had river flooding.

We had waves of rain that moved through daily from April 2nd through April 6th, and that's every day.

So that resulted in historic and near record breaking river flooding along many river basins.

And some of the hardest hit river basins were the Kentucky River, green River, rough River, Rolling Fork, and Ohio River, and the flooding led to water rescues, mudslides, numerous roads were closed, and even some major highways, and the flooding was so bad in Louisville that thunder over Louisville.

You know, the big fireworks show that kicks off derby season was canceled for the first time in history.

Unfortunately, seven flood fatalities occurred across the state, and that included a nine year old boy who was swept away by flood waters while walking to the school bus stop there in Franklin County.

So we seem to have flood fatalities every year here in Kentucky.

And, Tiffany, I know that you were watching these these rainfall totals, these numbers really pile up.

The mesonet is such a great resource in events like this.

So what were you seeing?

What what sort of.

And you're able to really track records that are breaking too.

What were you seeing during this event?

What records were we breaking?

>> The Paducah National Weather Service office said that in Christian, Marshall and Trigg counties, we actually broke new three day rainfall records for those counties over the span of the April 2nd to the April 6th time period.

So and as you saw in the the map, I think Marshall had the bull's eye on that map of over 15in in that time period.

So I know a lot of our stations were impassable.

We couldn't even access them.

After these rains came through.

The rain gauges do need to be manually emptied after so much rain.

And, you know, 15in is half the bucket.

And so, you know, we tried to empty the buckets ahead of time, but, you know, you can only access the stations once the waters recede.

And it was a couple weeks before we could get to some of them because the rains had just flooded like everything out there.

Yeah.

>> So tell us a little bit about, for those who don't know what the Kentucky mesonet is, what it is and what you all do.

>> Well, so the canned thing, I think we usually say is that we're a high end research grade suite of weather stations across the state that record various variables of weather parameters.

But what that really means is that we have a 30 foot tall tower.

We have a rain gauge that's separate from that.

We have our source of power is usually solar panels.

So it's actually quite a big it's not a big footprint.

But you know, I've been to some site surveys with some counties and they're like, well how about that roof right there?

Can you put your station up on that roof?

And you know, that's we're more than that.

And I think, you know, that's why we are we try and make everything, you know, we maintenance it several times a year to know that everything's up to date.

So when we are recording these record rainfall rates or, you know, we've had record wind speeds in the past that we've gotten from our stations, we know that those pieces of equipment are in working order.

And that's like what we pride ourselves on doing for these weather stations.

>> How many weather stations are there?

Where are they?

>> We actually are up to 86 stations in 80 counties in Kentucky.

The goal is to get all 120 counties in Kentucky outfitted with the mesonet station.

Laurel was actually our most recent station in November of 2025 that we installed.

And it kind of a funny story.

I'd been given contact information for Laurel County, like a couple weeks before that event happened with the tornado in May.

And everyone's like, we need to put a station there right now.

I'm like, well, let's let's let Laurel County recuperate a little bit.

But so that was definitely something that we wanted to do.

You know, obviously we want one in every county.

But that was kind of we felt good about that one.

You know, it's kind of a gap in that part of the state we have.

You know, the eastern counties are kind of larger and those are harder to find good siting for stations in.

And so when we can find something out in the eastern part of the state that we haven't had a station in, we we get excited.

>> Yeah.

And these stations not only measure temperature, soil moisture, wind, rainfall, all that, but some of them also have cameras, right?

>> Yes.

We have 78 of the 86 have cameras.

>> Okay.

So where can people see these camera shots.

>> So we have our website KY.

Org you can go on there but you can also probably more convenient.

We have a phone app for iOS and Android John loves our app.

Yeah.

And so you can see your local station.

You can set a station on our app, you know, whatever's closest to you.

But there's also a tab next to the current information that's reporting from the station for the latest camera image as well.

So we really love the addition of the cameras.

I know the weather service loves the addition of the camera for sure.

Emergency managers will love the addition of the cameras, and we want to give that ability to see, like, you know, the app shows the latest image, but, you know, we can actually tap into each station and live stream.

Yeah, on a limited basis, you know, for power reasons and such.

But we hope that helps emergency management and forecasters in the future to get ground truth.

You can actually see what's happening at the station because it's actually a pretty wide angle on the camera.

So I tap into those frequently when we have outbreaks of severe weather and we can see, you know, stuff going across live in real time at the station.

>> And it's nice when we have heavy rainfall events or rain turning to snow so that you can actually see the moment it's happening.

>> Fog.

>> A fog on these cameras.

That's right.

And Jerry rains, we often talk about turn around, don't drown.

Okay.

This is this is sort of our catch phrase for for not driving over flooded roads, which is a huge problem, not just for Kentucky.

I mean, it's nationwide, but this is most people who die during a flood are they are in their vehicles.

So what do you see in your county?

What would you like people in your county to know?

>> Well, a lot of people think that, you know, that there's going to be an inconvenience of having to go around another way if that road's closed and they look and think, well, I can still see the the bottom of the road, it's going to be good.

I can make it.

I just have to go with very few feet.

But we have particular areas in Laurel County that we know where they flood first, and we will go out and put up road closed and turn around.

Don't drown.

And then inevitably we're going to be doing water rescues out there because people, they don't think it applies to them, they think they can make it.

They've done it before.

The problem you run into if if a cross drain is washed out, let's say there's a 36 inch culvert that's underneath that roadway.

If it's washed out, you may have a foot of water on top of it.

And in that three foot hole of where that culvert was, and then your car is going to be swept away, and that is going to turn into a very bad day and a long time in trying to recover a vehicle and hopefully not recover a body.

>> Right?

Yeah.

John, anything to add to that?

>> Oh, God.

In 2005 when I came here, we had 12 tornadoes.

It killed no one.

I lost 12 people from flash flooding.

It's the most serious thing in the entire state.

Except if New Madrid ever goes.

Have a plan of action.

Never, ever, ever, ever drive through a flooded stretch of road.

It takes six inches of water and will sweep your vehicle off of there.

The directors, all of us have seen things that you do not want to see, where people made very poor decisions.

The water is so powerful, so, so powerful.

You just went through the April event a moment ago.

What happened in February?

We had a massive flood in the eastern part of the state.

What happened in Frankfort?

Distilleries had to shut down.

Yeah.

Flooding, flooding, flooding is this state's number one weather hazard.

>> Yeah.

And just six inches can knock an adult off of their feet.

12in a small car and 18in a larger car can sweep it down.

Here's one thing that I found out.

So with larger cars, a lot of people think it's heavier.

I can drive over a flooded roadway, but a lot of the larger cars, SUVs, their tires are wider, bigger.

And so that creates a buoyancy factor.

So it's not in essence, it's not as heavy as you would think because the tires have air in it.

It's more buoyant.

So something to think about next time.

Next time somebody with a big truck thinks they can go over this, which is unfortunately a common mistake.

Hey, you were just talking about the floods from February.

And so we just recently marked a somber milestone, the one year anniversary of that deadly flood there that impacted nearly every Kentucky every county in Kentucky on February 5th and 16th of 2025.

The heavy rain led to rivers and creeks overflowing, submerging roads, homes and businesses, and prompting widespread evacuations and unfortunately, claiming lives of Kentuckians in the path of the rising waters.

>> We just got hit by one of the most significant natural disasters we've seen in our lifetime, and that's after seeing a lot of significant disasters.

>> Heavy rains began pouring down on the state starting the evening of February 14th, not letting up until two days later.

The National Weather Service issuing a rare high risk for excessive rainfall warning, with widespread rainfall totals ranging from two inches to more than six inches in some areas, the heavy rainfall combined with melting snow, pushed preliminary crests on dozens of river sites to historic levels.

All of Kentucky's 120 counties reporting flooding, people forced from their homes on both ends of the state.

>> Throughout the day, the water kept getting higher.

It came up to about 40ft.

I was definitely surprised.

I really couldn't believe it when we saw it.

>> We noticed that the water was extremely high as far as closer to the house, and it was at the point that if we didn't leave shortly after, we wouldn't be able to get in or out.

So we kind of sort of grabbed what we could grab and loaded it up and left.

>> The disaster claimed 24 lives, including that of a mother and her child in Hart County.

>> The car got stuck, ended up being swept away into the tree line.

>> Our community is devastated, really devastated by this.

>> More than 1000 rescues performed, hundreds of roads closed, almost 20,000 structures damaged or destroyed.

>> We're seeing of homes that are on the riverbank that have collapsed and fallen in major water lines that didn't collapse before, collapse now, and pulled out and shut down entire cities because the water line was fell out.

>> Some eastern Kentucky counties still trying to recover from devastating floods in 2021 and 2022.

Underwater.

Again.

>> This storm is much more extensive than the July 28th, 2022 flood event.

As far as Pike County.

This was different than even that storm because this involved both the Tug Fork and the Levisa Fork of the big Sandy, both exceeding cresting well past flood stage.

>> It's really difficult to have this happen to us now, because we have just almost recovered from the previous flood to do it all over again.

>> And now for some people, this is the third time they've started over, some of them in the same place, and unfortunately some of them have moved every time.

It is a huge impact on the mental health of our survivors.

>> Despite the devastation.

>> We've kind of made the hashtag Breathitt strong because this is our third time and we will come back from this and we hope to come back stronger, better prepared.

And we've kind of said it from day one.

We want to build Breathitt back better.

>> It's the bottom.

>> Yeah.

We was just telling us that a mesonet station was lost during that.

Tell us what happened.

>> We have in our Breathitt County station in the north side of the county.

We have a station that has flooded.

I think it's 4 or 5 times now, but it's in a location that's obviously in the valley.

The weather service office is actually at the top of that hill, and they love the data from the Valley because they want the Valley Ridge split for forecasting purposes.

In 2022.

We lost it.

We actually lost that station in 2021, and then a year later in 2022.

And we're like, we're not putting it back.

But the weather service, we worked with them.

We went and surveyed other sites in Breathitt County to replace that one.

And it just there was nothing that could really replace what they wanted for the data.

So we said, okay, we'll put it back and we put it back.

And I think within a year it flooded again.

>> Oh my goodness.

>> We rebuilt it.

You know we're we're keeping up with it.

We're not going to put soil sensors back in there.

But the weather service really really wants that data.

And we we're working to keep it there.

>> But yeah.

>> Well the story that Tiffany tells that is very much in like what a lot of our citizens across that same area, their home was destroyed in 22, their home was destroyed in, you know, a flood before.

And now we're experiencing have experienced in the past year.

>> So what do those people do?

>> Right.

It's repetitive loss.

And we look at it at, you know, like our public assistance, which is, you know, another function of Kentucky emergency management beyond the preparedness and the response phase.

We have a huge piece of our agency that works on recovery, along with Jerry, could probably talk in depth about recovery as his storms and events.

He's had multiple events over his area, but we see it.

I saw Ray Jones in the video from our Pike County judge, and we were just had a discussion recently with them about the number of losses that they've had as a government entity, but then also their citizens have experienced that same repetitive loss.

And when we look at that recovery phase of these storms communities, and we'll talk about the government side, and I'm glad to talk about the private side for our individuals, because there's a lot of things that are really important to know about it.

But it takes a long time to recover, to build back that school, to replace that bridge that's been washed out to Jerry's Point, a culvert that's been destroyed from earlier in the show tonight.

And we see those events take so long that they'll have another event before they ever get all of the work done, and then another event, and then another event.

And so these counties across eastern Kentucky and and and entire state in reality are, are experiencing so many flooding events or tornado events, whichever one.

But flooding is the one that really impacts that local infrastructure the most.

Because of the roads that are damaged, the bridges that are lost, the buildings, the public buildings that are damaged.

You know, each year we're seeing those hundreds of millions of dollars.

I think last year, our total estimated loss, about almost $500 million of public infrastructure, about 495 million is what FEMA is estimated that our loss was across those three federally declared events, which would be the February flood, the April flood and the May tornado.

So our public infrastructure is significantly impacted.

It takes time to repair it, and our counties are just in a phase of rebuilding to try to get ready for the next event.

And so we work hard to try to harden our infrastructure, to build back something that is stronger and more resilient for that next event.

And you talk about what's going on in the world of innovation, and we try to figure out how we can protect our, our communities.

And we, you know, we look at things that are better or our utility companies putting back a wooden pole or a metal pole when one is broken in a storm.

We look at different things that we're doing.

If a 36 inch culvert washed out because it couldn't handle the water flow, is it better to go back with a 48 or a 60 inch culvert that may carry that water and not wash out that next time?

So as we look at these events and you reflect on them throughout the show today, I've been I've been in the chair in each one of those three events that we talked about last year and worked a lot of hours on the event and, you know, talking about that response.

But then this recovery phase goes on for years and that impacts those communities.

It's really important as they work towards that recovery piece, that we integrate ourselves very closely with our FEMA partners who have been excellent during this event.

The FEMA staff that have come to Kentucky during this event were the federal coordinating officer was Jeremy Slinker.

He was in those events and he said in this chair and did this show a few years ago.

And Jeremy was has a big heart for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

And he's done a really good job of coordinating that response for the Commonwealth.

He's now we have a new FCO Craig Levy, but still working very hard.

But those local FEMA folks are there to assist us as a state.

And, you know, our job is to build these communities back.

And that is a never ending process, to be honest.

And then we turn it over to that citizen.

And I never want to forget those, the survivors of these events that are trying to put, put back their home, to put back their vehicle, all their possessions that may have just been in their their shed or their barn that they lost.

But then, you know, in addition to the lives lost, their lives have been turned upside down if they did survive.

And to Jerry's point, recovery is difficult for those survivors.

The FEMA assistance is never enough typically to replace them on the individual side, individual assistance to get them back whole.

And so we see volunteer agencies, the community of the religious organizations that come to bear, along with agencies from across the nation.

Team Rubicon, we've had the Cajun Navy we've had, but the American Red cross, all good partners for recovery in the Commonwealth, with many more of the Southern Baptist Convention coming in and feeding our survivors and our rescuers.

But this whole holistic approach to disaster recovery from the preparedness and the beginning phases of let's talk about Severe Weather Week and make sure you have a Storm radio, a weather radio to the end, which is putting that bridge back or putting those kids back in those schools.

And that's that part, that emergency management working with our local directors that we try so hard to get those back.

But when we talk about our survivors and the volunteerism that goes on the high ground communities, there's a lot of things that are going on across the Commonwealth to make us better.

You know, the high ground.

>> Yeah.

Let's talk about.

>> The high ground, because if I'm a citizen and my home gets flooded, you know, once, twice, maybe even more, I at some point I'm going to start thinking about this is not the place that there must be some somewhere else I can go.

Right.

So and I know that's a difficult a difficult bridge to cross, no pun intended, because, you know, these are communities where you belong, where you're from.

So tell us about the high ground.

I think this is a great program that's going on.

I've seen some of this and Jerry chime in too.

If you've been seeing some of this to the high ground communities.

>> Well, high ground communities are projects that the state of Kentucky has.

Many cabinets are involved in it, you know, transportation, public protection, energy and environment, Kentucky emergency management.

It is a relentless effort since the 22 floods to build some community locations across our counties in eastern Kentucky that were the most impacted to use federal dollars mitigation cost hazard mitigation to buy out those impacted homes and then allow, you know, some building locations on some higher elevations that are out of the floodplain where communities can relocate their survivors if they choose only.

It's all voluntary.

Please understand all voluntary, because we don't want anybody to think that we're forcing anything.

If someone wants to move from their home down there and there's been an opportunity to relocate to those high ground communities, we've had event after event where we've had ribbon cuttings in those high grounds for homes that are being for survivors moving in.

And I got an opportunity to attend an event over there late last year where we opened, I think maybe it was 37 homes in one day for survivors to move into that were built by by donors, by volunteers.

And you've got a lot of partners in that, in that endeavor.

It's not one entity, but there's a lot of entities involved in moving those survivors.

>> That's amazing.

That is one of the great things, new things that's happening now.

And I want to talk about more new, exciting things that are happening in the world of weather.

Because meteorology, this is an ever evolving, relatively young science.

So things are happening all the time.

John Gordon, give me something exciting that's happening in the world of weather.

>> Okay.

So you're going to see artificial intelligence be used in warning decision where computational things are done for certain patterns.

I believe that will be an aid to forecasters.

There will be warnings that will be issued in the future because of lightning surges inside the cloud.

The third thing everyone should get the mesonet app.

Okay, the Kentucky mesonet saves thousands of lives, thousands of lives, because of the data that uses by the weather service helps us get warnings out faster.

And the biggest thing I'm working on in the state in 2024, a terrible tragedy happened.

Kelsey Dunn was a teacher at Hardin County High School.

She was the band teacher.

She was 30 years old.

She was driving on the Western Kentucky Parkway.

She hydroplane.

She was going 12 miles an hour under the speed limit.

Okay, I'm not accepting that.

Some of my guys are like, well, these things no no no no, no.

So we are starting in this state with Kentucky Department of Transportation, a national initiative that will start on the grass roots.

And we're going to go up because I got to fight the bureaucracy of the upper management, and we are going to get this thing on hydroplaning.

Wet lanes don't hydroplane.

We are going to do a lot of education.

KY is interested.

So is Indiana and Tennessee.

We're hoping to make this a national thing to help people, not hydrogen plane and get killed.

>> I love that.

Okay.

Very important.

And Tiffany, what's going on?

What's what's something you wish everybody knew or would do out there?

Every Kentuckian tell me something new, either new or exciting, that's happening in the world of the mesonet or something that you wish people knew about it.

>> About the mesonet specifically.

I really think our cameras are probably the future of helping everyone who's maybe maybe you want to check in on a relative in a different part of the state.

You can get the app and check on their counties, station, or just getting a station in every county is our you know, that's our exciting goal, is that everyone and everyone loves local stuff, right?

We were talking about communities.

You don't want to leave because you've lived in this community.

Well, it's exciting when you're your county now gets a mesonet station.

Like we hear that over and over again.

That's why we do ribbon cuttings for them.

It's a big deal and it helps the weather service, the emergency managers.

It helps everyone.

You know, we're like the support team for everyone who has to go out there and do the hard things.

We're, you know, making sure our stuff is in working order and high quality and just, you know, give as much information to everybody who needs it as possible.

>> Yeah.

Jerry.

Rain.

What rains?

What is a final thought?

Something you wish people knew about either the Laurel County Emergency Management or about weather safety?

>> Just have a redundant way to get weather warnings.

>> Yes.

>> Whether it be an app, a weather radio.

Because if you lose power because of the night of the tornado in Laurel County, we had an event earlier in that day that took some power out, and it affected some areas of Sunshine Hills, so they did not have power when the storm hit.

So have a redundant way of being able to get your weather notifications.

>> Okay.

>> Is it enough to have your cell phone emergency notifications on?

Do we need more than that?

>> You need two.

>> You need.

>> Two two ways to receive warnings.

>> Okay.

Got it.

And Director Gibson, tell us about those emergency warnings on phones.

Something that everybody can check their cell phone right now.

That could be the difference between knowing if a dangerous weather is headed your way or not.

>> Right?

>> Make sure you're signed up for those alerts.

Right.

And and that service is turned on your phone.

You can toggle that on.

We want to make sure you're eligible.

You know you can receive alerts when they come out.

And for final thoughts I would just say, you know, the preparedness stuff that we've talked about, we've all been talking about weather radios and alert systems, making sure you can receive the information, making sure you have the plan.

And then the one thing that we talked about that's so important, and you never want to leave without saying the turn around, don't drown, because I see the fatality reports that come in firsthand.

And I know the number of Kentuckians that have experienced the tragedy because of those events.

And last year, we lost about 64 people in Kentucky due to these weather events, the ones that were declared and others that were not declared.

And we we can make that difference.

Hopefully this show is one of those things.

>> Yes, I hope so too.

>> Well, I want to thank our guests for being here, Eric Gibson, Tiffany Measel, Jerry Raines, John Gordon, thank you so much for your time and expertise, and thank you for joining us as well.

Be weather aware and stay safe.