Folks:

I'm sure many of my readers can empathize with the lack of good communication during times of natural disaster, whether they are deaf or hearing.  One of the biggest concerns for the deaf and hard of hearing is the lack of good, captioned weather information, accessible information on where to seek shelter, and so forth.  Kentucky recently had a bill, HB 96, that would have helped a lot in terms of centralizing communications and helping plan/coordinate information sharing in times of emergencies/natural disasters in the most recent session.  Unfortunately, it did not pass, and with the state of Kentucky being hammered with one natural disaster after another this year, that is not only shocking, but shameful as well. 

I bring this up because, over this past weekend, many areas in Eastern Kentucky were hammered with flooding, a couple of beautiful communities in Central Kentucky was hit hard by an EF2 tornado, resulting in at least 2 lives lost, many areas of Kentucky were hit with wind and rain damage from the remnants of hurricanes this year, and so on.  Clearly, the opportunity is NOW for this kind of planning and information sharing to become more centralized and accessible to people with all types of disabilities.  More on this subject later, I want to take the opportunity to share with my readers, information received from Liz Hill, Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, for those folks in Eastern Kentucky who may have access to the internet and are looking for ways to get help in the below listed counties.  I will try and update this as more information becomes available.

Flood Emergency Shelter Information

 

Breathitt County

 

It was at Jackson City School but now the shelter has moved to

 

1^st Church of God

1772 HWY 30 West

Jackson, KY

606-693-1918

 

Fire Department

606-666-9000

 

 

Pike County

 

Belfry High School

25259 Us 119
Belfry, KY 41514
(606) 237-3900

 

Pike Central High School

1901 US Highway 119 North

Pikeville, KY 41501

606-432-4352

 

Emergency Director:

Jim Caldwell

606-886-9678

 

 

Floyd County

 

Graceway Untied Methodist Church

8510 Route 80

Langley KY 41645

606-285-3136

 

Emergency Director

Pike County

Doug Tackett

606-437-4126

Robin Tackett

606-339-5911

I would also like to share with you all, a picture of the flooding that is emblematic of what was seen this weekend in Pike County, Ky.