Emergency responders in Kentucky to help the recovery efforts after floods

Jacksonville, Florida — After massive flooding impacting many parts of Kentucky and claiming dozens of lives, Clay County Director of Emergency Management, John Ward is one of several Florida responders to support the teams on the ground.

Ward is part of a 20-person team of emergency responders from the far corners of the sunshine state to help recover stranded residents and clean up the flood damage. The members of the new team are comprised of nine from Northeast Florida, seven from Southwest Florida, and four from Tallahassee. In addition to ten other emergency responders, who are already working at the state emergency operations center in Frankfurt, Kentucky alongside FEMA.

Ward says, “the rest of the team is down in the hazard area working with the impacted counties and getting us good situational awareness... so we can continue the response and help support our Kentucky partners.”

Despite more rainfall this morning, wide-area searches are underway. The biggest hurdle, according to Ward, is the remote terrain combined with the fact that many roads and bridges have been washed out by the flooding.

However, cut-through teams are making their way into the rural areas as carefully as they can. Once emergency responders find residents, then they can, “establish the recovery efforts for those folks and get them the individual assistance they need,” Ward says.

Ward says the team will be helping recovery efforts for the next two weeks. If any more emergency responders are needed, he says more teams in Florida are ready to deploy to refresh the efforts.

Florida deployed three All-Hazards Incident Management Teams comprised of individuals from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) as well as seven supporting city and county agencies in support of the flash flooding outbreak in Kentucky.

“I cannot thank the men and women of FDEM enough for their continued commitment to help others in there time of need. Our teams on-scene stands ready to assist the people of Kentucky.”, said Director Kevin Guthrie of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

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