Ready When It Matters: Weather Readiness

Savannah Gillispie: All right guys, thanks again for joining us for another episode of Watts Up with Winlectric. I think this is episode five maybe. I don't know. I'm not good with numbers. Anyway, today we have with us Mr. Garland Gilliam. I had to look at your name on the paper. I apologize. it's good. Around Christmas time, everybody gets it. It's Garland, right? But after Christmas, nobody knows what that means. There we go. Well, the title of our episode today is Ready When It Matters, Weather Readiness. Now Garland, can you tell us a little bit about you and what your position with the city is? So I work for the city and the county both. So I am the Emergency Management Director for both Glasgow and Barron County, Park City and Cave City. And then I'm the Deputy Judge Executive here in Barron County. So I wear multiple hats in the county, but Every county in the state has to appoint an ⁓ director and then every city has to appoint one. Luckily we're in a small town, so all of them appointed me. So it's one person. So they were all just garlin. Garlin. Tag your it. Awesome. So can you tell us and the listeners a little bit about what your job entails in a nutshell? So on a day to day with emergency management, if there's not a disaster going on, that's a good thing, right? But on day to day, we actually deal with emergency responses with hazardous materials, search and rescue missions. There's a whole lot more than just the disaster response. But when we get into anything that involves those four letters of FEMA, it becomes all in my court. we do a lot of preparedness for disasters, but then we do a lot of recovery after disaster. And what people don't realize is, you know, the response may be three or four days. but the recovery efforts could be three or four years. Wow. I guess I never really thought about it that way because luckily enough, I've never had to live through anything like that myself. So just as an example, we look back to, you know, the tornadoes that we had came through our area, you know, especially Bowling Green was 2021. think that was December. You're saying that there could have been three to four years worth of time it took to recover that? There are actually still recovery efforts going on in Warren County from the 2021 tornadoes. So it can drag out much longer, especially when you deal with, you know, massive loss to personal property. So when we have complete neighborhoods wiped out, those recovery efforts can take years. And then when we throw mitigation on top of that, and we're trying to make things better and safer, those process can go on for years too. Wow. Yeah. I mean, again, I think a lot of it for me is just the fact that I've never had to live through any of that. So I have no firsthand knowledge and I guess I should be very thankful of the fact that I haven't. Yeah. So, um, if we are looking at, um, what you do in a nutshell, then you're spending quite a bit of your time in office really planning for what in retrospect would be the inevitable. and what best way to handle the situations when they arise? Yeah, on emergency management, the three pillars are prepare, respond, recover. And obviously we don't want to be responding to incidents all the time. Recovery, like I can take years, but preparation is an everyday thing. So we prepare for, you know, the catastrophic, prepare for the worst. But even if we think back just a couple of months ago to the snow that turned to ice, you know, in the state of Kentucky, barren. Allen and Monroe were the three hardest hit counties in the entire state. we in that we prepared for that for a week and still ended up having to respond and those recovery efforts are ongoing today. We still have down power down trees that were on power lines and covering roads. A lot of those still haven't been cleaned up yet. Damage to roads from the salt and ice still hasn't been repaired yet. So that recovery effort from something as simple as you know the kids loved a week out of school right. But that week out of school has actually turned into months of recovery in Barron County. Man, you know, again, I'll say 15 times in this, I'm completely ignorant of this subject, but just with the comments you made, you're talking about electrical infrastructure. talking about, I'm sure plumbing and waterway infrastructure and highway and roads. And then you go on even further into commercial, industrial, residential. I mean, farmland stuff, mean, pretty much everything. Like anything, it would be in like Lion King, anything you lay your eyes upon. It is as far as you can say. you would have to deal with. It is. And we think about even back in January, had, luckily Bering County wasn't hit with the water infrastructure as bad as electric. But Monroe County lost pumps to some of their water distribution systems and actually had chicken houses and pig farms that had no water. And so on the agricultural setting, we had to get them tankers of water. And I say we as a state collectively, Barron County aided that was in Monroe, but we had to get them water before they lost all of their livestock, which is actually their livelihood on a farm. Right. Well, and of course then that feeds on down to grocery prices and or just supply in general, because I know, you know, we've had that issue, you know, through the winter and everything with different products and the fact that, that the the winter weather was so rough. So she's like, I don't know for whatever reason this thing, this, this subject is like the more we get into, it's kind of blowing my mind. So, ⁓ too, lower day mercy. hope it's not. if it's every day is a different challenge. So like, I guess I kind of am curious as to how you can truly prepare for something that hasn't happened yet. Can you tell us a little bit how you go about that? So when we, there are different aspects of preparedness, right? So if we're thinking about a family, they need to be prepared just for being able to be stuck in their house or if they've got a basement, they may be trapped in their basement for days. So, you know, that preparedness of having your water and your non-perishable food and things like that. But as a community and as a county, I mean, some of the preparedness is, you know, we try to pre-treat for, and I'm going back to the salt and the snow. We pre treat the roads. Well, can we prepare for a tornado? Not really. Really? Right. But that's where we have the other types of preparation or having a knowing where to go. Kind of like a fire escape plan, right? For severe weather. You know, if you live in a house that doesn't have a basement, where are you going to go when having those plans and knowing when to leave and when to stay and that type of preparedness doesn't prevent the disaster from happening, but it makes you ready for when it does. Man. I just, I hope I never have to live through anything like that. really wish no one had to, had to live through anything like that, but we know it's going to come, which is the whole reasoning behind this. So are there mistakes that people may make when they're trying to be prepared for things? I mean, is there, is there structures and well, excuse me, is there any infrastructure they should try to put in place specifically from a residential standpoint? And on top of that, just basic plans, you mentioned, places to go, know, things to do. Can you tell us a little bit about what people should be thinking about? Yeah. So one of the number one things is have a basement, right? Where tornado alley, if you look at the old maps, we were kind of on the outskirts in Kentucky that has shifted now. Kentucky is right in the middle of tornado alley. I mean, when we were kids, we never would have thought there'd be a tornado in December. 2021, right? And last year we had an F2 tornado in Barron County on April 3rd in the Highsville area. So having a basement is number one, but not everybody can have that, right? There are 11 tornado shelters in Barron County. And knowing which one is closest to you, we unlock that. We leave them unlocked as much as we can, but when the tornado sirens go off, it automatically unlocks the doors to those tornado safe rooms. And we post that on Glasgow-Baron County Emergency Management Facebook page as well as the Baron County Facebook page. But knowing which one's closest to you and the route on how to get there, that can help. There are actually, you can buy individual safe rooms from like the Better Belt Barn places. And the state, if this legislation goes through in a couple weeks with the state budget, the state is offering a rebate program to help. incentivize people to install this in their property. Kind of like an old storm shelter, it's a concrete shelter that they bury in the ground, but those can be upwards of $10,000. So this rebate program is a good thing if it passes in legislature. Tentatively, do they have an idea of what that rebate might look like? So the stipulations on it are, of course, has to be a new install, and it is 50 % of the cost up to $5,000. The questions we still don't know is as far statewide. How's that gonna affect Barron County? Do we get anybody that applies or is there a small number and we don't have those answers yet? But the program itself is rock-solid and I'm excited about it. Wow, that's that's a really really big thing. I'm I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't sure what we're gonna get out of this man. Don't mean that in a bad way, but when we're talking about government preparedness stuff it kind of It kind of seems on the surface to me a little boring, but I'm glad that Savannah Studio 22, you know, offered this up as an option. Cause I got, did get really excited about it because I want us as part of our, you know, podcast, ⁓ episodes, I want them somewhat to revolve around local government and, know, ⁓ things for the community. So I'm really glad that we had this, but I wasn't really sure that we were going to get really cool information because again, it's government preparedness. Well, and aside from the government preparedness, there's a lot we can do and talk about, but on the individual preparedness, I think of things that you might need in your basement if you're going to be stuck in there for three days, right? So let's say you have a basement, tornado comes and your house is just collapsed on top of it. You're safe, but you can't get out. And it may take a search and rescue team days to get to you. So in your safety, what do you need? Yeah. I'm always, I kind of laugh whenever you hear about the runs on the grocery stores before an ice storm or something like that, and the eggs and the bread, and I'm like, you realize that that stuff's not gonna last you. That's not gonna get you very far. Yeah, I mean, why aren't they going for canned foods and bottled water and stuff like that? I kind of had a question because I've never, except for just a door, I've never seen, been in one of the tornado shelters. ⁓ Are there any supplies in there? So there's first aid kits, first aid supplies, but there's not the food or the water. And I can understand why. just didn't, you know, being completely ignorant of it, I didn't know what might be in there, but there's actually first aid supplies. There is first aid kits in each one. But one of the things and this goes with our list and we'll get into some details if you'd like about what you should have in your emergency response kit But one of the things outside of food and water and non-perishables is personal items your IDs your ⁓ Prescriptions anything insurance policies those type things, you know our safe space a lot of times in Kentucky's we put them in the gun cabinet, right? Well, if we have a flood, they're soaking wet in the gun cabinet. So what we recommend here locally is get you a Tupperware bowl or something that's waterproof and you can put them in that in the gun safe, it's fine. But if you're going to be leaving, even if you're sheltered in place in the basement, grab that and have it physically with you so that you're not hunting through rubble trying to find your ID. When FEMA opens up a recovery center, one thing they have to do to offer assistance is verify your identity. And if you don't have that ID, so it's good to have that readily available. So if you do respond to one of those tornado shelters that are public in the county, take your stuff with you so that you have it. I never thought that would have been like, makes so much sense when you say it, but I just would not have, I would have thought about maybe the title to my car or something like that's super important during a, you know, some sort of devastating weather, but yeah, I gotta make sure people know. on that vehicle. And some insurance companies require marriage licenses. So having all that just ready to go and in a place you can grab it and take it with you. I can't make so much sense. so, if, how do you, as in the position that you are kind of balance responding to the immediate issues while planning for long-term risks? ⁓ it's tough, right? It's tough. When we think about from the county standpoint, the long-term implications ⁓ generally are financial. That's going to be the biggest issue. If we go back to the electric companies and the ice storm in January, they did a phenomenal job. The Glasgow Electric Plant Board had some outages. Farmers' Rule Electric had thousands of outages. And they were phenomenal in getting that restored as quick as possible. but that costs money. And then they asked help from other states that came up and we've responded to other states as well. in that kind of the recovery process from FEMA, it may be years before they get that money. I know FEMA sometimes is that four letter word because they can be good and they can be bad. But when you start thinking about just the amount of time it takes to jump through these hoops, it can be years before they get their money back. So financially, as a community, as a small business, and as an individual, you have to be prepared to sustain. And that's one of the hardest things is if, let's say, your job gets wiped out with a tornado and you can't go to work, where's your paycheck come from? So those things are above and beyond losing my house, is now you have no incomes. At that point, you're not even able to put food on the table necessarily, I guess. Man. I could be a real big heavy downer thinking about that very. is. And our role in that is to help, but getting back to normal is what takes years. Right? You don't have your job in a, uh, uh, presidentially declared disaster. There's small business loans that you can get super low interest loans and things to help you get through. Uh, but you have to know where to turn to find that. Right. And guess you guys help people through that. And that's where we step in and setting up a local recovery center with FEMA is. We're kind of the middle man to help you get what you need. But at the end of the day, know, FEMA is ultimately responsible. And we had ⁓ just the instance of the tornado last year on April 3rd, ⁓ and by no means call them out by name, but we had some families affected in the Highsville area that lost business, lost homes, ⁓ and FEMA came down. I had them here the very next day doing an assessment. We had the National Weather Service here that day to confirm it was an EF2 tornado. And at the end of day FEMA said we can't help. So some of that frustration of behind the scenes we're trying and we're working for you. But on FEMA's standpoint, three houses is nothing compared to 45,000 in Barron County. So it gets to be kind of disheartening. Wow. I can't imagine the frustration. I here you are trying to help people. and you're unable to do so because I guess the red tape, so to speak. you keep mentioning FEMA, then is there something state level that goes toward that as well? So the state is funded through FEMA. we're kind of the Baren County answers to Frankfurt who answers to FEMA. And we all coordinate together really well. But we have phenomenal volunteer organizations that step up when FEMA can. ⁓ Southern, Red Cross, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, they do a phenomenal job and they are ready to respond, they're all volunteers, right? So they are ready to respond immediately when FEMA may take three days, may take four days and then still may, till you know at the end. So, you know, we appreciate FEMA and everything that we can get through that. But at the same time, we have to be prepared as a community that that help may not come. Yeah, well, as I mentioned before, I'm really cool that we got such good information on this on this ⁓ episode. But could you kind of ⁓ give us some final takeaways about ⁓ maybe a single piece of advice that you could give to every resident of Barron County or just the surrounding area that that ⁓ this radio station reaches? Well, If we're going to kind of stick in the springtime here, we'll talk tornado safety for just a second. And one of my biggest, ⁓ I guess, pet peeves is tornado sirens. So many people think that they should be able to hear that tornado siren inside their house and that should alert them that a tornado is coming. And those are actually outdoor warning sirens that they were intended for the farmer on the tractor or the guy at the garden or the kids in the park to know there's a tornado coming. If you are inside your house, a NOAA weather radio is the number one way to receive warnings that there's a severe storm or tornado coming. I do recommend anyone that has a weather radio to set the alerts to go off to the west of Barron County. So Warren County, Edmondson County, because that's the direction that our storm cells move. So if there's a tornado in Warren County, it gives you more time. than waiting until it hits in Barron County. Yeah, that's as soon as you said that I'm like, ⁓ yeah, that makes perfect sense. And then there's things that you can put on your pocket computer. And phones now are geofence to where if you're traveling and you don't even know where you're at, but if you've got that turned on and have an app, if there's a tornado or severe weather, you know, while you're driving through Ohio, you'll know about it ⁓ versus relying on being at home. Geofence. I thought that was a funny word. Yeah, if I knew how that worked, I wouldn't be sitting here. Well, I tell you what, I really appreciate your time Garland. I thought about Christmas time so I was able to remember. That's all it takes. No, but I really do appreciate your time and thank you for joining us. I hope that the listeners can get at least one good piece of information out of what you shared. I mean, I did myself, so that's great. But anyway. Appreciate you guys listening in. Hopefully you got some great information from us on our episode of Watts Up with Winlectric