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City of Hurricane Responds to Kentucky Flood Disaster Needs

This load of emergency supplies was delivered to Whitesburg on Tuesday, August 2nd.

The City of Hurricane Mobile Infrastructure Response Team hit the road at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 1st, to assist the town of Whitesburg, Kentucky, in its effort to recover from devastating flooding. The response team is equipped with a 1,000 gallon water buffalo for potable water distribution and a dump truck, generators, and other equipment needed to make repairs and get the Whitesburg water treatment plant back up and running.

“Water lines are running free flowing everywhere. There’s either no pressure or low pressure because there are leaks everywhere. Our crew will go out, find those leaks, cap them off, and do whatever is needed, ” Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards said. “They have cots, food, and lots of clothes as we are not sure how long they will be there.”

The team consists of seven members of the City’s utility department and two members of the street department. The City of Hurricane formed its Mobile Infrastructure Response Team in 2014 such that the City would be prepared to handle emergencies like the 2012 derecho which left Hurricane without power for more than a week.

While there have not been any local emergencies which have resulted in outages like that of 2012, the Response Team assisted the City of Richwood in 2016 and the Town of Pine Grove (Wetzel County) in 2017. The visit to Whitesburg is the team’s first out of state response.

Edwards stated, “While other communities have resources like Hurricane, we have the people who are eager and willing to volunteer to reach out to others.”

Hurricane Police Sgt. Jonathon Payne presented Whitesburg Police Assistant Chief Justin Hunsucker with a spare cruiser on Sunday, July 31.
Hurricane Utility Department Chief Ronnie Woodall (right) heads the Infrastructure Response Team.
Pictured is the last of the seven-vehicle convoy which left for Whitesburg, Kentucky, on Monday, August 1st.
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