Kelly Jones, Assistant Deputy Director of Metro Safe, on the Winter Storm Emergency Response

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I'm Tony Cruz News Radio A forty whas
happy to have with us. Kelly Jones, who's joining us
this morning. He's our Metro Safe Deputy director. Deputy director Jones.
What's going on, my man? Not a whole lot, Not
a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now, Yeah, I'm staying on that other show. They don't
get up as early as you do. It was still
dark when I came to work. What's that all about.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I appreciate you coming in, Kelly as happy to do it.
We appreciate all that you guys do at Metro's Safe.
It's been a busy forty eight maybe even seventy two hours.
Tell us a little bit about a recap of the
weekend and what we may be looking ahead.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, it actually has been, and you know, we knew
the rams coming in. The untold story is always how
much you're going to get, and you always expect certain
things are going to happen, And yeah, I admit it
gets a little bit frustrating sometimes because you try to
convey the message to the public of turn around, don't drown,
don't do this, don't do that. Inevitably we do those

(00:56):
things and it's difficult. So we made thirty or we
receive thirty six rescue calls during the rain on Saturday night,
and a couple of those, you know, could be repeats.
Two cars could see it. That's when people get in
high water in their vehicles, say got in a ditch
they didn't know was there. We'd get calls at now

(01:17):
one one that I'm standing on top of my car.
The water is at the door. It's here, it's there.
And it's very frustrating sometimes because you think you do
a good job educating and you learn after that that
you just have to keep working harder at that. And
I always tell people that there's nothing worth losing your
life over and in a flood water. Don't drive into

(01:39):
that tunnel. Don't drive where you can't see. You don't
know what's below there, and it's just like speeding or
doing anything else. Always tell people, you know, there's somebody
at home that loves you and they're waiting for you
to get back. So it's frustrating when folks do that.
But the other thing is it puts everybody at risk.
The person who did it's now at risk, the first
responders are at risk. And I look and I think

(02:01):
of the people that are out there of the night.
You know, you always have your first responders, please fire
an ems. In some instances you might need a police diver,
and there's no sense in putting all those folks in
danger when you can use some common sense. Three inches
of water sweep you off your feet if it's running
fast enough. So that's one of the kind of frustrating
things we had about. Oh, I don't know a dozen

(02:23):
intersections that we had to close in barricade that normally
we do around here when the water gets to a
certain level. But one of the unique things that Louisvillians
should be proud of is that we were called upon
to help furnish emergency response teams around the state. Saturday night,
we sent about six folks down the Muhlenberg County. Pretty

(02:46):
early in the evening. We were requested to send twenty
people to hazard, including Director Mindments gone to hazard. He
is certified, we both are to be incident commanders, but
he wanted to go do that, so he's gone with
nineteen other personnel. And we also sent folks Saturday morning
to Richmond. I think we sent about a dozen and

(03:06):
that includes folks from emergency services from Louisville Fire Department,
Suburban Fire Department, will take boats, will take supplies, We'll
take whatever we need to sustain ourselves for about seven days.
So some of these places have been hit really, really hard.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
A lot of people don't realize how dangerous it can be,
and I get it, and they, you know, forever they've
gotten away with it, going through the water or whatever
the case may be. So it is kind of sad
when you think about we have ten victims or nine
victims in Kentucky so far with the first storm here

(03:43):
has had the worst of it. Nine out of the
ten victims that we know about. I think another man
in Atlanta had a tree fall on him. With that
in mind, what was the most severe situation that Metro
services ran into yesterday or this week?

Speaker 2 (04:02):
I guess I think probably for us, it was a
couple of those calls where the person who called in
said the water was rising quick and I remember specifically
one saying they were on the roof of their car
and the water was rising up to the doors. So
without us being there and not knowing, certainly, we're panic

(04:23):
and on this end and trying to get the resources there.
And let me say, I always say that our dispatchers
are sometimes the forgotten people, our call takers. Our dispatchers,
we had I think thirteen call takers on. There was
very few times that I looked up on the board
that it was not in red with at least twelve
calls at a time during that entire storm. So I

(04:45):
don't know what every single one of them are, but
we heard a lot of them on the radio. When
you think mentally about someone stranded on top of their
car and the water's rising and a couple of them
when my kids are with me or that, I mean,
it puts you into pure panic and you're like, okay.
But our resources were stationed around the county such as
all we had to do was get on and dispatch,

(05:07):
and we had fire units, rescue units, water, the river
unit from LMPD. Everybody was stationed in areas around the county.
So when we heard the run come out, we were
in the EOC. We had people who were dispatching those
units as those runs came out to the closest unit available.
But that's always the one you worry about, someone getting

(05:27):
trapped in the car and drowning and it's just a tragedy.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, indeed, Metro Safe Deputy director Kelly Jones joining us
here this morning. We've got more coming up from Kelly
next on news radio eight forty whas. Good morning. It's
a quarter before eight. News Radio eight forty whas. Good morning,
Tony Cruz along here with Kelly Jones with Metro Safe.
He's our deputy director who has been kind enough to

(05:51):
join us today. You were saying, Jody, Myiman, the director
is out in the eastern Kentucky. What have things have
you been told by all the men and women that
you have out in that part of the state.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Sorry about that.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Let me get that up. Jody's got a way to
tell me. It's pretty much a simple this is not
good man, and so he you know, when you're an
incident commander, basically, Jody, w'll walk into that county and
take full charge of that incident. And an incident command,
you got to leave your ego at the door. They
called Jefferson County, can you give us an incident commander.

(06:28):
I wasn't particularly wanting to go. I wanted to stay
here for the rest of the week too. And Jody
is so so good at this, and he'll walk in
and he'll start running the entire operation for all the
flood relief and wherever the area is they ask him to.
And I'm very proud of him for doing that, and
we should be proud of our city that we have
people that go and do that. But Jody'll go up
in there, doesn't matter what it is, He'll set up

(06:50):
a plan. He'll make sure that plan gets implemented, accomplished,
whether that means we're rescuing people, we're housing people, it's
whatever the community needs. It's not what we always think
needs to be done. You'll talk to the county judges,
the police chiefs, the fire chiefs. Sir, ma'am, what do
you need me to get accomplished for you? You tell me,

(07:12):
and then we go take off. And again, Jody took
nineteen other personnel, mostly from here with him, and we
should be appreciative of who we have here.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, and I like the fact that we're using our resources,
and no resources get used more than public safety. I
don't think if you think about it, the men and
women who serve, whether they be police, whether they be
Metro safe, fire, et cetera. I mean, it's amazing. Guys
don't get paid enough a.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Lot of people don't realize that. When you think about
the smaller counties and these little bitty cities. The city
that has five thousand people, and maybe all five thousand
of those people have gotten displaced. They don't have the
resources or the particular know how. They have this big
hard as as all of us. They have as big
a desire to survive. They're members of the human racist

(08:05):
like us. They want the help, they need the help.
They've just never been put in a situation like that.
So they look to us with great joy, and we
go in and help them. And you know, I was
looking at some of the counties this morning, and I
know you have to, but just think hazard Estoll McGoff
or breath at Floyd Pike, Johnson, not let your Martin Lawrence,

(08:26):
all those places. The people are in trouble right now
and they need some help. And say, you own a business,
you're losing your income. I saw pictures this morning flooded malls,
everything's flooded, the planet, fitness that's flooded, the windy is
that everything. People lose their schools, their livelihood, their jobs,
their income, places to sleep, their houses underwater. If you've

(08:47):
never been there, it's a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Well, we're barely recovered from a couple of years ago
right in that part of the state. Well yeah, I mean,
so it's really telling to see the kind of weather
that we've had. An in February, you know, I mean,
it's not spring yet, but we had we're having spring
like situations, and then all of a sudden, the winter

(09:10):
comes in.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Like I got one picture of me at home in April.
Maybe I'm gonna be close here. In April tenth, nineteen seventy,
it snowed on Easter about seven or eight inches. I
got a picture of myself standing there. And then, if
I remember correctly, my second year on the police department
in eighty eight, in May, on Derby Eve, we had

(09:31):
snow flurries. So that's the latest I've ever seen at
snow was Derby Eve. But the latest measurable one was
Easter of seventy. But now I've lived through all the
good ones seventy seven, seventy four. I'm the guy that's like,
bring it on, brother, I want another one in my lifetime.
Where are you bring it on? That's because you were
a kid. I enjoyed it, you know. I tell people

(09:56):
enjoy it next to a good wife. Snow is the
greatest thing that God ever on this Oh man, I'm like,
come on.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Baby, all right, we're gonna have to fight over that one.
But any no, you probably take me no. Do you
know I wouldn't. You're younger than I am by far.
Let's talk real quickly about ninety seconds. I know this
is generic and we hear it a lot, but what
do you want to tell folks about tomorrow night? We

(10:22):
don't know exactly what it's going to be, but it
could be anywhere three to five inches or something of
that of snow by the time Wednesday mornings around. What
do people need to know and what do they need
to bring?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, we live in a little different world, So first
of all, you wherever you get your information, pay attention
to that. If it's television, use that. If it's Facebook,
use that. If it's Twitter, use twitter x whatever we
call it. Go there, pay attention, follow the people you
trust and know. And I don't know how many times
that we can say this. If you don't have a

(10:55):
reason to go out on the road, then for Pete's sakes,
don't go, because here we go again. And if you
have a wreck or get stuck. Here we go again
with putting first responders in jeopardy and you in jeopardy
because you just thought, oh, it's not that bad, or
I'm gonna get out. I did hit one little spot
of black ice this morning coming in, and that was okay.

(11:16):
I felt tiredly back tire go. But stay home, stay home,
stay home, stay home. We got to have plows that
move around. We got to get salt down if it
costs for that. I tell people, make sure you have
enough food to get yourself through a couple of days.
Make sure you got if you have a wood burning stove,
make sure you have wood. Make sure your furnaces up

(11:37):
to date and going well. But it's probably not the
time to be calling because everybody else will always check
on your neighbor. Be neighborly. A friend of mine used
to say, it's easy to be a good neighbor, and
it is. Check on elderly folks, even if they're not
elderly and they live alone. Check on those people. Make
sure they have what they need because we're always able

(11:57):
to help folks in need. But pay attention of the
forecast and stay off the road and lessen it's an emergency.
Let the people who handle emergencies have the roadways.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Appreciate your time, Kelly. Thanks. You guys are great. We
appreciate everything that you all do at metro Safe. And
tell all the men and women over there we said, hey.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
They would be very happy and we appreciate your support.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah, well, we're behind you, all right. That's Kelly Jones,
Metro Safe Deputy director, joining us here on Kentuck cannas
worrying news. Joe Arnold with the Kentucky Electric Cooperative is
going to join us, and you know five, we'll see
how things are out in that eastern part of the
state when it comes to electric and other resources. That's
coming up in about thirteen minutes. Sports with John Alden
coming up next