SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — When storms roll in to Scott County, a lot of people think back to the early-morning of December 6, 2021. Emergency Management director Michael Hennigan remembers it well.
"We had the tornado that was kind of a pop-up storm. We had a whole bunch of people injured and had their homes destroyed," Hennigan said.
After that EF1 tornado, Hennigan thought about what the county could do for people in vulnerable situations.
"Those folks have very non-substantial buildings. They need to be able to get somewhere quick in case their mobile home is damaged," he said.
Soon, a lot of those people will have a place to go. The county is installing tornado shelters near two mobile home parks—one near Parker's Mobile Home Park in Stamping ground and the other near the large mobile home park along Lisle Road near Fayette County.
"The manufacturer comes in, does site preparation, lays an 18-inch concrete base, then certifies that the structures will survive a 200 MPH wind," Hennigan said. "It may not be the most comfortable place if we have 100 people in a 48-foot structure, but you know that, at the end of the day, you'll survive the storm."
Hennigan said the Lisle Road mobile home park has 300 homes and others in the county have 100 residents or more. This certainly won't hold everyone who needs a safe place, but he hopes it's just the beginning of a longer-term project. The shelters, he says, are modular so they can add on to them down the road.
"These first two are a very good start, but we're going to seek grant funding and other ways we can keep locating more structures as soon as we can," Hennigan said.
Hennigan told the Georgetown News-Graphic each shelter will cost $150,000 and they're already included in the budget.
"A lot of people will be able to sleep a little bit better at night knowing that they have someplace to go," Hennigan said.
Hennigan expects the shelters to be complete by the first of September.
