Shelters should have been opened during recent Woodlawn power outage

Dear Editor,

On Saturday Jan. 25th, around 5 p.m., there was an accident that took out a light pole off Woodlawn Road, causing everyone on the rest of that line to lose power. With the loss of power comes the loss of heat for many of us, and we quickly realized not only was dinner not going to be cooked, but if the power did not come back on quickly we would soon be unable to stay in our home. Within an hour, the temperature in the house dropped more than 5 degrees, and this was just at sunset, with more cold on the way.

There were no reports of shelter from the cold being opened; there was no emergency management system in place for this, just a few (very cold, I’m sure) people from the electric company working as hard and as fast as they possibly could to restore the power. They are all of our heroes because they did a great job and did it quickly, all while being away from their families after hours, and certainly being uncomfortable from the bitter cold and raging wind.

However, it was the lack of planning on our community’s part in not opening a shelter that showcases the disillusionment of our elected officials. In many communities, when the temperature drops below a certain point, cold weather shelters are opened for those who have no heat, no power, or no home, and while we never want to believe there are homeless people in Nelson county, I assure you, there are many that are struggling and are very, very cold.

Coming from another state with an excellent emergency management system in place, as well as working in Louisville, I’ve seen the positives of communities coming together to provide food, shelter and help meet the basic needs of their residents. In Nelson County, it seems we don’t look after our own on a higher level.

We have no family here to turn to, and are not in a financial situation to just go get a hotel room for the night. So for many people, the only option was to freeze and hope that the power would be quickly restored.

There is an extreme lack of emergency resources in this county and this NEEDS to be fixed.

At a certain temperature, a shelter should be opened for those who need it. There should be a committee that understands the realities of a crisis, being extreme heat, cold, or severe weather, and can plan and implement appropriate strategies accordingly. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye against the needs of the residents of this county in hopes that someone else will pick up the slack.

We need our elected officials to step up and make these changes for the safety of our friend’s and family. No one should be at risk of freezing to death, and if the power did not get turned back on, who knows how many people could have lost their lives — and that would be on the shoulders of those who failed to act when their constituents needed them the most.

Jessica Spainhoward
Bardstown Ky, 40004