LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Inside Lexington’s Emergency Management Operations Center, the Chaos Coordinator is getting ready for the area’s next severe storm.
“Four out of Five for sure,” the unit's Public Information Officer said Emily Fay said, matching her level of concern with the moderate risk rating Friday’s lines of storms were given. “We don't want anything to happen to people, so our job is to watch and be prepared."
Those strong storm cells were already dropping a large amount of rain outside the operations center as Fay explained to LEX 18 what will occur over the next 12 to 14 hours.
“They're saying that all hazards are possible; large to very large hail, tornadoes, high wind; potentially hurricane force, so it seems like anything is possible with this one,” Fay said.
Fay was given the name “Chaos Coordinator” by a friend, and once this center begins to fill with personnel throughout the day, and the storms start causing problems, recovering from the chaos is exactly what she’ll be attempting to coordinate.
“A million different things can come in at once. Part of my job to discern what's verified and what's not,” she said.
With the potential for this storm to hit the area, Fay said only one thing truly matters to everyone inside the center.
“Life safety. The lives and safety of the residents of Lexington is our foremost concern,” she said. “We don’t want anything to happen to people."
That’s why the members of this team will assemble at the command center, and keep their eyes on every radar image, map, and piece of information that is either called in, reported by a news agency, or heard on a first responder scanner.
“We want people to be safe and make it through the weather no matter what comes our way,” Fay said.
