The most common types of disasters in Kentucky are caused by water, wind, ice, or fire. With Kentucky experiencing two major natural disasters recently, the tornado outbreak in Western Kentucky in December of 2021 and the flooding in Eastern Kentucky in July of 2022, disaster preparedness comes to mind.  The Todd County Extension Agent for Family & Consumer Sciences was contacted by a local church to teach a disaster education class for members of their congregation.  

Twenty-two people attended the class titled “Food and Finances in the Face of Disaster,” where they learned how to prepare for and how to respond to disasters.  An end of the meeting evaluation asked attendees to respond to a questionnaire as to how likely or unlikely they were to implement disaster preparedness actions in the next two month.  Sixteen people completed the survey which revealed: 100% were likely or very likely to put together a 3-day food and water emergency kit; 94% were likely or very likely to increase cash on hand to cover emergency costs; 94% were likely or very likely to review my insurance coverage; 100% were likely or very likely to make a household inventory, and 100% said they intended to come up with a plan to store their important documents safely.

When asked the most significant thing they learned from the program or intended to implement, one person said they planned to “make inventory list, update my HOI policy for household items;” another said, “inventory list, passwords” (note: making a list of accounts and passwords); another said “How much of what kinds of food and how much water to have on hand.”  Additionally, someone said they had started working on preparing for a disaster but needed more direction. They felt like the program went over everything thoroughly.