Lexington’s Emergency Management is welcoming only its second director since the public safety department formed in 1988. Pat Dugger is retiring after serving in that capacity for some 35 years. With three decades of experience in the Fire Division, Rob Larkin takes over as emergency management director.
“But, I’ve been a responder for the past 32 years and now this is more of a director-administrator type thing…continuing on with the projects that have already been started and gaining a greater understanding of that,” said Larkin.
As a community only 25 miles away from storage and disposal of chemical weapons, Larkin said many people in Lexington are aware of emergency preparedness measures. Those activities have occurred at Madison County’s Blue Grass Army Depot.
The tornadic activity in western Kentucky over the weekend, the second time in two years in December, serves to emphasize the importance of emergency preparedness. Larkin said citizen connection is very important.
“As far as social media where emergency management has a little bit of a footprint. Where we can communicate with you to provide you any type of instructions,” said Larkin.
Of course there are also the more traditional means of emergency situation communication through radio and T.V. along with text messaging.
