By JANIE SLAVEN
News Editor
WHITLEY CITY —
WHITLEY CITY — The county has received equipment that could hasten a flood warning by hours.
On Thursday, a monitor was installed at the corner of US 27 and Geary Street as part of the federal Integrated Flood Observing and Warning System (IFLOWS)
IFLOWS is a cooperative venture between the National Weather Service (NWS) and seven flood-prone Appalachian states — Kentucky, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia). The purpose of IFLOWS is to reduce the annual loss of life, property damage, and disruption of commerce and human activities caused by flashfloods.
The system uses communications technology and software to collect realtime sensor data from various locations. The solar-powered monitors disseminate the data among government organizations responsible for public safety.
The device sends a signal to the National Weather Service every 15 minutes. It can hold up to .04 of an inch before it dumps the water and resets for another measurement. The number of measurements taken within any given 15 minutes can alert agencies to a possible flooding situation.
According to McCreary County Emergency Management director Rudy Young, the IFLOWS device is the newest installment in eastern Kentucky since the 1990s — and a first for McCreary County.
“We’re hoping to have three more within the next two months or at least by the end of the year,” Young said. “We’ve been working four years to get them here.”
Each participating state/county is res-ponsible for long term operations and main-tenance costs of the system and equipment. Federal funds are annually conveyed to participating states via a Cooperative Agreement. Funding for the Cooperative Agreement is subject to Con-gressional appropriations.
KEWS (Kentucky Emergency Warning System) plays a major role in the support of this system by providing and maintaining the communication link for each site in the Commonwealth. Emergency Management also provides support in the maintenance of the sensors.
