We are now in the closing days of the 30-day 2021 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Only six legislative days remain after Friday, March 5. Important bills continued to move swiftly through the legislative process last week, and robust debate on critical topics was as prominent as ever.
First, however, I want to speak to recent severe weather events. The governor declared a state of emergency concerning flash flooding, which is affecting communities from far southwestern Kentucky to far southeastern Kentucky. Last week's declaration comes only a week shy of a year since the governor declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19. Both figuratively and literally, it seems we continue to be hit by storms. The pandemic has threatened the elderly and immunocompromised people as well as contributing to an unemployment crisis. Severe winter weather covered our Commonwealth in ice and left our people without power. Most recently, torrential rain has caused flooding of homes and businesses. Several counties received over six inches of rainfall. Many counties stretching across Kentucky received between 4 ½ to 5 ½ inches of rain. It was indeed a "perfect storm" as we received record levels of rain on top of melting ice.