LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The flooding in eastern Kentucky happened at night while most people were already asleep.
It had Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul asking if there should be a warning system for flooding, similar to other severe weather warnings.
"I wonder if the same sort of warning system that a lot of counties have for tornadoes, if maybe some of that couldn't be used for, you know, after a certain amount of rain, there's probably a prediction variable in there, like after three inches of rain, maybe the, you know, creeks begin to go over their bounds," he said.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Mike Kochasic said because radar only provides an estimate, it would be difficult to create an automated system.
However, he added there could be an opportunity to collaborate with the US Geological Survey to look at river gauges and observers.
"That way we could have a different approach to say okay, this is what radar says, here's what the rivers are seeing and how fast they're rising plus what's actually fallen in different rain gauges and maybe there's an automated approach to be found in there somewhere, but that would be yet to be seen," Kochasic said.
He said changes are always being made and studied to better communicate and reach people.
He wanted to remind people to always have multiple ways to get warnings and to not rely solely on your cell phone.
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