Shelby County Ky Emergency Services Emergency Management & Communications

09/11/2026

🏆 SHELBY COUNTY SHOWED UP… AND BROUGHT HOME SOME HARDWARE.

There are weeks in public safety that you simply don’t forget.

This was one of them.

Shelby County was incredibly well represented at the Kentucky Emergency Services Conference, and I couldn’t be prouder of our agency, our people, and everything we have accomplished together.

🏆 Shelby County Emergency Management — Operational Excellence Award

This award belongs to our entire team. It represents years of hard work, innovation, preparedness, partnerships, and a commitment to making Shelby County safer every single day.

🏆 2026 Kentucky Emergency Management Director of the Year — Director Chris Spaulding

I am incredibly humbled by this recognition. My name may be on the award, but I know without question that one person doesn’t earn something like this alone.

🏆 Kentucky NENA President’s Award — Supervisor Jennifer Lockett

A tremendous and well-deserved honor recognizing Jennifer’s dedication, professionalism, and years of service to 911 communications and public safety.

🎓 Kentucky Certified Emergency Manager — Deputy Director Dana Jenkins

Dana reached another major professional milestone by earning her Kentucky Certified Emergency Manager certification, representing countless hours of training, education, experience, and dedication to this profession.

But behind every one of these accomplishments are people who don’t always get their names engraved on the awards.

My fabulous staff and my incredible family.

I have been blessed with a staff that makes me look far better than I deserve most days. 😂 They take my crazy ideas, the occasional “Okay, hear me out…”, and somehow turn them into programs and projects that make a real difference.

They answer the calls.

They work the long hours.

They solve the problems.

They handle the emergencies.

They laugh together, occasionally aggravate each other, pick each other up on the difficult days, and when Shelby County needs them…

They show up. Every single time.

I could have every piece of equipment, every plan, every program, and the nicest facility in Kentucky, but none of it matters without great people.

And I am fortunate to work beside some truly fabulous people.

The Operational Excellence Award belongs to them.

And if I’m receiving a Director of the Year Award, then part of that belongs to them too. A Director is only as successful as the people willing to stand beside them, believe in the mission, and do the work when nobody is watching.

Then there is my family.

For all the recognition public safety professionals receive, our families deserve far more than they ever get.

They’re the ones who understand when dinner gets interrupted.

When the phone rings at 2:00 in the morning.

When weekends change.

When vacations get interrupted.

When “I’ll be home in a little while” turns into several hours.

And somehow, they’re still standing there supporting us when we finally walk back through the door.

Having my wonderful family, staff, and friends there to share this moment meant more to me than any plaque or trophy ever could.

Looking out and seeing so many of the people who have walked this journey with me was something I will never forget.

Because these awards aren’t really about what’s engraved on them.

They’re about the people behind them.

The sacrifices.

The relationships.

The friendships.

The teamwork.

The families.

The people who believe in you.

And the community that trusts you.

I’m proud of Jennifer.

I’m proud of Dana.

I’m incredibly proud of our Emergency Management and 911 teams.

I’m thankful for our partner agencies and friends.

And more than anything, I’m thankful for my fabulous staff and my family who have stood beside me through all of it.

We’ll enjoy this one.

We’ll take some pictures.

We might even brag just a little. 😁

Then we’ll do what we always do…

We’ll go back to work.

Because awards are wonderful, but the greatest recognition we can ever receive is knowing that our work matters and Shelby County is better because of the people willing to serve it.

❤️ Shelby County was very well represented at KESC, and I couldn’t be prouder of the people I had the privilege of standing beside.

To my fabulous staff, my wonderful family, my friends, our partners, and this incredible community — thank you. None of this happens without you.

One team. One community. One mission — serving Shelby County. 🇺🇸

09/09/2026

🌩️ SHELBY COUNTY WEATHER UPDATE: Apparently Mother Nature has scheduled a staff meeting, and THUNDER is doing most of the talking. 😂

After another afternoon in the 90s, the atmosphere has apparently had enough and is preparing to flip the table.

⛈️ TONIGHT: Thunderstorm chances begin increasing this evening, with additional storms possible overnight. The better chance for rain and thunderstorms comes after midnight into early Thursday morning. Temperatures eventually fall into the lower 70s. The National Weather Service currently has tonight’s precipitation chance around 50%.

🌧️ THURSDAY: If you’ve been asking for rain… congratulations, overachiever. 😂

Expect periods of showers and thunderstorms throughout the day. The forecast screenshots show rain chances around 40–60% through the morning, increasing to 60–80% around midday and early afternoon, with temperatures generally hanging in the 70s to around 80°. Other current forecasts also indicate Thursday could be considerably wetter than today.

Basically Thursday’s forecast is:

☕ Wake up — thunderstorm.
🚗 Leave for work — thunderstorm.
🥪 Lunch — thunderstorm.
👀 Look out the window — probably thunderstorm.
🌱 That one person who planted grass seed — BEST DAY OF THEIR LIFE.

A couple serious reminders: When thunder roars, go indoors. Don’t drive through flooded roadways, and give yourself some extra travel time Thursday morning because heavy downpours can make the commute considerably more interesting than anybody requested.

And remember the Official Kentucky Weather Rule:

If you hear thunder, go inside. If your neighbor is standing on the porch saying, “That ain’t gonna do nothin’…” go inside anyway. He is not a meteorologist. 😂🌩️

Stay weather aware tonight and Thursday, Shelby County. We’ll keep watching it!

09/09/2026

😂🌡️⛈️ GOOD MORNING, SHELBY COUNTY! ⛈️🌡️😂

Today’s weather forecast looks a whole lot like a Kentucky family reunion.

Hot, loud, slightly unstable, and sooner or later somebody’s gonna cause a scene. 😂

You KNOW the relatives I’m talking about. Every family has them.

There’s the uncle who shows up three hours early, brings absolutely nothing, eats twice, and leaves with a plate wrapped in aluminum foil.

The cousin who hasn’t been seen since 2019 but walks in like he owns half the farm.

The aunt who knows everybody’s business before the people involved know it themselves.

The relative who says, “I’m not trying to start anything…”

🚨 ALERT: SOMETHING IS ABOUT TO BE STARTED. 🚨

And somewhere there’s one guy standing beside the grill wearing New Balance shoes, holding a pair of tongs, saying:

“Hot enough for ya?”

YES, RANDY.
IT’S 97 DEGREES. WE’VE ALL NOTICED. 😂

And that brings us to today…

🥵 THE HOT RELATIVE ARRIVES FIRST.

Temperatures climb into the low 90s with heat index values across the region potentially hitting 95–105°.

It’s gonna be hotter than the family group text after somebody accidentally says what everybody else has been thinking for 15 years.

Drink water. Take breaks. Check on folks working outside.

Then tonight…

⛈️ HERE COMES THE DRAMA SIDE OF THE FAMILY.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms move in from the northwest, with some damaging wind gusts possible.

Basically the weather equivalent of somebody bringing up Granddad’s will at Thanksgiving dinner.

One minute everything’s fine…

Next minute somebody’s yelling, a lawn chair is airborne, and three people are saying:

“I KNEW THIS WAS GONNA HAPPEN.” 😂

🌧️ We could also see some locally heavy rainfall tonight into Thursday.

Please don’t drive through flooded roads.

We all have that one relative who’ll stare at six inches of moving water and say:

“Shoot, I can make that.”

No, Dale.

Dale cannot make that.

Dale is exactly why Emergency Management has to make these posts. 😂

🥶 THEN THURSDAY A COLD FRONT ARRIVES.

Because Kentucky weather is apparently the relative who gets mad, storms out of the reunion…

then comes back 20 minutes later because they forgot their Tupperware.

So today:

Stay hydrated.
Keep an eye on the weather tonight.
Secure anything outside that could become airborne.
Have multiple ways to receive warnings.
And never drive through flooded roadways.

And since we’re talking about family…

WITHOUT USING THEIR NAME… describe the weirdest relative in your family. 😂

I’ll start:

Every family has somebody who brings their own lawn chair to EVERYTHING and somehow knows exactly how much everybody paid for their house.

Good morning, Shelby County.

Stay cool, stay weather-aware, and remember: if you can’t identify the weird relative in your family… there’s a pretty good chance it’s you. 😂😂😂

09/09/2026

🌤️ SHELBY COUNTY… TODAY’S WEATHER WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY KENTUCKY, WHERE SEPTEMBER IS APPARENTLY JUST AUGUST WEARING A DIFFERENT HAT. 😂

We made it up around 89° today, with enough humidity hanging around to make you question every life decision that involved going outside.

Grandma would’ve stepped onto the porch, looked toward Bagdad and immediately started issuing forecasts:

🐄 “If the cows are laying down, rain’s coming.”

🐿️ “If the squirrels are gathering nuts early, winter’s gonna be rough.”

🌫️ “If there’s fog in September, count the foggy mornings because that’s how many snows we’re getting.”

🥵 And if Grandma walks outside, says “WHEW LORD!” and immediately goes back inside… cancel whatever you were planning.

That last one might not be official Kentucky folklore, but it has a 97% accuracy rate. 😂

Meanwhile, several of our Emergency Management and 911 Communications folks are attending the Kentucky Emergency Services Conference this week, learning, networking, sharing ideas and bringing information home to make Shelby County even better prepared.

And today’s keynote speaker was Ryan Hall Y’all! 🌪️🌦️

Yep — the Kentucky weather guy himself.

Nothing says Kentucky Emergency Services Conference quite like putting a room full of emergency managers, dispatchers and first responders in front of a man who has probably caused half of us to stare at a radar in our underwear at 2:17 in the morning saying:

“Well… crap.” 😂

The presentation was amazing and we are glad we were there! Thank for speaking.

If you’ve never attended an emergency services conference, it’s basically hundreds of people who deal with disasters for a living getting together to discuss preparedness, technology, communications and the most important emergency management question ever asked:

“What time is lunch?”

There’s also enough coffee consumed to achieve communication with low-Earth-orbit satellites.

But underneath all the foolishness, these conferences really do matter.

The relationships we build before an emergency are often the same relationships we depend on during one. We learn from other communities, share what’s working, find new ideas and occasionally professionally borrow something somebody else is doing really well. 😂

Then we bring it home to Shelby County.

Because Kentucky weather can go from:

☀️ “Boy, it’s beautiful outside.”

to

🥵 “Hotter than a two-dollar pistol.”

to

⛈️ “Where in the Sam Hill did THAT come from?”

before somebody in Finchville finishes mowing the front yard.

Stay safe, Shelby County.

And remember one of Kentucky’s oldest and most scientifically proven weather forecasting techniques:

If your knee hurts, the cows are laying down, the woolly worms look suspicious and Ryan Hall Y’all is live… you might want to pay attention. 😂🌦️

09/08/2026

🌤️ SHELBY COUNTY WEATHER: THE “GRANDMA SAID SO” FORECAST 🌤️

Alright Shelby County… Labor Day is wrapping up, and apparently Mother Nature looked at September and said:

“Absolutely not. Put August back.” 😂

Tuesday we’re headed toward the upper 80s, Wednesday around 90–91°, then Thursday somebody finally jiggles the thermostat and brings us a good chance of showers and thunderstorms. After that, we settle back into the 80s heading toward the weekend.

But forget Doppler radar for a minute. Around Kentucky, we had Grandma Radar™ long before anybody had an app.

🐄 “If the cows are laying down, rain’s coming.”
Maybe. Or maybe they’re cows and their legs are tired. Either way, somebody’s uncle will swear this has never been wrong.

🌙 “Ring around the moon means rain soon.”
And if Grandma saw TWO rings, you might as well cancel school, buy bread and milk, and start checking on the generator.

🐦 “Birds flying low means a storm is coming.”
Birds flying high? Pretty weather.
Bird sitting on the power line? Apparently he’s with the National Weather Service.

🐿️ “If the squirrels are gathering nuts early, we’re gonna have a hard winter.”
If Shelby County squirrels are correct, we should probably start cutting firewood immediately. Those little suckers have been acting like Kroger announced it’s closing for six months.

🐖 “If a hog starts carrying sticks, bad weather’s coming.”
I have absolutely no idea why the hog has been promoted to meteorologist, but this was apparently accepted science in Kentucky for generations.

🌅 “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”
We don’t have many sailors in Shelby County, but Gary with a bass boat at Guist Creek apparently counts.

🐸 “If the frogs get loud, rain’s coming.”
That’s either meteorology or the frogs are having a Fiscal Court meeting. Hard to tell.

And my personal favorite Kentucky forecasting method:

👵 “I can feel it in my knees.”

That’s it.
That’s the forecast.

No radar.
No satellites.
No computer models.

Just Meemaw’s left knee.

And you know what?

That knee has probably outperformed at least three weather apps. 😂😂

So the official Shelby County outlook:

☀️ Tuesday — Summer
🔥 Wednesday — Summer with an attitude problem
⛈️ Thursday — Everybody’s joints start hurting and the cows sit down
🌤️ Friday — Not terrible
🌦️ Saturday — Mother Nature may fool around again
☀️ Sunday — Back to warm

Welcome to September in Kentucky, where you can leave the house in shorts, carry an umbrella, keep a hoodie in the truck and still somehow be dressed wrong.

Now let’s hear yours — what’s the craziest old Kentucky weather saying your parents or grandparents swore was 100% FACT? 😂👇

And if somebody says “woolly worms,” congratulations… you’ve officially unlocked Kentucky Winter Forecast Level 2. 🐛😂

09/07/2026

🇺🇸 GOOD AFTERNOON, SHELBY COUNTY!

We hope your Labor Day is going great.

It’s mid-afternoon, which means Labor Day has officially entered the “I shouldn’t have eaten that much” portion of the program. 😂

Across Shelby County, grills are smoking, recliners are occupied, and husbands everywhere are discovering that “Labor Day” apparently does NOT mean what they thought it meant.

Because somewhere in Shelbyville, a man made the rookie mistake of sitting down.

His wife walked by and said:

“Oh good… you’re not doing anything.”

🚨 SIR, GET UP.
THAT IS NOT A STATEMENT. THAT IS A WARNING. 😂

Meanwhile…

Somebody in Finchville said, “I’m just gonna mow real quick.”
Three hours later, he’s dehydrated, sunburned and mowing toward Spencer County.

Somebody in Bagdad is standing over a grill poking the same hamburger for the 47th time while his wife says:

“LEAVE IT ALONE.”

He cannot.

It is genetically impossible.

Somebody in Simpsonville asked his wife if she “really needed anything” while they were already near the Outlet Shoppes.

Our thoughts are with his family. 😂

And all across Shelby County, wives are keeping alive the ancient wisdom passed down through generations:

“Take a jacket.”
It’s 92 degrees.

“Don’t sit in front of that fan sweaty. You’ll get pneumonia.”

“Close the door! We’re not cooling the whole county!”

“That chicken ain’t done.”
“But the thermometer says—”
“I SAID IT AIN’T DONE.”

“Don’t tell me you’re bored. I can FIND you something to do.”

And the most dangerous sentence ever spoken inside a Kentucky home:

“Do whatever you want.”

⚠️ MEN OF SHELBY COUNTY:

DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

This is a test.

There are no correct answers.

😂😂😂

So enjoy what’s left of Labor Day. Eat another plate. Spend time with family. Check on your neighbors. Stay hydrated.

And if your wife looks across the room this afternoon and says:

“Since you’re just sitting there…”

Don’t ask questions.

Just put your shoes on.

You’re going to Lowe’s. 🇺🇸😂

09/06/2026

😂⛪ GOOD SUNDAY MORNING, SHELBY COUNTY! ⛪😂

If your Mamaw says, “I probably ought not say this…” SIT DOWN.

You’re about to receive classified Shelby County intelligence involving two divorces, somebody’s worthless cousin, and why she STILL doesn’t trust that woman from Simpsonville.

👵 “I AIN’T GOSSIPIN’. I’M JUST TELLIN’ YOU WHAT HAPPENED.”

Mamaw… you have witnesses and a motive. This is a GRAND JURY. 😂

🌤️ TODAY’S WEATHER: Partly sunny, less humid and around 85°.

After the heat we’ve had, 85° is going to feel like somebody finally opened the oven door and let Shelby County out. 😂

Mamaw would simply call it:

👵 “Pretty weather. Now get outside and do something.”

Then Sunday morning:

👵 “GET UP! WE’RE GONNA BE LATE FOR CHURCH!”

It’s 7:14.

Church starts at 11.

Apparently we’re walking to Jerusalem. 😂

At church:

👵 “DON’T EMBARRASS ME.”

You haven’t done anything yet.

But apparently she reviewed your previous work.

Then from six pews away…

👀 THE LOOK.

Shelby County Alerts wishes it had that kind of coverage. 😂

Meanwhile Papaw wakes up:

👴 “I wasn’t asleep.”

Sir… the deacons almost got the AED.

😂😂😂

And remember, if Mamaw whispers:

👵 “DON’T LOOK NOW…”

Every Kentuckian knows that means:

🚨 LOOK IMMEDIATELY. WE HAVE A DEVELOPING SITUATION. 🚨

😂 Enjoy this beautiful Sunday, Shelby County!

👇 What’s the funniest thing your Mamaw or Papaw used to say?

09/06/2026