HISTORY

The Kentucky Heritage Emergency Response Network (KHERN) formed in fall 2022 in response to severe weather-related disasters in the state between 2021-2022. On December 10-11, 2021, a deadly and devastating tornado decimated the western Kentucky town of Mayfield and parts of Marshall, Lyon, and Caldwell Counties.  Then, between July 25-30, 2022, 14 to 16 inches of rain from multiple thunderstorms fell (sometimes as much as four to 10 inches an hour) in a narrow swath in eastern Kentucky and central Appalachia, causing catastrophic flash flooding.  Across seven counties (Clay, Owsley, Breathitt, Leslie, Perry, Knott, and Letcher) thirty-nine people died and entire homes, businesses, and parts of communities were destroyed.  People were without running water and electricity for days. 

Kentucky is home to important arts and cultural organizations that hold the history, traditions, and expressions of its residents. There were libraries, archives, museums, and arts organizations and their collections in the disaster-affected areas that were terribly damaged. During the Eastern Kentucky flooding, Ruth, who was then chair of the Kentucky Council on Archives, along with other arts and culture professionals and heads of organizations, began receiving emails and Facebook and text messages from friends of at least two of the affected organizations: Hindman Settlement School (Hindman, Knott County) and Appalshop (Whitesburg, Letcher County). Both organizations were looking for initial disaster response assistance.  In those first days and weeks, librarians and archivists from various Kentucky repositories donated supplies and traveled as individuals and groups to Hindman and Whitesburg to help.  

As the first couple of weeks of flood recovery drew to a close, it was increasingly clear that more formal coordination was needed between local and national cultural heritage responders and employees and friends of the affected organizations.  No one person had all the information about how to respond to disasters, and it was critical to understand what folks on the ground needed. Emily Moses, Executive Staff Advisory with the Kentucky Arts Council, started a weekly Eastern Kentucky Archives and Collections Recovery Meeting Zoom call.  In addition to Ruth as a representative of KCA, people and organizations who participated in those calls at various times included representatives from Hindman Settlement School,  Appalshop, the Kentucky Historical Society, University of Kentucky Libraries, University of Kentucky Arts Cooperative Extension, Transylvania University, Eastern Tennessee State University Libraries, West Virginia University Libraries, Kentucky Arts Council, National Heritage Responders, the Smithsonian, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Performing Arts Readiness,  National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Response, and the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation.  

Through those initial response meetings, Melissa Bond, Community Arts Extension Program Leader for Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service (University of Kentucky), asked Ruth if KCA would be interested in developing a state-wide cultural heritage disaster response training program for county extension agents.  Ruth coordinated brainstorming sessions on this question with Rusty Heckaman and Cathrine Giles (KCA officers and Cathrine as representative of the KY State Historical Records Advisory Board); Melissa (Arts Extension); Rebecca Halbmaier (Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives); Emily Moses (Kentucky Arts Council); Mandy Higgins (Lexington History Museum); and Deana Thomas (Kentucky Historical Society).  

Two active initiatives emerged from these group meetings:  1) developing a cooperative extension leaflet on cultural heritage preparedness and response, part of a set of Cooperative Extension Community Arts Disaster Recovery Series leaflets. (That leaflet, written by Ruth and Jessica Evans, Community Arts Extension Specialist, “Artifacts/Collections Response,” is now published online.)  2) the planting of a “kernel” to form the Kentucky Heritage Emergency Response Network (KHERN). “KHERN” is a play on the “Kentucky Colonel,” an honorific bestowed by the state’s governor. 

KHERN has joined a growing list of cultural response networks across the nation that have formalized to activate and provide assistance before, during, and after disaster events. The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation led the way for the growth of these networks in the cultural heritage sector with its 2003 launch of the Alliance for Response Initiative. Currently 32 networks are part of the Alliance’s initiative and they range in size—city, region, and state—as well as scope of activities. KHERN helps address a geographic gap in the Midwest region of these networks.