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Scott County officials report heavy shelter use, note language and power gaps after recent storms
Summary
After heavy rain and tornado watches, Scott County officials said three emergency shelters took more than 150 people, highlighted language-access gaps at a new shelter and described power and capacity limits; county plans targeted signage and a strobe light to alert residents.
Scott County officials said severe spring storms this week forced hundreds to use temporary shelters and exposed communication and power shortcomings at newly deployed shelter sites.
At an April work session, Judge Gevonton and emergency staff described three shelters activated for recent storms. "We had a hundred and 1 people take shelter on Lyle Road," a county official said, and 37 people used the shelter at Stamping Ground’s EMS station property. Scott County High School hosted about 21 people, officials said.
The county acknowledged problems reaching Spanish-speaking residents about when the Lyle Road shelter would be unlocked. "I'm gonna do a, like a handbill, a campaign to go and put something on everybody's door saying, here's when it will be open," Mike, a county staff member overseeing shelters, said. He told the court he will distribute the notices in English and Spanish and install a strobe light on a pole to signal when a shelter is open.
Officials said the Lyle Road shelter is solar powered, with two GFI plugs and two 12-volt batteries in series. That system lost capacity when multiple people plugged in devices, and staff plan to set rules about charging. "As the storm got close, the power shut off because people were plugging in cell phones and doing all kinds of stuff," Mike said.
Shelter capacity and logistics were also discussed. A sticker on the new shelter lists capacity as 92, but staff placed 101 people inside one shelter during the event. Mike said the site will be cleaned and inspected; he called the soiling and debris “the cost of doing business.” He also confirmed bottled water and a camper-style toilet were available.
County staff reported multiple road closures during the event and said they are building an interactive map of closures so residents can check conditions without calling emergency lines. Officials praised the siren system and response from emergency management, the road department, fire/EMS and law enforcement for rescuing and sheltering residents.
The court directed staff to proceed with multilingual door notices, a strobe-light alert for shelter openings and clearer public guidance about when and how doors will be unlocked during tornado watches and warnings. Officials said they will continue reviewing shelter power and charging rules and will pursue cleanup and logistics improvements for future activations.
