‘Moore Safe Nights’ program continues to give weather radios to the hard-of-hearing

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Kentuckians know all too well that extreme weather events can often strike fast, forcing people to act quickly.

For the over 48 million people in the U.S. who are deaf or hard of hearing, there is another challenge added to the process of receiving weather alerts.

Anita Dowd, the Director of the Kentucky Commission for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, says she knows firsthand the fear felt during a nighttime severe weather event as someone with a hearing loss.

“I couldn’t listen to the radio, so I didn’t know if I needed to evacuate or take cover. It’s a very scary place to be,” Dowd said.

“Emergency managers across the US have multiple ways to communicate information outwards to the population. But we also have to remain aware that some folks in our communities can’t receive those alerts and warnings the way the masses receive alerts and warnings,” said Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler.

The “Moore Safe Nights Program” is meant as a solution. Started in 2024 as a collaboration with the Commission for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing and Kentucky Emergency Management, the program is named after the ASL interpreter and hard-of-hearing advocate, Virginia Moore.

The program gives Kentuckians with hearing losses weather radios attached with pillowshakers and strobe lights to alert them.

“They are targeting a population that can’t receive these alerts and warnings the way the rest of the population does,” Chandler said.

The program has already distributed 600 radios, with 100 more ready to go and hundreds of applications waiting to be processed.

Dowd says that she has hopes that one day, all 700,000 individuals with hearing losses in the state will have one.

“For those of us who don’t have access to the auditory things, it’s especially dangerous. I don’t know if we will save hundreds of lives, but I do know we will make hundreds of people feel safer, they will be aware earlier, and have the information they need to make the decisions they need to make,” said Dowd.