Mercer County Flood Response- Thank you to our Industries!
Article Written 4/8/2025
Economic Development isn’t always fun… Over the last few days in Harrodsburg, we learned just how important partnerships with local industry are not only for the growth of our economy, but for the protection of our citizenry. We can't predict when disaster will strike, but we can make sure that the appropriate relationships are in place to get key stakeholders to the table quickly- day or night.
Rapid and unprecedented flooding on the Kentucky River temporarily threatened our community's raw water pumps and triggered an emergency response from the community. Due to the rapidly rising water levels and submerged electrical infrastructure, telemetry, and more, it became very likely that our community’s ability to pump raw water to the City water plant would be cut off. With less than two hours notice on a Sunday night, we had 100% participation at an emergency meeting from our major water using industries (in addition to our hospital, schools, and others) - a testament to just how invested our major employers are in the wellbeing of our community!
At a moment's notice, Essity, Corning Incorporated, Astemo, Toyota Boshoku America, and others all came to the community's aid with offers of their own resources and hasty implementation of contingency plans. Highlights include that Essity immediately made the tough call to shut down their paper machine, Astemo went to a closed-loop system for cooling and humidification in their facilities and offered up a truckload of bottled water and other resources to the community, and Corning conserved water, prepared to truck water in from alternative sources, and had their own facilities teams directly involved in the hands-on efforts at Harrodsburg’s water plants as the operators fought to keep potable water online. Though it'll never be enough, we thank these industries, Mercer County Schools, Haggin Hospital, and all of the City and County team members involved in the coordinated response effort for their selflessness and their service to our community. Your sacrifice kept a tough situation from becoming worse!
On behalf of HMCIDA and Harrodsburg-Mercer County, our thoughts and prayers, and our offer to help, goes out to our friends and neighbors in Mercer and the surrounding counties who have suffered losses this past week- we will recover!