911 Hero: Bath County Emergency Management Director Jason York

BATH COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ)– It’s not an easy job dealing with tragedy as your profession.

“Some of them are kind of hard,” said Jason York, who has been the Bath County Emergency Management director since 2015. His job is certainly anything but nine-to-five, and it’s a job that doesn’t typically have the happiest of endings.

This past April, an Amish family was swept away in high water; five children died. It was a moment York and all the people of Bath County never want to happen again.

“The Amish children drowning in our county was horrible, and it took a toll on a lot of folks who responded to it and it took a toll on the community,” said York, the emotion showing as if it had happened just days ago.

The WTVQ ABC 36 News 911 Hero of the Month for September, York was tasked with overseeing the more than 30-crew operation as they searched for the missing children, but he knows it took an entire community rallying in the devastating times.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of our community, everyone worked together and everyone helped, and everyone worked toward the common goal of finding them and save them. Unfortunately it didn’t have the outcome we wanted, which was find them alive, and return them to their family so they could live a long life,” lamented York.

In hopes of making sure a tragedy like that never happens again, York is working on a program to help the Amish community get the information they need in times of potential natural disaster.

“We’re going to put together a nationwide program, the Amish are on board, we’ve talked to their elders. They are open to us coming in to do these talks, if you will, because they need these warnings, too. We have to do something to keep something like this from happening again,” York concluded.