With nearly every Kentucky school district canceling school on Wednesday, Gov. Matt Bevin was critical of the move despite dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills forecast for today.
Bevin said on a Louisville-based radio program, that the decision to cancel school is an example of Americans being “soft.”
“There’s no ice going with it or any snow,” Bevin said. “I mean, what happens to America? We’re getting soft. We’re getting soft.”
The National Weather Service says wind chill is anticipated to be 15 to 20 degrees below zero throughout much of Kentucky. Locally, the temperature is forecast to drop from the mid-20s to the single-digits into Wednesday morning, with temps rising to only the mid-teens by Wednesday afternoon.
Frostbite and hypothermia are possible for people spending as little as 20 to 30 minutes outside.
Bevin would later say he was being “slightly facetious” and said it is better to err on the side of caution, but he believes the cancellations could set a poor precedent for students.
“It does concern me a little bit that in America, on this and many other fronts, we’re sending messages to our young people that if life is hard you can curl up in the fetal position somewhere in a warm place and just wait until it stops being hard, and that just isn’t reality. It isn’t,” Bevin said.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com or 270-259-6000
