Emergency management is often considered the realm of cities and counties, with emergency management (EM) staff working to ensure continuity of government and community preparedness. Eastside Fire and Rescue (EF&R) is a nonprofit corporation that provides fire, EMS, rescue and other services to 212,000 people over 227 square miles, including seven cities and four fire districts. The EF&R’s EM team supports community preparedness, wildfire risk reduction, and agency preparedness.

Until this fall, EF&Rs EM team has not supported operations or response during severe weather events. Starting this year, EF&R’s EM team launched an initiative to support the agency during severe weather events while also supporting partner cities and agencies. Learn how EF&R’s EM team worked side by side with EF&R operations to help manage the response to the November 2024 “Bomb Cyclone” windstorm.

What Will the Audience Learn:

Participants will learn how the EF&R emergency management team became a critical part of the Agency’s response during the November 2024 Bomb Cyclone weather event by:- Supporting agency preparedness and continuity of operations- Creating tabletop training events bringing together operations and emergency management staff to rehearse managing severe weather events – Offering training to partner agencies to assist their preparedness for severe weather events- Monitoring evolving weather forecasts and communicating with operations staff on the confidence of those forecasts and likely impacts- Staffing an Agency Coordination Center during the storm, assisting with situational awareness and coordinating with partner agencies- Assisting in the days following the storm with logistics, situational awareness, and collaboration with cities and fire districts. These activities provided needed support to operations staff.

Course Level: Intermediate

About the Presenters

Greg Bawden and Cat Robinson work for Eastside Fire and Rescue (EF&R), which provides fire, rescue, EMS, and other services to seven cities and four fire districts in NE King County. Cat Robinson is the Emergency Management Coordinator for EF&R, where she heads up the wildfire risk reduction program and assists in all things emergency management related. She previously served as the emergency manager for one of the largest school districts in the state. She has worked as a science teacher and biologist. She really really likes animals. Greg Bawden is the Emergency Manager with EF&R. He spent 25 years as a firefighter and 14 years as environmental scientist/project manager responding to hazardous material incidents around the country. He has also served as the safety director for a national engineering firm. With this work background, he is really good at imaging how bad things can be.