City emergency managers review storm response, community preparedness and World Cup planning

City emergency managers and utility emergency leads told the Seattle City Council Public Safety Committee on Feb. 5 that recent severe storms underscored cross‑agency coordination needs, highlighted gaps in outreach capacity and informed planning for large events such as the 2026 World Cup.

Director Curry Mayer of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) described the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as “a centrally located facility that allows for the expertise from different departments to come together and work on the impacts of anything that impacts the city.” Mayer said OEM focuses on preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery and supports field responders rather than serving as a primary field response unit.

Why it matters: The committee received a cross‑department briefing from OEM, Seattle City Light, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and SDOT that covered the city’s activation model, lessons learned from the November “bomb cyclone” windstorm and outages, community training programs and ongoing interagency planning for the World Cup.

OEM and partners walked the committee through the city’s November response to a prolonged coastal storm described in the briefing as “one of the strongest storms the region had seen in the past 70 years” and producing winds “equivalent to a category 1 hurricane.” Mayer said departments coordinated before the storm based on National Weather Service forecasts; City Light requested mutual aid through the Western Energy Institute and the city opened a shelter at Garfield Community Center as outages affected many residents.

Seattle City Light Emergency Manager Britney Barnwell summarized the utility’s incident priorities: life safety, emergency services (critical facilities including hospitals, police and fire) and restoring the largest number of customers. She described training and position‑specific exercises for the utility incident management team and urged residents to prepare for multi‑week outages by assembling supplies and signing up for Alert Seattle.

Seattle Public Utilities Emergency Manager Chad Beekler described SPU logistics and telecommunications preparations, including caches of emergency supplies, emergency water‑distribution manifolds, sandbag locations funded with the King County Flood Control District, and wireless priority services for critical staff. Beekler said SPU’s outreach includes demonstrations such as building emergency toilets and advising residents on realistic water storage options.

SDOT Emergency Manager Patty Quirk noted SDOT’s mission‑essential functions: maintain key arterials and waterway operations, mitigate hazards in the right of way (including snow and ash fall), issue right‑of‑way permits and disseminate transportation information. Quirk said SDOT has translated emergency messaging into 14 languages and is working to improve accessibility for visually and hearing‑impaired residents.

Mayer said OEM’s Community Safety Ambassador program has reached more than 27,000 residents, teaches preparedness in over 13 languages and is currently funded by a federal grant that ends in 2025. Mayer identified gaps in OEM capacity: only two community outreach coordinators remain on staff after recent budget changes and the program has limited funding for expanded language coverage and marketing.

On the World Cup, Mayer said OEM is facilitating an event action plan with city, regional, state and federal partners; a draft is expected in August–September with a final plan due later in the year. Mayer described the effort as multi‑agency and exercise‑driven and said the local organizing committee is coordinating with OEM.

Ending note: Committee members pressed for follow‑up on long‑term funding for outreach programs, translation and accessibility, and operational coordination with mutual‑aid partners for large events. No formal actions or votes were taken on the presentation.