Nevada emergency management chief warns long-term outages could leave state without power for weeks

Brett Thompson, chief of the Division of Emergency Management, told the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs that Nevada could experience extended outages of power, fuel, communications and water lasting “somewhere between 6 weeks to multiple months” if regional lifelines were severed by a large earthquake or a nation-state cyber event.

Thompson said the division’s mission is “to help people prepare for emergencies and disasters, to help people respond to emergencies and disasters, and to help Nevada recover from emergencies and disasters.” He urged legislators to treat resilience-building as a state priority rather than relying solely on federal grant cycles.

Thompson opened his presentation by listing familiar hazards—floods, earthquakes and wildfire—and added newer and longer-duration threats such as prolonged infrastructure outages, cyberattacks tied to nation‑state conflict and catastrophic earthquakes in Southern California. “I think that this could happen to the state in 1 of 2 ways,” Thompson said, naming both kinetic and cyber scenarios. He told the committee a Southern California quake that severs the Cajon Pass lifeline could interrupt supplies to Nevada for weeks.

Why it matters: Nevada depends on fuel, food and many materials transported through California. Thompson said the state’s limited fuel storage, especially in Southern Nevada, means supply interruptions would quickly affect residents and emergency response.

Thompson described recent operational demands and workload: the division logged about 358 calls and 17 activations in 2023–24, manages 12 major grant programs totaling about $297,000,000 and handles roughly 796 open awards. He said about 96% of the division’s operating budget is federally funded, that the division relies on roughly $7.1 million in federal funds to run core operations and that the office passes about $22.7 million a year through to local agencies.

Thompson also described internal challenges. The division has experienced high turnover—he reported an 81% turnover rate since 2020 and said many employees are new or have been in their roles less than a year. “Culture is everything,” Thompson said in response to a question about retention, and reported the division had reduced vacancies from 12 to 1 since he arrived.

On preparedness and capability-building, Thompson said the division is re‑training emergency operations center staff through an eight‑month program and seeks to modernize disparate software systems that now manage grants, operations and fiscal functions separately. He said his biennial budget request includes an initial technology investment of about $120,000 per year and that fully integrating systems would likely span multiple biennia.

Thompson said the governor has proposed moving the division into an office within the governor’s office to improve operational coordination. “It allows me to coordinate with the entire cabinet…and to feed the governor directly,” he said, describing the change as intended to speed operational decision-making.

Committee members asked targeted questions. Assemblymember Jill Goulding asked how Thompson would improve retention; Thompson said he has focused on internal culture, training and delegating decision authority. Vice Chair Wynne asked about the share of federal funding and Thompson said roughly 96% of his budget is federally funded. Assemblymember Da Silva asked about cybersecurity and fuel dependence; Thompson said cyber‑specialist responsibilities sit with the Office of the Chief Information Officer but that the division would use its emergency authorities and funds to support large cyber incidents. On fuel, Thompson said most fuel comes via pipelines from California and that the state is starting a fuel‑disruption study pending a new BRIC grant round from FEMA.

The division provided risk and capability context to the committee but no bill or funding action was taken during the hearing. Thompson closed by reiterating that the division’s emphasis is shifting from a grants pass‑through role toward resilience building and operational coordination across state, local and private partners.