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Officials outline long-term recovery role for National Guard and volunteer groups; damage estimates pending
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Summary
State emergency management officials said recovery will move from life-safety response to multi-year long-term recovery involving insurance, federal/state programs and voluntary groups; damage totals were not yet available and will require assessments after waters recede.
State emergency management officials described recovery from the event as a multi-stage process that will shift from immediate life-safety operations to long-term recovery and rebuilding.
Robert Ezell, director of the Washington State Emergency Management Division, said the sequence typically includes damage assessments after floodwaters recede, reliance on insurance as the primary recovery tool, and federal and state programs to assist those uninsured or underinsured. He said local long-term recovery groups and voluntary organizations such as the Red Cross and Adventist partners would be central to multi-year rebuilding efforts.
When asked whether the National Guard would play a role in recovery, Ezell said Guard deployment decisions depend on the scale of damage and needs; he described Guard staging in Skagit County as about 100 currently staged with about 200 more on the way (about 300 total) and said more assets could be deployed elsewhere as required.
Officials cautioned that final damage estimates would take time. "It's going to take some time for the floodwaters to recede. Damage then has to be assessed...it's probably gonna take days to weeks before we really get a full, accounting of what the damages are," Ezell said.
What's next: Officials said recovery planning would begin as assessments proceed and that state and local partners would coordinate long-term recovery efforts over months or years where necessary.
