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San Juan emergency staff describe Skagit Valley flood response, call for stronger emergency funds and mutual aid planning
Summary
County emergency management staff who deployed to Skagit County in December summarized operational lessons, recommended a dedicated emergency fund with limited spending authority, and said mutual‑aid and flexible workspace arrangements improved response coordination. They also noted delays in FEMA public‑assistance decisions for that event.
Brendan Cowan, San Juan County emergency management director, and Aaron Andrews, the county’s communications coordinator, briefed the council Feb. 10 on the county’s mid‑December deployment to assist Skagit County’s flood response. Cowan described operational roles (planning, logistics, feeding hundreds of responders) and said the deployment produced “tremendous learning opportunities.”
Cowan said one near‑term administrative change he will pursue with staff is a dedicated emergency fund that would be available for immediate spending by the emergency management director and the sheriff on specified triggers (for example, a council declaration of emergency). "Disasters are very expensive, and they're very expensive very quickly," Cowan said, arguing that limited, pre‑authorized access to funds would reduce logistical delays in the first 48–72 hours of a response.
The pair also emphasized the value of regionally coordinated mutual aid. San Juan County personnel stepped into roles at Skagit’s emergency operation center and Skagit publicly acknowledged their contribution; Cowan said the county’s smaller, mobile resources (no rivers) were useful for a response focused on search, rescue and logistics. Andrews described PIO work, including coordinating press conferences with the governor and managing messaging to thousands of residents about safety, animal care and sandbag locations.
Cowan explained federal public‑assistance thresholds in plain terms and said jurisdictions are seeing uneven timelines for federal public assistance: "Traditionally, the feds pay 75 percent of those costs...the state pay 12 and a half, and the locals pay 12 and a half percent," he said, but for the Skagit event the expected federal public assistance had not fully arrived by the time of the briefing.
Council members praised the county personnel for their deployment and asked staff to return with options to create pre‑authorized emergency spending and better mutual‑aid documentation.
Next steps: emergency management will draft options for a limited emergency fund structure, develop short written guidance for staff who deploy to support other jurisdictions, and continue work on a regional mutual‑aid agreement.
