City Council Committee of the Whole · Monday, September 11, 2023 · City Council Digest

2. AGENDA ITEMS

Public Comment Public comment on individual agenda items will also be accepted following Council Q&A. 5 - 32 ID 1511 - Emergency Management b) Program Updates

45 min · Jared Schneider, Emergency Manager Catherine (Cat) Robinson, Eastside Fire & Rescue Emergency Coordinator, Wildfire Mitigation

Topics: Public Safety

Good of the Order

1866 segments .txt ↗

0:01 ↗ foreign

0:04 ↗ welcome everyone I council president

0:06 ↗ Walsh called the September 11th

0:08 ↗ Committee of the whole meeting to order

0:10 ↗ at 6 32 p.m Deputy council president

0:13 ↗ Hall has an excused absence this evening

0:16 ↗ please note there will be a special city

0:18 ↗ council meeting at 7 15 PM or

0:21 ↗ immediately following the committee of

0:23 ↗ the whole meeting whichever is later the

0:25 ↗ purpose of that meeting is for the city

0:27 ↗ council to hold a closed session the

0:29 ↗ same virtual WebEx meeting will be used

0:30 ↗ for both meetings

0:32 ↗ there are multiple public comment

0:35 ↗ opportunities at tonight's meeting

0:37 ↗ there's a general public comment

0:39 ↗ opportunity at the beginning of the

0:41 ↗ meeting or you can make comments after

0:43 ↗ the presentation and Council question

0:45 ↗ and answer period on tonight's agenda

0:48 ↗ items

0:51 ↗ um

0:51 ↗ members the public May address council

0:53 ↗ at this time in person or virtually

0:54 ↗ those who signed up in advance will to

0:57 ↗ make comments will be called on first if

0:59 ↗ you're joining us virtually and would

1:01 ↗ like to make comments you can raise your

1:03 ↗ hand by on the phone pressing star three

1:06 ↗ on computer or smartphone look for the

1:08 ↗ hand icon or send the host a chat

1:11 ↗ message

1:13 ↗ and if you're in the room and did not

1:15 ↗ sign up I'll ask for other speakers

1:17 ↗ before closing this portion of the

1:19 ↗ meeting

1:19 ↗ I will wait a moment see if anybody

1:21 ↗ wishes to raise their hand do you have

1:24 ↗ anybody who signed up or is indicating

1:26 ↗ nobody has signed up in the room and we

1:28 ↗ actually don't have any members of the

1:29 ↗ public with us virtually tonight at this

1:31 ↗ time

1:32 ↗ fantastic

1:34 ↗ so

1:35 ↗ um at this point

1:37 ↗ reminder

1:38 ↗ we love it when you write to us we'll

1:40 ↗ take written comments any day

1:43 ↗ emails at city council

1:46 ↗ issaquah.gov but in the meantime I think

1:49 ↗ we will get on to our agenda

1:52 ↗ and so tonight's agenda

1:56 ↗ um we just did public comment we're

1:58 ↗ going to start with our one and only

2:00 ↗ item on the agenda id1511 Emergency

2:03 ↗ Management program updates presented by

2:06 ↗ Jared Snyder our emergency manager and

2:10 ↗ Catherine Robinson Eastside fire and

2:12 ↗ rescue emergency coordinator and

2:14 ↗ Wildfire mitigation

2:16 ↗ come on up thank you

2:23 ↗ and Jared if you would press the button

2:26 ↗ so that you light up there we go I can

2:28 ↗ hear you thanks okay everyone everyone

2:29 ↗ can hear me all right thank you okay

2:31 ↗ well hello everyone it's a pleasure

2:34 ↗ again to see you I was here about a

2:36 ↗ month and a half ago giving you a brief

2:37 ↗ update on just what we were planning for

2:40 ↗ emergency management but it's exciting

2:41 ↗ that I get to be here again and have the

2:43 ↗ opportunity to go a little bit more in

2:45 ↗ depth it's also a very fitting day uh

2:48 ↗ for this presentation as we look back 22

2:51 ↗ years ago onto the tragedy that was 9 11

2:53 ↗ and just remember

2:56 ↗ just uh the loss that we had as a

2:58 ↗ country so A fitting day but much has

3:02 ↗ already happened in this month and a

3:04 ↗ half since I've seen you we've had Smoky

3:06 ↗ days we've had some heat nationally

3:09 ↗ we've had some devastating wildfires and

3:12 ↗ as our own mares actually in Morocco

3:14 ↗ um you know and the sad earthquake

3:17 ↗ that's occurred there we're just

3:18 ↗ reminded it feels like constantly of

3:21 ↗ emergencies and disasters and the role

3:23 ↗ that they play uh just in our in our

3:26 ↗ modern world so with that I do

3:29 ↗ appreciate again this time to talk about

3:31 ↗ Emergency Management

3:33 ↗ so what I'm specifically asking from you

3:36 ↗ today is to provide some direction and

3:38 ↗ feedback on the Emergency Management

3:40 ↗ program

3:41 ↗ as you know it's been a little while

3:44 ↗ since we've had an emergency manager

3:46 ↗ back in this role there's been some

3:48 ↗ great work that was done in the interim

3:49 ↗ with Autumn and Gene and a few others

3:52 ↗ but it's an exciting time for the

3:54 ↗ program because we get to set a course

3:55 ↗ not only for the remainder this year but

3:57 ↗ the next year and then really looking

3:59 ↗ further ahead for multiple years for

4:02 ↗ what we can do with the Emergency

4:04 ↗ Management program so I just thank you

4:07 ↗ for your opportunity for your comments

4:09 ↗ and for really relaying any information

4:10 ↗ that you might have heard from the

4:12 ↗ public it's it's all very much

4:13 ↗ appreciated

4:15 ↗ so with that the first thing I want to

4:17 ↗ do is set the stage disasters in

4:20 ↗ Washington and nationally are on the

4:22 ↗ rise you can see this graph here the top

4:25 ↗ portion of it you can see an increase in

4:28 ↗ federally declared disasters what a

4:30 ↗ federally declared disaster is is

4:32 ↗ essentially a damage threshold that's

4:34 ↗ met to issue a presidential Declaration

4:38 ↗ of disaster and the top part of the

4:40 ↗ graph like I said you can see how

4:41 ↗ they're on the rise we've had a couple

4:43 ↗ years where you know there hasn't been

4:45 ↗ too many But ultimately disasters in

4:48 ↗ Washington are increasing are increasing

4:50 ↗ the bottom part of this graphic that you

4:53 ↗ see here you can see the type it has or

4:56 ↗ where these disasters are being declared

4:57 ↗ for and fire severe storm and flood are

5:01 ↗ all on the rise now that's important

5:04 ↗ because those hazards in particular are

5:07 ↗ climate driven hazards as we're all

5:09 ↗ aware climate change impacts the

5:12 ↗ severity and the frequency of these

5:15 ↗ types of natural disasters that we have

5:17 ↗ what you see in front of you are some

5:19 ↗ numbers given by a by King County and

5:22 ↗ the University of Washington under a low

5:24 ↗ greenhouse gas emission scenario which

5:27 ↗ is 4.5 it's the more conservative of the

5:30 ↗ two scenarios that are given and what

5:32 ↗ we're looking at specifically for

5:33 ↗ Issaquah these numbers are are for

5:35 ↗ Issaquah is summer temperatures with an

5:38 ↗ average increase of 5.5 degrees

5:41 ↗ 0.88 inches less of water in the summer

5:44 ↗ an increase of 9 totaling 20 extreme

5:47 ↗ fire danger days and then 14.6 heavier

5:51 ↗ rainfall events in Issaquah so all this

5:54 ↗ means is that yes disasters they are

5:57 ↗ here to stay they're here with us

5:59 ↗ they're going to increase in severity

6:00 ↗ it's a good time to be talking about it

6:03 ↗ it's always a good time to be talking

6:05 ↗ about disasters because they are here to

6:07 ↗ stay like I said

6:09 ↗ so with that let's take a look at is

6:11 ↗ squat's hazards we have two major

6:14 ↗ categories of Hazards natural hazards

6:16 ↗ and human cause hazards within natural

6:19 ↗ hazards we have earthquake volcano

6:22 ↗ Landslide Wildfire flood and severe

6:26 ↗ weather severe weather is just kind of a

6:28 ↗ catch-all for um you know things like

6:30 ↗ ice heat high wind storms things like

6:33 ↗ that

6:34 ↗ volcano we don't have any active

6:36 ↗ volcanoes that would you know impact

6:38 ↗ this squad in terms of you know lava

6:40 ↗ flow or anything like that that's more

6:41 ↗ like the tephra and the ash that we're

6:42 ↗ concerned about there right for human

6:45 ↗ caused hazards we're looking at

6:46 ↗ hazardous materials so whether it's a

6:48 ↗ release of some dangerous chemical that

6:51 ↗ creates a toxic plume a health incident

6:53 ↗ such as a kova 19 terrorism cyber

6:57 ↗ incident and Dam failure if you're

6:59 ↗ wondering where the dams are in Nisswa

7:01 ↗ stormwater ponds if they're a certain

7:03 ↗ size they're actually classified as a

7:05 ↗ dam and so we do have some of those

7:07 ↗ within the cities some of which we own

7:10 ↗ and maintain

7:13 ↗ one further distinction I want to make

7:16 ↗ on our hazards is just the types of

7:19 ↗ hazards that we have the scale of

7:20 ↗ hazards that we have on the left you see

7:22 ↗ the Cascadia subduction zone on the

7:25 ↗ right you see the bolt Creek Fire now

7:27 ↗ the reason I'm bringing up these two

7:29 ↗ different scenarios is because they look

7:31 ↗ quite different in terms of government

7:33 ↗ response and Community resilience and

7:35 ↗ what we need to do when it comes to

7:37 ↗ responding to them so diving in a little

7:40 ↗ bit deeper on the left for the Cascadia

7:41 ↗ subduction zone that earthquake we'll

7:44 ↗ talk a little bit more about it later

7:45 ↗ but it impacts Northern California

7:47 ↗ Oregon Washington and parts of BC

7:50 ↗ the Bull Creek Fire was an instant where

7:52 ↗ it just impacted one town so in the case

7:54 ↗ of a Cascadia earthquake there's going

7:57 ↗ to be a higher premium and much more

7:59 ↗ scarcity of resources and Regional

8:01 ↗ assets that we could take advantage of

8:03 ↗ there's going to be a lag time between

8:05 ↗ government response as you know many of

8:08 ↗ our responders our victims also within

8:11 ↗ an incident of that scale and two I just

8:13 ↗ want to really highlight that these are

8:15 ↗ the types of incidents that the

8:16 ↗ community needs to be prepared for and

8:18 ↗ resilient for as there is that lag and

8:21 ↗ Lurch in between when we can get running

8:23 ↗ fully operational to provide the level

8:25 ↗ of service that we hope to for the Bull

8:28 ↗ Creek Fire incidents like that there or

8:31 ↗ for that incident there was many

8:33 ↗ Regional assets available the county

8:35 ↗ Support was there State support was

8:36 ↗ there all for a relatively small town a

8:39 ↗ skycomish and that's a perfect example

8:41 ↗ of you know if we had a smaller Regional

8:43 ↗ type incident within Issaquah we kind of

8:45 ↗ expect a similar level of having those

8:47 ↗ Regional assets available so there's

8:49 ↗ that distinction is important and I want

8:51 ↗ you to just kind of keep it in your mind

8:53 ↗ as we talk about our hazards and about

8:55 ↗ the actions that we plan to take moving

8:58 ↗ forward in this presentation

9:01 ↗ so we're now moving into a point where I

9:03 ↗ want to talk about the four big hazards

9:05 ↗ that I'm really interested in and that

9:07 ↗ our program is going to be focused on

9:09 ↗ flooding comes as no surprise to the

9:12 ↗ city council everyone is well aware of

9:14 ↗ the Creek and its potential flood

9:16 ↗ and impact our residents the spring and

9:18 ↗ the fall are particularly times when

9:20 ↗ flooding is worse what you see in front

9:23 ↗ of you that the blue is what we call the

9:26 ↗ Hundred Year floodplain and the Orange

9:29 ↗ is what we call the 500 year floodplain

9:31 ↗ what that means essentially for the 100

9:32 ↗ Year floodplain is that there's a one

9:34 ↗ percent chance of that flood occurring

9:36 ↗ every year 500 is one of 500. now you

9:40 ↗ might be thinking those odds are kind of

9:41 ↗ low but that can be deceiving for

9:43 ↗ example one town in Mississippi had two

9:47 ↗ 100-year floods occur back to back and a

9:50 ↗ third one that almost met that threshold

9:53 ↗ in the span of four years so when it

9:55 ↗ comes to probability we know that you

9:57 ↗ know lightning can strike twice that you

10:00 ↗ know that one percent chance can happen

10:01 ↗ multiple times so that's just something

10:05 ↗ to be aware of that these Maps can be a

10:07 ↗ little misleading especially the name

10:09 ↗ when we communicate with uh with the

10:12 ↗ public in the community it's it's a

10:13 ↗ little bit misleading

10:16 ↗ all right

10:17 ↗ next up is landslides is seen some

10:21 ↗ landslides in the past fortunately

10:23 ↗ relatively small landslides we see in

10:25 ↗ front of you is a map of known Landslide

10:28 ↗ areas one small caveat to landslides

10:31 ↗ it's the data is sometimes a little

10:34 ↗ tricky

10:36 ↗ um better studies are always coming out

10:39 ↗ to help us better understand how much

10:41 ↗ confidence we have in these mapped

10:42 ↗ Landslide areas there's really three

10:45 ↗ types of landslides that we are aware of

10:48 ↗ one is a deep seated Landslide this

10:50 ↗ happens well below the root level of

10:52 ↗ trees and vegetation they can sometimes

10:55 ↗ remain in place for years decades even

10:58 ↗ centuries without movement they're kind

11:01 ↗ of the most mysterious if you will of

11:03 ↗ landslides it's hard to predict when

11:05 ↗ they will go or what causes them what we

11:07 ↗ do know is that they typically tend to

11:09 ↗ be secondary hazards things like heavy

11:11 ↗ precipitation events or large-scale

11:13 ↗ earthquakes

11:15 ↗ two other types of landslides that we

11:17 ↗ are thinking about is debris flows now

11:20 ↗ typically what this looks like is a mass

11:22 ↗ of vegetation and soil and other earthy

11:25 ↗ material moving down a ravine typically

11:28 ↗ where we're seeing these around the

11:30 ↗ country's post Wildfire for example that

11:33 ↗ bolt Creek fire image that I just showed

11:35 ↗ you before the weather service and that

11:37 ↗ Community up in skycomish are constantly

11:39 ↗ monitoring if there is a rain event that

11:43 ↗ meets that threshold because that would

11:45 ↗ mean that a lot of that Woody debris

11:47 ↗ would come actually down into the

11:49 ↗ community so another type of landslide

11:52 ↗ to be aware of the last one is a shallow

11:54 ↗ Landslide and this is really driven by

11:56 ↗ the removal of vegetation they only

11:58 ↗ happen really in the first few feet of

12:00 ↗ the ground and they tend to be a much

12:03 ↗ more minor in Impact

12:06 ↗ I should also say that a better

12:08 ↗ Landslide mapping is hopefully on the

12:10 ↗ way soon I think the last study that was

12:12 ↗ done was done in 2018 by the state so

12:16 ↗ we're looking for more information there

12:20 ↗ now this map this Council has seen a lot

12:22 ↗ and I want to recognize that so this is

12:26 ↗ the Wild and urban interface or the wui

12:28 ↗ as you all know it

12:30 ↗ um one misleading element of this map

12:32 ↗ that we'd like to point out is that the

12:33 ↗ red areas are actually not the highest

12:35 ↗ risk areas it's actually the orange

12:37 ↗ areas because those are the areas that

12:40 ↗ are developed but also but up to

12:42 ↗ undeveloped land and large swaths

12:45 ↗ forested area with that being said

12:47 ↗ Issaquah one of the wonderful things

12:49 ↗ about it is that it has these wonderful

12:51 ↗ hills and mountains and beautiful

12:53 ↗ landscapes Wildfire is certainly

12:56 ↗ something that we're thinking more about

12:57 ↗ in our program I'm going to be

12:59 ↗ addressing it all throughout this

13:01 ↗ presentation as well as cat a little bit

13:04 ↗ later she has some slides from Eastside

13:06 ↗ fire and rescue that will talk about

13:08 ↗ some Community protective actions but

13:10 ↗ one other thing I wanted to talk about

13:12 ↗ before we move on from this map is again

13:15 ↗ that this is not a true risk map we are

13:18 ↗ still trying to understand Western in

13:20 ↗ Washington's risk when it comes to

13:22 ↗ Wildfire one thing we do know is that

13:24 ↗ our risk does not remain to the same

13:26 ↗ height as other areas of the West like

13:28 ↗ California Nevada Utah you name it as

13:33 ↗ climate change intensifies and increases

13:34 ↗ you know our risk is increasing and it's

13:38 ↗ good that we are taking the actions that

13:40 ↗ we are taking now as we begin to really

13:43 ↗ delve into Wildfire planning and

13:44 ↗ Community resilience

13:48 ↗ all right the last one is earthquakes

13:50 ↗ and we talked a little bit about the

13:51 ↗ Cascadia subduction zone there's really

13:54 ↗ three flavors of earthquakes that we

13:56 ↗ have within our region the subduction

13:59 ↗ zone is where the one if you could play

14:01 ↗ it meets the Pacific Plate and you know

14:03 ↗ the plates will actually one will rise

14:06 ↗ over the other and create this

14:07 ↗ large-scale 9.0 magnitude earthquake for

14:10 ↗ that region I previously described the

14:12 ↗ good news is that our shaking velocity

14:15 ↗ will not be that of a 9.0 it'll be

14:18 ↗ somewhere closer I think around 7.5 but

14:21 ↗ the duration is also the tricky part of

14:24 ↗ the Cascadia subduction zone it'll be

14:26 ↗ it'll be minutes of shaking which is

14:28 ↗ something obviously that you know we as

14:30 ↗ a region are are very concerned about

14:32 ↗ again also too for the scarcity of those

14:34 ↗ resources and just the wide scale impact

14:37 ↗ of an event like this

14:39 ↗ the lines that you see on this map are

14:41 ↗ actually from the Seattle fault Zone the

14:44 ↗ Seattle fault is a shallow earthquake

14:47 ↗ that's actually coincidentally the same

14:49 ↗ type of earthquake that's just impacted

14:51 ↗ in Morocco it is around 7.0 type

14:55 ↗ earthquake fault FEMA estimates that

14:57 ↗ this will actually be our most impactful

14:59 ↗ earthquake as the Seattle fault Zone in

15:02 ↗ terms of property damage and loss of

15:04 ↗ life so it's one that we're certainly

15:07 ↗ interested in it's recurrence interval

15:09 ↗ is somewhere around every 1200 years but

15:12 ↗ again the geology on it is a little

15:14 ↗ uncertain we're still trying to

15:15 ↗ understand more about that fault but

15:17 ↗ those lines that you see in our map is

15:19 ↗ driven from that fault Zone

15:22 ↗ the last type of earthquake or steep

15:24 ↗ earthquakes and that is what the

15:26 ↗ initiality earthquake was

15:28 ↗ again our scenario looks actually around

15:30 ↗ somewhere around seven typically deep

15:33 ↗ earthquakes tend to be a little bit less

15:35 ↗ impactful than the other two types

15:38 ↗ one other element of the map that I want

15:39 ↗ to draw your attention to is the red

15:42 ↗ area which is the liquefaction the

15:46 ↗ liquefaction areas and essentially what

15:47 ↗ that is is a phenomena where kind of

15:51 ↗ certain types of soil kind of liquefy

15:54 ↗ during that extreme shaking they tend to

15:56 ↗ not be life-threatening it's not a

15:59 ↗ life-threatening ordeal but what it does

16:01 ↗ do is cause a lot of damage obviously

16:03 ↗ because foundations rely on the ground

16:06 ↗ being firm so as no surprise the river

16:10 ↗ valley the creek Valley is that area

16:12 ↗ where we have that type of material that

16:15 ↗ is more prone to liquefaction

16:19 ↗ all right

16:20 ↗ we're through the scary part of the

16:23 ↗ presentation now we get to talk about

16:26 ↗ what we're gonna do as a community so

16:28 ↗ thank you for uh thank you for bearing

16:31 ↗ with me through that my intention is not

16:35 ↗ to scare with this presentation it's to

16:37 ↗ inform and frankly

16:39 ↗ um it excites me because it shows that

16:41 ↗ we got a lot to do and we can do a lot

16:44 ↗ to lower our risk and so as a reminder

16:47 ↗ there's really three types of things

16:49 ↗ that we are focusing or three categories

16:51 ↗ that we're focusing our efforts here as

16:53 ↗ an emergency management program we are

16:55 ↗ focusing on operational Readiness risk

16:58 ↗ reduction and Community resilience so

17:00 ↗ I'll be spending a little bit of time

17:01 ↗ talking about each of those three major

17:02 ↗ categories talking about what we're

17:04 ↗ going to do as a city and who we're

17:07 ↗ really partnering with to accomplish

17:08 ↗ these goals

17:10 ↗ so operational Readiness so the

17:13 ↗ overarching statement for this is

17:14 ↗ ensuring that the city is ready to

17:15 ↗ respond to emergencies small and large

17:18 ↗ so talking about that scale right the

17:20 ↗ small scale we're ready for in the large

17:21 ↗ scale we're ready for

17:23 ↗ so first any response starts with plants

17:26 ↗ so the comprehensive emergency

17:28 ↗ management plan is the guidebook for how

17:31 ↗ and who does what in an in a disaster or

17:35 ↗ emergency so we first have to start

17:37 ↗ there and make some updates to the CMP

17:39 ↗ and make sure that it's up to par it has

17:42 ↗ all the necessary authorities ironed out

17:45 ↗ roles and responsibilities so that'll be

17:48 ↗ the first thing that this program will

17:50 ↗ be focusing on

17:51 ↗ after that plan has been finalized the

17:54 ↗ Emergency Operations Center guide is the

17:56 ↗ next big piece and the next big plan up

17:58 ↗ for review so historically Public Works

18:02 ↗ has mostly held Emergency Management and

18:05 ↗ the operation of the Emergency

18:06 ↗ Operations Center within that department

18:09 ↗ we are in the process of getting more

18:12 ↗ City departments involved more staff

18:13 ↗ involved I'll talk about that a little

18:15 ↗ bit more

18:16 ↗ but the emergency the Emergency

18:17 ↗ Operations Center guide is what is the

18:20 ↗ document that describes how we go about

18:23 ↗ actually running the EOC I should take

18:25 ↗ one step back the EOC is where we

18:28 ↗ coordinate any emergency and disaster so

18:30 ↗ we're going to go through we're going to

18:31 ↗ refresh that plan we're going to make

18:33 ↗ sure it meets the needs of our city that

18:35 ↗ is flexible and scalable for those small

18:37 ↗ scale and large-scale incidents

18:40 ↗ next comes the training and exercise

18:42 ↗ plan and it's just like it sounds that's

18:45 ↗ what we use to monitor how we are doing

18:48 ↗ as a city in our in our exercises in

18:51 ↗ response it identifies standardized

18:53 ↗ training that employees will need to

18:55 ↗ take to be operating within the

18:57 ↗ Emergency Operations Center it's a

18:59 ↗ crucial document to measure how we're

19:01 ↗ doing at any moment in time

19:03 ↗ so after the plans have been ironed out

19:05 ↗ we will train on those plans so our

19:09 ↗ first train our first training is

19:11 ↗ planned around Q2 of next year don't

19:14 ↗ tell the city staff but we're likely

19:16 ↗ going to train for a wildfire yeah it's

19:20 ↗ important they don't know but you know

19:22 ↗ as that is a emerging Hazard and

19:25 ↗ something that you know it's very

19:26 ↗ obvious that the community

19:28 ↗ cares about and that we care about as a

19:31 ↗ city it's essential that we have

19:32 ↗ exercises around that and that we

19:35 ↗ practice and that what we've planned

19:38 ↗ so that UFC training will involve as

19:42 ↗ many staff as we can get from tons of

19:44 ↗ from or from all the Departments that we

19:46 ↗ can because an incident like this that

19:48 ↗ will be in the scenario it will be

19:50 ↗ impactful for Issaquah and so

19:52 ↗ departments that have not typically

19:53 ↗ participated will hopefully be brought

19:56 ↗ in and we hope to make new Staff feel

19:59 ↗ comfortable working with an Emergency

20:01 ↗ Operations Center

20:03 ↗ so with that there's one more piece to

20:05 ↗ operational Readiness that I want to

20:07 ↗ talk about and that's uh kind of these

20:09 ↗ event specific or incident specific

20:11 ↗ plans so what you see in front of you is

20:14 ↗ our draft Wildfire evacuation routes now

20:17 ↗ you may be wondering why they're draft

20:19 ↗ well that's because any plan like this

20:22 ↗ if it's not exercised evaluated or

20:25 ↗ refined it's it's not done essentially

20:29 ↗ and so these plans have not been

20:31 ↗ exercised today so this will be

20:33 ↗ something that we get to exercise in

20:35 ↗ something like that training but these

20:37 ↗ plans are important to show that we are

20:40 ↗ thinking about not only Wildfire but all

20:42 ↗ of our hazards that could impact the

20:44 ↗ area and I've quickly learned already

20:47 ↗ the value of bringing these plans out I

20:50 ↗ had the pleasure of going to Providence

20:51 ↗ Point on Friday to give a presentation

20:54 ↗ with many of the same people in the room

20:56 ↗ it was a it was a great presentation

20:58 ↗ there was probably about 80 people

20:59 ↗ standing room only and back into the

21:02 ↗ kitchen it was really well received and

21:04 ↗ and it was a great talk but something

21:06 ↗ that came up was they took a look at

21:08 ↗ these draft Wildfire evacuation routes

21:10 ↗ in that community and they said you know

21:13 ↗ us people in the Forest Village which is

21:15 ↗ part of Providence point across Jacobs

21:17 ↗ Creek they have their own evacuation

21:19 ↗ route identified that actually cuts

21:22 ↗ through some forced area that wasn't

21:24 ↗ identified on this plan so the reason I

21:27 ↗ bring that up is just to show the

21:29 ↗ importance of bringing these types of

21:31 ↗ plans out to the community to train on

21:33 ↗ them to vet them and to refine them

21:36 ↗ ultimately so more on this to come

21:39 ↗ you'll hopefully see yeah much more

21:42 ↗ around the specific topic of evacuation

21:50 ↗ yeah I had had a question a couple

21:52 ↗ months ago about you have a number of

21:55 ↗ places where you have these emergency

21:56 ↗ secondary routes out like Talus I'd

21:59 ↗ asked about Forest rim and about the

22:02 ↗ possibility there's an Old Forest Road

22:04 ↗ and whether we would consider looking at

22:07 ↗ developing a secondary route off of the

22:10 ↗ mountain or off of forest Rim such that

22:13 ↗ if uh Mountainside or Mountain Park

22:17 ↗ if that you know that's had erosion

22:20 ↗ issues in the past where it's been close

22:22 ↗ to being closed okay and uh I was

22:25 ↗ wondering what if anything was done with

22:27 ↗ my uh quest to take a look at that that

22:30 ↗ Old Forest Road that actually it's a

22:31 ↗ it's an air it's an interest of mine

22:33 ↗ because it runs adjacent to the edge of

22:34 ↗ my property yeah absolutely no and I

22:37 ↗ think that's a that's another great

22:38 ↗ example of something you know that we

22:40 ↗ can certainly incorporate into future

22:42 ↗ versions of this uh draft Wildfire

22:44 ↗ evacuation route we have uh this is

22:47 ↗ jumping ahead a little bit but we have

22:49 ↗ the community Wildfire protection plan

22:51 ↗ uh planning effort underway that's led

22:53 ↗ by Eastside fire and rescue and that is

22:55 ↗ a perfect type of action that is

22:57 ↗ identified that you are identifying that

22:59 ↗ we can do as a result of that planning

23:01 ↗ is to actually take a look at that road

23:03 ↗ to understand its viability understand

23:05 ↗ you know the is there anything impeding

23:07 ↗ potential egress out of there already

23:10 ↗ and ultimately if it uh if it is viable

23:14 ↗ we should certainly identify it on the

23:16 ↗ map so well I I did ask from the Deus a

23:19 ↗ few months ago okay okay

23:22 ↗ yes so currently nothing has happened

23:24 ↗ with that yet but I'll be sure to make

23:26 ↗ sure that something does in future

23:28 ↗ versions I think it's important there's

23:29 ↗ there's enough folks up there and

23:31 ↗ because there's only one way currently

23:33 ↗ one way down off the mountain and

23:34 ↗ because it's already

23:36 ↗ prone to risks you know if like I said

23:38 ↗ it had erosion issue a few years ago

23:40 ↗ that was almost closed and they had sort

23:42 ↗ of emergency uh work to keep the road

23:44 ↗ open so it's it's not beyond the realm

23:47 ↗ of possibility that it wouldn't take

23:48 ↗ even a particularly bad disaster just a

23:51 ↗ bad

23:52 ↗ um winter you know and then having

23:55 ↗ another way out of forest Rim would be

23:57 ↗ really important to the residents yeah

23:59 ↗ thank you for making me aware of that

24:00 ↗ again and we're bringing that up I

24:02 ↗ appreciate that

24:03 ↗ another question councilman Bernie

24:05 ↗ Michelle

24:06 ↗ okay I hope I'm not repeating council

24:09 ↗ member Mart's a question but you know we

24:11 ↗ hear from the people in the highlands

24:13 ↗ and we and and also in tell us that well

24:15 ↗ there's only one way out of the

24:17 ↗ Highlands and it's a dangerous situation

24:20 ↗ we hear that from Telus too and I notice

24:22 ↗ on the map that you've got some

24:24 ↗ alternates uh routes marked in red

24:28 ↗ emergency

24:30 ↗ um do we know how those would get open

24:31 ↗ if it was a sudden emergency and are the

24:36 ↗ people in the highlands and also in Taos

24:37 ↗ aware of these alternate routes and and

24:40 ↗ how to get out if they had to get out

24:43 ↗ yes so it's my understanding that you

24:45 ↗ sci-fi and rescue has keys to these

24:48 ↗ Bowlers into these areas that can open

24:49 ↗ up those Gates as well as some select

24:51 ↗ community members within each of those

24:53 ↗ neighborhoods now that that's a perfect

24:55 ↗ example though of a capability that

24:57 ↗ hasn't been tested yet

25:00 ↗ um and that's why I'm personally excited

25:01 ↗ to test something like this to ensure

25:03 ↗ that that does happen and that does

25:05 ↗ occur it's a great question and it's not

25:08 ↗ one yet that I'm I'm comfortable with So

25:12 ↗ yeah thank you for re-identifying that

25:19 ↗ thank you

25:21 ↗ all right moving on to the second major

25:23 ↗ category risk reduction and this is

25:25 ↗ essentially working to prove the ways

25:27 ↗ that we lessen the risk of Any Given

25:30 ↗ Hazard within Issaquah

25:33 ↗ so

25:34 ↗ um this plan that you see in front of

25:35 ↗ you the King County Hazard mitigation

25:37 ↗ plan is truly The Guiding document for

25:40 ↗ long-term projects that we take within

25:43 ↗ not only the county but the city we have

25:45 ↗ a specific Annex to this plan that we

25:48 ↗ can identify the actions that we want to

25:50 ↗ take and invest into to lower our risk

25:54 ↗ so the update for this plan starts later

25:56 ↗ this year we will certainly be taking

25:59 ↗ part of it I'll be coming back to you

26:01 ↗ all

26:02 ↗ um for approval on it and for your

26:04 ↗ review and as I said this is our chance

26:07 ↗ though within this document to identify

26:09 ↗ those things that we can do for our

26:12 ↗ community that will truly reduce the the

26:14 ↗ loss of life and property so I think

26:17 ↗ it's a great opportunity for us all to

26:19 ↗ already be thinking about these things

26:20 ↗ that we know from our community

26:23 ↗ um that you know they would like to see

26:25 ↗ these areas that are reoccurring problem

26:27 ↗ areas if we can do something to reduce

26:29 ↗ our risk in the long term that is value

26:31 ↗ added to our community and that's a

26:34 ↗ opportunity where we can identify those

26:36 ↗ within that plan

26:40 ↗ um we're not waiting for that plan we

26:42 ↗ already got

26:43 ↗ um efforts underway I've referenced one

26:45 ↗ of them the community Wildfire

26:47 ↗ protection plan uh that cat Robinson

26:50 ↗ here that's joining us today is leading

26:52 ↗ up is squash partaking in it and this

26:55 ↗ community Wildfire protection plan is

26:57 ↗ again this was opportunity to talk about

27:00 ↗ some of these hard questions about

27:02 ↗ evacuation you know about like the

27:04 ↗ identification of secondary routes about

27:07 ↗ the status and the um and the quality of

27:11 ↗ those roads about our plans to talk

27:13 ↗ about home resilience right so what are

27:16 ↗ the actions that you can take on your

27:18 ↗ property or that your neighborhood or

27:20 ↗ Community can take to lower the risk of

27:22 ↗ wildfire I know that there's been some

27:24 ↗ conversation too just about things like

27:27 ↗ metal roofs and HOAs and the guidance

27:30 ↗ around those and this is really a

27:32 ↗ perfect opportunity for those

27:33 ↗ neighborhoods to have those

27:34 ↗ conversations to determine if they feel

27:37 ↗ as if their risk reaches a level that

27:39 ↗ they want to consider taught taking some

27:42 ↗ of these actions so the cwpp the

27:45 ↗ community Wildfire protection plan is

27:46 ↗ truly again an opportunity to have some

27:48 ↗ of these conversations with the

27:50 ↗ community with the city and you know

27:52 ↗ with our partners

27:54 ↗ one other element is a critical

27:56 ↗ infrastructure that we get to identify

27:58 ↗ so um Wally actually sent an article

28:01 ↗ this morning to automate myself about an

28:04 ↗ individual in the grade fire over in

28:06 ↗ Spokane who drove into the fire to turn

28:09 ↗ on the community well so that they could

28:11 ↗ pump water into fire tankers to fight

28:14 ↗ the Wildfire there and fire flow and the

28:18 ↗ access to water comes as no surprise is

28:20 ↗ essential to fighting Wildfire but

28:23 ↗ having that but it got me thinking about

28:25 ↗ in Nisswa you know what is our fire flow

28:28 ↗ situation look like right do we need a

28:30 ↗ harrowing act you know from an

28:32 ↗ individual to go turn on something like

28:33 ↗ a pump station and you know again this

28:36 ↗ plan is the perfect time to talk about

28:38 ↗ these things and to fully understand our

28:40 ↗ risk and what we need to do as a city to

28:44 ↗ better protect ourselves from Wildfire

28:46 ↗ one other major area that we're already

28:49 ↗ working on is energy resilience power

28:51 ↗ outages are common within Nisswa and

28:54 ↗ they are impactful we have applied for

28:57 ↗ grant funding to upgrade the generator

28:59 ↗ at City Hall from a 300 kilowatt to a

29:02 ↗ 500 kilowatt generator to fully service

29:04 ↗ that building in the case of a power

29:06 ↗ outage we are trying to take advantage

29:08 ↗ of a Federal grant that is a 75 percent

29:11 ↗ Federal share 25 local so more to come

29:14 ↗ on that soon and then two resilience

29:17 ↗ hubs are currently are underway is quad

29:20 ↗ got a grant to look at identifying an

29:23 ↗ area that can be used as a resilience

29:25 ↗ Hub if you're unaware of what a

29:27 ↗ resilience Hub is that's a localized

29:29 ↗ area typically powered by Green energy

29:31 ↗ that can serve as a community meeting

29:33 ↗ place resource center and information

29:36 ↗ consolidation

29:39 ↗ location for communities and in our

29:42 ↗ residents to go to in the case of

29:44 ↗ emergency to receive information and and

29:46 ↗ how so more to come on that that's as a

29:49 ↗ result of Stacy and her team's good work

29:51 ↗ Stacey MC industry

29:54 ↗ so

29:55 ↗ if you can't tell I'm a little excited

29:57 ↗ about grant opportunities and about

29:59 ↗ these risk reduction efforts I I truly

30:02 ↗ see the potential for Issaquah to have

30:05 ↗ some large projects the reason why I

30:08 ↗ don't feel like that is overly

30:09 ↗ optimistic is because we are seeing

30:11 ↗ other communities around the United

30:14 ↗ States have large projects funded

30:17 ↗ whether it be vertical evacuation

30:19 ↗ shelters on in Washington or microgrids

30:23 ↗ in Chicago

30:24 ↗ 42 million dollars for Wildfire risk

30:27 ↗ reduction work in Sonoma there are big

30:31 ↗ projects that are getting funded at a

30:32 ↗ federal level and there has never been

30:35 ↗ this much Federal grant money so I do

30:38 ↗ want to take seriously the opportunities

30:40 ↗ that we have to dream to think about

30:43 ↗ these big projects and hopefully take

30:45 ↗ advantage of them and compete in some of

30:47 ↗ these Federal grant rounds to to make a

30:49 ↗ meaningful impact for our residents

30:53 ↗ with that being said there's a few of

30:55 ↗ the few of the major grants listed here

30:57 ↗ on the slide but really there's so many

30:59 ↗ more available too

31:03 ↗ all right now on to the final and third

31:06 ↗ element of the Emergency Management

31:08 ↗ program and that's a community

31:09 ↗ resilience and where we're going to

31:11 ↗ prove the ways that we inform and

31:13 ↗ prepare the community for disasters

31:15 ↗ so there's really three major takeaways

31:18 ↗ that we would like the community to have

31:20 ↗ that's one sign up for emergency alerts

31:23 ↗ two build an emergency kit and then

31:26 ↗ three have a plan for you and your

31:28 ↗ family

31:29 ↗ so we've already had some public

31:32 ↗ education and communication already

31:34 ↗ underway about Wildfire you may have

31:37 ↗ seen from the city Twitter account that

31:39 ↗ we've made some tweets trying to raise

31:41 ↗ the awareness around wildfire and about

31:43 ↗ the potential risk in Issaquah more is

31:47 ↗ planned for September as it is National

31:49 ↗ preparedness month we are doing a few a

31:53 ↗ few special things one of which is we're

31:55 ↗ going to create a new video highlighting

31:58 ↗ actually myself kind of introducing

31:59 ↗ myself to the community as the emergency

32:01 ↗ manager talking about those three

32:03 ↗ priorities we're going to do an ad buy

32:06 ↗ for alert King County I'll talk a little

32:08 ↗ bit more about that and then three we're

32:10 ↗ actually going to hang this Banner that

32:11 ↗ you see at the bottom of the slide

32:13 ↗ disasters don't wait make your plan

32:15 ↗ today over Front Street so it's already

32:17 ↗ completed and we're going to get that

32:19 ↗ hung

32:20 ↗ so we are excited about those current

32:24 ↗ um about those current efforts underway

32:26 ↗ one other thing I did want to mention

32:28 ↗ before I move on from this slide is that

32:30 ↗ you know we know that disasters don't

32:33 ↗ impact our community equitably we know

32:35 ↗ that disasters do hit certain

32:37 ↗ populations harder than others and so as

32:41 ↗ a rule of thumb we want to spend about

32:42 ↗ 80 percent of our time trying to reach

32:45 ↗ the most 20 vulnerable of our population

32:47 ↗ so that means you know that we're going

32:50 ↗ to try to have more intentional inroads

32:52 ↗ and get more services to you know

32:54 ↗ communities that we haven't typically

32:55 ↗ done so in the past so that will be an

32:58 ↗ overarching theme that you'll see not

33:00 ↗ only in community resilience but also

33:01 ↗ for our risk reduction work it's it's

33:03 ↗ important to note that yes that disaster

33:05 ↗ is due indeed you know have uneven

33:08 ↗ impacts on on our communities and that

33:10 ↗ we are privy to that

33:13 ↗ all right alert King County so last time

33:17 ↗ I was here I talked a little bit about

33:19 ↗ alert King County

33:21 ↗ um what you see on your screen too here

33:24 ↗ is a two A-frames that we've actually

33:25 ↗ developed these are actually uh posters

33:27 ↗ that will go into those A-frames that

33:29 ↗ are at community events as well one of

33:31 ↗ them has a issaquah's wildfire country

33:33 ↗ and as disasters don't wait but those

33:35 ↗ hyperlinks take you to sign up for alert

33:37 ↗ King County and you know while we're

33:39 ↗ here I just want to remind everyone that

33:41 ↗ lurking county is our local emergency

33:44 ↗ alert system that is the best way that

33:46 ↗ people can receive notification about

33:48 ↗ anything happening within the town of

33:51 ↗ Issaquah you can get it via email text

33:54 ↗ tdd and Voice or phone call the eight

33:59 ↗ languages that we can communicate in is

34:01 ↗ English Arabic French Spanish Portuguese

34:04 ↗ Mandarin Japanese Korean and Russian

34:06 ↗ last time was here too also it was

34:08 ↗ brought up about Wildfire evacuation

34:11 ↗ notices and about you know the ability

34:13 ↗ to communicate those we've since

34:15 ↗ actually already pre-translated a

34:17 ↗ message about Wildfire evacuation into

34:20 ↗ the those languages the message reads uh

34:23 ↗ there is a wildfire in your neighborhood

34:25 ↗ evacuate immediately go to squaw.gov for

34:28 ↗ more information so that's already been

34:30 ↗ translated that's pre-loaded into code

34:32 ↗ red which is which is great news and I

34:35 ↗ thank you for that suggestion the last

34:36 ↗ time I was here

34:38 ↗ um one thing I do want to highlight is

34:40 ↗ the sign ups for alert King County so

34:42 ↗ again when I was here I said we had

34:44 ↗ about a thousand residents signed up I'm

34:46 ↗ happy to report that we have about a

34:48 ↗ thousand two hundred now signed up over

34:50 ↗ the course of uh the efforts of our

34:52 ↗ Communications team we've seen a pretty

34:54 ↗ sizable increase given that the system

34:55 ↗ has been around for 10 years you know uh

34:58 ↗ 200 more people signing up in that time

35:01 ↗ span is good that's a good thing I think

35:03 ↗ that's a sizable increase we'd obviously

35:06 ↗ like to see many more

35:07 ↗ one other thing is that I would like to

35:10 ↗ say that we have the ability to reach so

35:12 ↗ many more residents within isqua code

35:14 ↗ red while we have 1200 signups it has 16

35:19 ↗ 000 other contacts already within the

35:21 ↗ system those 16 000 contacts come from

35:23 ↗ publicly available resources such as the

35:26 ↗ phone book so totaling that we have

35:29 ↗ about 17 000 people within that system

35:32 ↗ but code but alert King County isn't the

35:35 ↗ only emergency alert tool that we have

35:36 ↗ there's two other systems wireless

35:39 ↗ emergency alerts you're probably

35:41 ↗ familiar with that system via Amber

35:44 ↗ Alerts if you receive Amber Alert

35:46 ↗ notices on your phone that is the

35:49 ↗ wireless emergency alert system so King

35:51 ↗ County manages that system for us if we

35:54 ↗ want to send a message through we we go

35:57 ↗ through them but Issaquah has the

35:59 ↗ ability to send those notices as well

36:02 ↗ community members need to have those

36:05 ↗ alerts enabled on their phone one of the

36:07 ↗ benefits of that technology resource or

36:10 ↗ that solution as well too is that we can

36:12 ↗ actually have Travelers or non-residents

36:16 ↗ receive those notifications to it works

36:18 ↗ as a geofence around an area so anyone

36:21 ↗ within that geofence we're traveling

36:23 ↗ through that geofence we'll get that

36:25 ↗ alert

36:26 ↗ those messages can also be spent be

36:29 ↗ spent in be sent in English and Spanish

36:31 ↗ excuse me

36:33 ↗ one other tool that we have available is

36:35 ↗ the emergency alert system and that is

36:37 ↗ commonly known as like the three-tone

36:39 ↗ radio message that you've also probably

36:41 ↗ heard now that system is also managed by

36:44 ↗ King County it's used sparingly because

36:47 ↗ whenever an alert is sent over that

36:50 ↗ technology solution it hits Seven

36:52 ↗ Counties that message plays in a very

36:54 ↗ wide radius and so it can create some

36:57 ↗ confusion you know for the other

36:59 ↗ impacted areas but in a life safety

37:01 ↗ event you know it's something that could

37:03 ↗ be sent

37:04 ↗ so I wanted to take a moment and just

37:06 ↗ kind of talk about more of our tools

37:07 ↗ because it's not just alert King County

37:10 ↗ right we have much more at our disposal

37:12 ↗ and much more ways among other

37:14 ↗ traditional methods like Twitter or you

37:18 ↗ know even door-to-door notification that

37:20 ↗ an event is happening so it's not just

37:23 ↗ those 1200 residents I've opted in that

37:25 ↗ would receive notification we we can

37:27 ↗ reach more than that

37:31 ↗ all right preparedness kits oh was there

37:34 ↗ a question oh sorry no okay

37:35 ↗ uh preparedness kits so here's another

37:38 ↗ one of our priority areas

37:40 ↗ um not this September but next September

37:42 ↗ we're hoping to partner uh to bring

37:44 ↗ preparedness kits to some of those most

37:46 ↗ vulnerable in our community if we have

37:48 ↗ charge one thing that we've heard before

37:49 ↗ from folks when we're trying to bring

37:52 ↗ these preparedness kits is you know

37:53 ↗ every day is an emergency for some

37:56 ↗ individuals right they're living you

37:58 ↗ know paycheck to paycheck you know they

38:00 ↗ can't set aside the funds to build their

38:02 ↗ own preparedness kit so there is grant

38:05 ↗ funding and resources available and even

38:07 ↗ Partnerships that we could try to get or

38:09 ↗ try to take advantage of to get these

38:11 ↗ preparedness kits into the hands of

38:13 ↗ those most vulnerable 20 of our

38:15 ↗ population more to come on that next

38:17 ↗ September

38:18 ↗ for all residents though we're also

38:20 ↗ pursuing uh to get discounted rates and

38:23 ↗ prices for ready-made disaster kits next

38:26 ↗ September working with some of the more

38:28 ↗ major and established preparedness kit

38:30 ↗ vendors there's there's quite a few of

38:32 ↗ them so we'll try to explore those

38:33 ↗ Partnerships too to ensure that yes all

38:36 ↗ city of issquare residents have the

38:38 ↗ opportunity to take advantage and I get

38:40 ↗ it prepared in this kit

38:44 ↗ all right uh volunteer support groups so

38:47 ↗ I'm joined today uh by Bob Otis and

38:50 ↗ Bruce Wendt from Issaquah cert who some

38:53 ↗ of you may know as two of our

38:55 ↗ instructors but also as our cert council

38:58 ↗ president and long-standing uh cert

39:00 ↗ members and and board members I'm very

39:04 ↗ happy to have them in Issaquah it was

39:07 ↗ actually one of the main reasons why I

39:08 ↗ wanted to come here as an emergency

39:09 ↗ manager it really showed me that the

39:12 ↗ community took emergencies and disaster

39:14 ↗ series and I'm happy to say that escort

39:16 ↗ has the most robust cert that I've I've

39:20 ↗ seen personally so it's a great program

39:23 ↗ here it's great to have their

39:25 ↗ partnership

39:26 ↗ we want to continue to promote and

39:29 ↗ support that program because truly in

39:31 ↗ those large-scale incidents your

39:33 ↗ neighbor might be the one who saves you

39:35 ↗ and there's no better way to have that

39:38 ↗ to have them be able to do that to go

39:40 ↗ through a cert class and so I'm very

39:42 ↗ happy to have them here very happy to

39:44 ↗ have their partnership to that effect we

39:46 ↗ want to find new ways to involve them to

39:48 ↗ ensure that our certs stay engaged with

39:51 ↗ a program that they feel valued and

39:53 ↗ utilized so one such way is I know this

39:56 ↗ has happened in the past but the rapid

39:58 ↗ impact survey is an exercise that is

40:01 ↗ coming up in a couple weeks I believe

40:02 ↗ they just had their training this last

40:05 ↗ weekend for it but really what this is

40:07 ↗ is volunteers assessing damage to key

40:10 ↗ pieces of Issaquah infrastructure post

40:13 ↗ earthquake or another impactful disaster

40:16 ↗ and so that's a great way to just show

40:18 ↗ how our volunteer groups our Force

40:19 ↗ multiplier how we partner with them and

40:22 ↗ that you know we're looking for similar

40:24 ↗ opportunities like that to use them and

40:26 ↗ I know they've also done sandbagging and

40:28 ↗ flood events and we're going to continue

40:30 ↗ to utilize them for events but I would

40:33 ↗ also be remiss to mention that you know

40:35 ↗ sir isn't the only volunteer agency that

40:38 ↗ we have or support group that we have we

40:40 ↗ also have icast which helps us with

40:42 ↗ emergency communication during an event

40:45 ↗ when all other lines of communication

40:46 ↗ are down so we have a great volunteer

40:49 ↗ group support here in Issaquah and we

40:51 ↗ continue to support them as they support

40:54 ↗ us

40:56 ↗ and so lastly Outreach events and you

40:59 ↗ know some of you may have seen me at

41:00 ↗ National Night Out I know I saw some of

41:02 ↗ you uh those events are great ways to

41:04 ↗ just hear from the community to give

41:07 ↗ them an opportunity to talk to me about

41:09 ↗ what they're seeing and vice versa

41:11 ↗ better ways to prepare and so among

41:14 ↗ National Night Out like I said I was at

41:16 ↗ Providence Point last Friday and then

41:18 ↗ we're at Talus tomorrow for that annual

41:21 ↗ HOA meeting salmon days and then we have

41:23 ↗ another one at Timber Ridge coming up in

41:25 ↗ October so all those touch points with

41:27 ↗ the community are great and we continue

41:29 ↗ or we plan to continue to have those out

41:32 ↗ in the community and are currently

41:33 ↗ looking for more ways you know to get to

41:35 ↗ some areas or to some folks that we've

41:37 ↗ never talked to before so that'll

41:39 ↗ continue to be part of our program

41:41 ↗ with that Emergency Management is a team

41:45 ↗ sport there's one emergency manager in

41:48 ↗ our city but everyone plays a role in

41:51 ↗ emergency management and as I've said

41:53 ↗ before with sir we have great

41:54 ↗ Partnerships and we are also fortunate

41:57 ↗ to have someone like Kat Robinson from

42:00 ↗ Eastside fire and rescue who is already

42:03 ↗ working within our community doing

42:04 ↗ Wildfire risk reduction work so I'm

42:07 ↗ gonna invite Kat up now to take the

42:09 ↗ podium

42:10 ↗ uh to talk a little bit about that

42:12 ↗ program

42:17 ↗ hi everyone thanks Jared

42:20 ↗ um that's so

42:22 ↗ Jared's been saying a lot of great stuff

42:25 ↗ and I'm so excited that he's here and he

42:28 ↗ is the emergency manager for the City of

42:30 ↗ Issaquah because he really brings a lot

42:32 ↗ of enthusiasm to the position and so

42:34 ↗ much great experience and so we're very

42:37 ↗ excited to partner with the City of

42:39 ↗ Issaquah as we do with all of our

42:41 ↗ partner all of our partners in our

42:43 ↗ service area

42:45 ↗ so to speak a little bit I love what you

42:48 ↗ just said about Partnerships and

42:49 ↗ everyone plays a role because that's

42:51 ↗ really true

42:53 ↗ often those of us in Emergency

42:55 ↗ Management get you know kind of like

42:58 ↗ well you're kind of the Doom and Gloom

42:59 ↗ you're sort of Bringing Down the room

43:02 ↗ um you're a bit of the sky is falling

43:04 ↗ Chicken Little type you know we're just

43:06 ↗ sort of that Grim person at the table

43:08 ↗ that says well you know how that could

43:10 ↗ go wrong

43:11 ↗ XYZ you know here's here's all the ways

43:13 ↗ that I could go wrong but there's a

43:16 ↗ bright side to that and the way I always

43:19 ↗ like to put it and some people have

43:20 ↗ heard this a dozen times so apologies if

43:22 ↗ you have but what I find makes Emergency

43:25 ↗ Management very accessible to people is

43:27 ↗ to describe us like event planners

43:30 ↗ um only we don't plan for weddings and

43:32 ↗ parties we plan for bad days and our job

43:35 ↗ is to think about all those great things

43:37 ↗ that the city is doing or our region is

43:40 ↗ doing and think that's great but also

43:43 ↗ how could it go wrong and if it does

43:45 ↗ what do we need to have in place to make

43:47 ↗ it better to be stronger resilient

43:50 ↗ communities and so that's that's our job

43:52 ↗ and that's how we we think about the

43:55 ↗ world is how can we solve these problems

43:59 ↗ before they happen how can we mitigate

44:01 ↗ the worst of it

44:02 ↗ So to that end my name again is Kat

44:05 ↗ Robinson I'm the Wildfire mitigation

44:07 ↗ specialist and emergency coordinator

44:09 ↗ with Eastside fire and rescue our

44:12 ↗ emergency manager Andrew Stevens is he's

44:15 ↗ up there called in right now so he's

44:17 ↗ listening and our job really is the

44:21 ↗ Emergency Management division for

44:23 ↗ eastside fire and rescue which has a

44:25 ↗ pretty large service area but Issaquah

44:28 ↗ is one of our partners is to be a force

44:30 ↗ multiplier for you so like like Jared

44:33 ↗ was speaking to about the

44:35 ↗ the operational Readiness the community

44:37 ↗ resilience the risk reduction they're

44:40 ↗ doing they're he's working on EOC of

44:43 ↗ training he's working on support and

44:45 ↗ training exercises we're here to partner

44:48 ↗ on those and provide supporting a

44:51 ↗ supporting layer uh to all of the work

44:54 ↗ that he's doing and in some cases I'm

44:57 ↗ reaching out to him and Andrew's

44:58 ↗ reaching out to him to speak about a

45:00 ↗ little hell what do you think of this

45:01 ↗ how about we do that in other cases he's

45:03 ↗ reaching out to us and saying hey I'm

45:05 ↗ doing this can you guys play a role and

45:07 ↗ by doing so we we strengthen you know

45:11 ↗ between the two we become stronger than

45:13 ↗ the sum of our parts

45:15 ↗ I said that correctly I think I did so

45:18 ↗ that's what I really uh like about this

45:21 ↗ partnership and I'm very excited to be a

45:24 ↗ part of it

45:25 ↗ um like Jared mentioned earlier

45:26 ↗ disasters often come in twos so you get

45:29 ↗ a wildfire and then later you get the

45:31 ↗ accompanying landslides and flooding

45:34 ↗ that can result because of the damage

45:36 ↗ the Wildfire caused so planning

45:39 ↗ for Complex events becomes something

45:42 ↗ that we have to think through in the in

45:43 ↗ the long term and how do these uh how do

45:46 ↗ these

45:47 ↗ disasters impact our community both now

45:51 ↗ and down the road

45:53 ↗ so toward that end our role at Eastside

45:55 ↗ fire and rescue is to build capacity in

45:58 ↗ our regions for All Phases of disaster

46:00 ↗ management that includes the planning

46:02 ↗ preparation and mitigation before an

46:04 ↗ event

46:05 ↗ the response during an event and to be

46:08 ↗ there throughout the recovery of that

46:09 ↗ event and you can see on screen there's

46:12 ↗ a variety of different roles that we

46:13 ↗ play EOC and Incident Management

46:16 ↗ training and exercise is a big one

46:18 ↗ emergency planning community outreach

46:20 ↗ and then my particular focus is on

46:22 ↗ Wildfire mitigation

46:25 ↗ was it

46:28 ↗ all right

46:30 ↗ So to that end what I'm working on and

46:33 ↗ Jared already alluded to it

46:36 ↗ is the community Wildfire protection

46:39 ↗ plan

46:42 ↗ and I guess

46:45 ↗ nope it's not going to show what I'm

46:47 ↗ going so that's okay I'll talk through

46:48 ↗ it so the community Wildfire protection

46:52 ↗ plan really focuses a great deal on

46:55 ↗ collaboration with our partners uh it's

46:57 ↗ not written in a vacuum it's not written

46:59 ↗ in an office by ourselves it's done in

47:02 ↗ conjunction with the community and at

47:05 ↗ multiple levels so we're looking to talk

47:08 ↗ to you at the council level to talk to

47:10 ↗ city government planning Emergency

47:11 ↗ Management Public Works Etc and then get

47:15 ↗ into the community as well so and that

47:17 ↗ includes our our Service Groups but also

47:20 ↗ our HOAs and our faith-based groups and

47:24 ↗ our you know our 4-H groups in in some

47:27 ↗ cases you know anybody who has a

47:29 ↗ dedicated interest in this community

47:31 ↗ should have a seat at the table for the

47:34 ↗ cwpp and what we find is there's a lot

47:37 ↗ of intersection in our concerns and our

47:39 ↗ priorities

47:40 ↗ and through those discussions we

47:42 ↗ identify what are our highest areas of

47:44 ↗ risk and what are our highest priorities

47:47 ↗ for mitigating those risks and then the

47:50 ↗ plan seeks to identify those projects

47:53 ↗ see those projects to completion in

47:56 ↗ partnership with our service area

47:58 ↗ partners and then move forward reassess

48:02 ↗ and then move forward with what are the

48:03 ↗ next steps

48:05 ↗ So to that end one of the primary goals

48:09 ↗ of the plan we've already launched and

48:12 ↗ that is our Wildfire risk assessment

48:15 ↗ program

48:16 ↗ and so that's something that we launched

48:19 ↗ at the end of July

48:21 ↗ and what it involves is

48:23 ↗ any member of our service area can reach

48:26 ↗ out and request a wildfire risk

48:28 ↗ assessment so come out to your home we

48:31 ↗ evaluate the area around the home so you

48:33 ↗ can see in the picture here

48:35 ↗ this home didn't burn down in a massive

48:37 ↗ Wildfire why there are a number of

48:40 ↗ things that you can do around your home

48:42 ↗ surprisingly simple things that can

48:45 ↗ greatly reduce the ignition potential of

48:47 ↗ your home and greatly increase the

48:50 ↗ chances that your home will remain safe

48:52 ↗ during a wildfire we all saw that during

48:56 ↗ the Maui Wildfire we saw the picture of

48:59 ↗ the one home that didn't burn and

49:01 ↗ you know the homeowners whether

49:04 ↗ intentionally or not through the work

49:06 ↗ that they did on their home they they

49:08 ↗ did what's called home hardening and

49:10 ↗ they created a resilient home that was

49:12 ↗ able to withstand the Embers and the

49:14 ↗ flames

49:15 ↗ surrounding it

49:17 ↗ so

49:19 ↗ um Jared earlier mentioned a goal of

49:22 ↗ creating a focusing on emergency prep of

49:25 ↗ creating kits and alerts part of what I

49:28 ↗ do when I go to do these surveys is I

49:31 ↗ bring a number of preparedness materials

49:33 ↗ and I give that to the homeowner as well

49:35 ↗ and walk them through those steps how to

49:37 ↗ plan how to prepare how to put together

49:40 ↗ a kit and we focus on evacuation as well

49:43 ↗ so one of the mitigation measures that a

49:46 ↗ homeowner can receive actually every

49:48 ↗ homeowner receives when I do these

49:52 ↗ surveys is to

49:55 ↗ create and think through an emergency

49:57 ↗ evacuation plan I get a lot of people

50:00 ↗ asking me well how am I going to get out

50:02 ↗ in a wildfire

50:04 ↗ and

50:06 ↗ you know these are the roads you have so

50:08 ↗ those are those are your routes so let's

50:10 ↗ think through that how is that going to

50:12 ↗ work if you only have one that's that's

50:15 ↗ going to be challenging so let's think

50:16 ↗ through that one of the most

50:18 ↗ important ways is to pay very close

50:20 ↗ attention to those alerts so that in the

50:23 ↗ event that there is an alert don't wait

50:26 ↗ until the last moment to go just go

50:29 ↗ you can always come back if it's safe

50:31 ↗ but once it gets too dangerous to leave

50:33 ↗ now you've you've reduced your options

50:36 ↗ the other option is to plan for

50:38 ↗ Sheltering in place and that's something

50:40 ↗ that that we're working on how we want

50:43 ↗ to talk through with people and make

50:45 ↗ sure that they have an alternate plan in

50:47 ↗ place

50:48 ↗ so I could go on and on but I don't want

50:51 ↗ to take a lot of your thunder away from

50:54 ↗ you

50:55 ↗ well we actually have a question council

50:58 ↗ member March

51:00 ↗ that that education

51:03 ↗ Sheltering in place is the point where

51:06 ↗ that's basically the last of a series of

51:10 ↗ decreasing or increasingly dire options

51:13 ↗ right like you're part of that education

51:16 ↗ for homeowners is going to be you don't

51:18 ↗ want to get to the point where your

51:19 ↗ option is to shelter in place I I live

51:22 ↗ at the end of a 300 foot driveway my

51:24 ↗ whole property is critical slope I can't

51:26 ↗ take down any trees and they're like

51:28 ↗ yeah you don't want to be anywhere near

51:30 ↗ there if there's a fire on the mountain

51:32 ↗ you want to get down and out because you

51:34 ↗ won't be able to do anything for your

51:35 ↗ property and you do not want to shelter

51:37 ↗ in place in those situations so that

51:39 ↗ kind of education for folks is is really

51:42 ↗ I mean I'm lucky enough to have been

51:44 ↗ able to talk to

51:46 ↗ fire chief about it for you know for my

51:48 ↗ property but most homeowners don't have

51:50 ↗ that so getting getting that information

51:52 ↗ out particularly on for all of us that

51:54 ↗ live adjacent to Open Spaces right I

51:57 ↗ mean anybody on squawk Mountain anybody

51:59 ↗ on Cougar Mountain anybody on Tiger

52:01 ↗ Mountain needs to understand what will

52:04 ↗ happen if there's a fire and how

52:06 ↗ critical it'll be get out

52:09 ↗ um

52:10 ↗ while you can right absolutely I hear

52:13 ↗ that it just raises the

52:15 ↗ gives me goosebumps because you don't

52:17 ↗ want to ever have that be your your best

52:19 ↗ up

52:20 ↗ and I agree it's not your first choice

52:22 ↗ what I'm trying to give people what I

52:25 ↗ always try to give people when I do

52:27 ↗ preparedness work with them around

52:29 ↗ emergency uh response is

52:33 ↗ creating a toolkit and sometimes they're

52:36 ↗ not going to leave and that will be

52:38 ↗ their only option so thinking through

52:41 ↗ all of those ends and thinking through

52:43 ↗ in advance gives them that information

52:45 ↗ in advance to say

52:47 ↗ this is not the best place to leave

52:49 ↗ myself so I should leave early and

52:51 ↗ hopefully that informs their decision

52:53 ↗ making to you know give them a little

52:55 ↗ extra push out the door but you're

52:57 ↗ absolutely right it's it's uh

53:00 ↗ it's a balance for sure

53:05 ↗ so Jared I think the next slide is all

53:09 ↗ about

53:10 ↗ questions and Direction needed right yes

53:16 ↗ yes you're correct

53:18 ↗ so

53:19 ↗ feedback time

53:22 ↗ excellent so I'm going to look to

53:24 ↗ council see if we have any questions

53:25 ↗ then we'll get public comment and then

53:27 ↗ we can provide a direction and feedback

53:30 ↗ so any questions from Council that we're

53:34 ↗ going to ask during

53:37 ↗ I need to look over my notes because I

53:39 ↗ know I have full email

53:42 ↗ everybody else

53:45 ↗ um I will get into it uh

53:48 ↗ I know part of

53:51 ↗ part of each of those steps of Readiness

53:55 ↗ and preparedness and response is

53:58 ↗ communication and so you've talked a lot

54:01 ↗ about what you're doing for

54:03 ↗ communication

54:05 ↗ to get people to sign up for alerts and

54:07 ↗ communicate about how they can become

54:10 ↗ prepared

54:11 ↗ do

54:13 ↗ I'd like to know more about whether

54:15 ↗ public information officers or something

54:18 ↗ like that would be a good solution for

54:21 ↗ the City of Issaquah I know Bellevue

54:23 ↗ uses them extensively did when they had

54:25 ↗ the landslides and so what our ability

54:29 ↗ to respond in the case of emergencies is

54:34 ↗ for communications

54:36 ↗ yeah that's a great question and I it's

54:38 ↗ my understanding that we do have trained

54:40 ↗ pios within the City of Issaquah many of

54:44 ↗ them are communication staff I think is

54:47 ↗ there four four Autumn four of you three

54:50 ↗ okay that are trained as pios when we do

54:54 ↗ have an emergency they do put on that

54:56 ↗ hat and that service that joint

54:58 ↗ information system and help to push any

55:00 ↗ emergent information out that being said

55:03 ↗ we could always use more so anyone yeah

55:07 ↗ if they're City staff that are

55:08 ↗ interested in the training it's free

55:10 ↗ it's available but to your point yes

55:12 ↗ absolutely information during an

55:14 ↗ incident is essential

55:18 ↗ I think I'm going to leave my my Quinn's

55:20 ↗ there and provide through feedback so at

55:23 ↗ this point we have an opportunity for

55:25 ↗ public comment so if we've got anybody

55:27 ↗ in the audience or online who is

55:31 ↗ indicating an interest to speak I'll

55:33 ↗ just pause for a moment and see if

55:35 ↗ anybody's interested

55:40 ↗ go ahead up introduce yourself go ahead

55:43 ↗ and press the button on there thank you

55:45 ↗ hi I'm Bruce Wayne

55:47 ↗ I've been a certain structure since

55:52 ↗ 2007 I think I came into the program

55:56 ↗ because of this lady here

55:58 ↗ she was her one of our original certs

56:00 ↗ here um when the program originally

56:04 ↗ started but not to take a lot of time

56:06 ↗ about that

56:08 ↗ the takeaway I want you to to have

56:10 ↗ tonight and we're talking about

56:12 ↗ evacuation it's one of the things we

56:14 ↗ talk about in our class

56:16 ↗ and my emphasis is be sure you have

56:20 ↗ gasoline in your car

56:23 ↗ ever never let your car go below a half

56:26 ↗ a tank because if you need to get out of

56:28 ↗ here

56:29 ↗ you if you don't have enough gas your

56:32 ↗ car is going to get pushed over the side

56:33 ↗ and you're not going anywhere

56:36 ↗ try and remember some of those pictures

56:39 ↗ from the Florida hurricanes people going

56:41 ↗ up I-95 running out of gas

56:46 ↗ and I know the big pushes for electric

56:48 ↗ vehicles but when you run out of

56:50 ↗ electricity you ain't going anyplace so

56:53 ↗ kind of maybe get a hybrid if you can so

56:56 ↗ anyway just want to bring that up the uh

56:59 ↗ thanks autumn autumn came through our

57:02 ↗ class

57:03 ↗ Victoria the mayor's been through our

57:06 ↗ class so we really appreciate

57:08 ↗ support that the city has provided over

57:11 ↗ the last gosh I don't know 15 17 years

57:16 ↗ gas up your car and shelter in place

57:19 ↗ isn't always because you have a fire

57:21 ↗ fire okay it could be some chemical uh

57:24 ↗ uh event or whatever so we also talk

57:28 ↗ about Sheltering in place because of

57:30 ↗ those events all right thanks

57:35 ↗ thank you very much on that

57:38 ↗ um anybody online into getting a desire

57:40 ↗ to speak no we have one member of the

57:42 ↗ public online but they're not indicating

57:44 ↗ a desire to speak

57:46 ↗ great so at this time we get feedback

57:51 ↗ um anybody want to start us off

57:56 ↗ okay councilmember hunt

57:59 ↗ thank you I really appreciate all of the

58:02 ↗ proactive planning that has gone into

58:04 ↗ this presentation and so the work that

58:06 ↗ you've done for the city also with

58:08 ↗ Eastside fire and rescue and with our

58:10 ↗ First Responders I

58:13 ↗ um have two sort of categories of

58:16 ↗ comments as far as general direction

58:20 ↗ one is that I think we have a lot of

58:25 ↗ plans in place for public works and the

58:27 ↗ police and Eastside fire and rescue and

58:28 ↗ I am sure that all of those agencies

58:30 ↗ will respond

58:32 ↗ um uh very quickly and effectively I do

58:35 ↗ think we have more work to do in terms

58:37 ↗ of the community awareness and Community

58:39 ↗ response we have many communities that

58:41 ↗ could be could become isolated or could

58:45 ↗ it could really be one of those

58:46 ↗ situations where your neighbors are the

58:48 ↗ first ones that are able to help in a in

58:50 ↗ a disaster because of the layout of our

58:53 ↗ city and the

58:56 ↗ um the topography and the amount of

59:00 ↗ Wildland interface that we have so for

59:03 ↗ those reasons I do think getting more

59:05 ↗ people signed up is important I realize

59:08 ↗ we have information but it sounds like

59:10 ↗ if it's

59:11 ↗ um you know we have about a thousand

59:12 ↗ people and growing on alert and that is

59:16 ↗ excellent

59:17 ↗ um I think probably some of those olds

59:19 ↗ from the phone books that might not be

59:21 ↗ up to date you know the way that people

59:23 ↗ are are getting their information

59:25 ↗ anymore so really getting people's most

59:27 ↗ up-to-date contact information and

59:29 ↗ making sure that we are reaching people

59:31 ↗ in multiple languages all of those

59:32 ↗ things I think are really important also

59:35 ↗ to that and as was mentioned I I did

59:38 ↗ participate in the cert program part of

59:40 ↗ why I was able to do that I do work

59:43 ↗ during the day and I'm a mom and I'm on

59:45 ↗ Council and part of why I was able to do

59:46 ↗ the cert program was uh coming out of

59:49 ↗ covid there was a hybrid option where a

59:51 ↗ lot of the training was done online

59:54 ↗ and then there was a practical portion

59:58 ↗ as well so I think just making sure that

1:00:00 ↗ we have

1:00:01 ↗ options for folks that want to know the

1:00:03 ↗ basics or they want to know they can get

1:00:06 ↗ a backpack and they want to know how to

1:00:07 ↗ use the items in the backpack the

1:00:09 ↗ tourniquet some whatever it's determined

1:00:11 ↗ to be the most important basic things

1:00:13 ↗ that you could get information out to

1:00:15 ↗ people I think those kind of lower

1:00:17 ↗ barrier

1:00:18 ↗ uh exercises to help more people be a

1:00:23 ↗ little bit ready would be would be

1:00:25 ↗ excellent and I also think

1:00:27 ↗ the evacuation routes was probably one

1:00:29 ↗ of the very important pieces of that

1:00:31 ↗ information

1:00:33 ↗ I like the idea of the backpack and I

1:00:35 ↗ think you know with that if we could

1:00:36 ↗ have a little bit of information so that

1:00:39 ↗ people could

1:00:40 ↗ um be ready with that information in the

1:00:43 ↗ case of an emergency that would be

1:00:45 ↗ excellent

1:00:46 ↗ my second

1:00:48 ↗ uh redirection which you didn't touch on

1:00:52 ↗ you touched on that you would you're

1:00:54 ↗ going to be reaching out to HOAs and and

1:00:56 ↗ various Community organizations but I am

1:00:59 ↗ aware of at least one restriction that

1:01:02 ↗ an HOA which is the talus HOA has on

1:01:05 ↗ home hardening which is that you

1:01:07 ↗ actually aren't allowed to put a metal

1:01:09 ↗ roof on your home in Talus and so I

1:01:12 ↗ think that's only one that I know

1:01:13 ↗ because I have come up against it for my

1:01:17 ↗ own home

1:01:18 ↗ um there may very well be other things

1:01:20 ↗ that our HOAs restrict people from doing

1:01:23 ↗ on their properties also the urban

1:01:25 ↗ Villages a lot of those homes are about

1:01:27 ↗ 20 years old the roofs are

1:01:29 ↗ approaching if they're asphalt roofs

1:01:32 ↗ they're approaching their natural ends

1:01:34 ↗ of life and so it is timely so I I would

1:01:37 ↗ really like to

1:01:38 ↗ um

1:01:40 ↗ explore that work with the HOAs there

1:01:43 ↗ are metal roofs that are the same

1:01:46 ↗ reflectivity as asphalt roofs it's

1:01:50 ↗ aesthetically can be very similar so

1:01:52 ↗ just work through them and make sure

1:01:53 ↗ that we aren't putting restrictions on

1:01:55 ↗ what people can do if they want to

1:01:57 ↗ actually make the investment and do that

1:01:58 ↗ home hardening

1:02:00 ↗ um especially in those neighborhoods

1:02:02 ↗ like that are also it happens to be that

1:02:05 ↗ these neighborhoods are also at the

1:02:06 ↗ urban Wildland interface so it'd be very

1:02:09 ↗ beneficial if we could work with them

1:02:10 ↗ and I wouldn't overcome that and again I

1:02:13 ↗ don't know what I don't know I think

1:02:14 ↗ there may be other restrictions on what

1:02:16 ↗ people can do

1:02:18 ↗ uh it sounds like we also need to do

1:02:21 ↗ some research on on that as a city

1:02:25 ↗ um so I I would like to

1:02:27 ↗ work towards making sure that if

1:02:29 ↗ homeowners want to

1:02:32 ↗ um make

1:02:33 ↗ big changes to their properties that we

1:02:35 ↗ aren't a barrier or that the there

1:02:37 ↗ aren't barriers to doing that

1:02:40 ↗ um

1:02:43 ↗ and those those are my two main comments

1:02:46 ↗ about about Direction I again really

1:02:49 ↗ appreciate the information I also

1:02:51 ↗ appreciate the discussion of how

1:02:55 ↗ climate change will be increasing these

1:02:58 ↗ events and the frequency and and that we

1:03:01 ↗ need to accept that and be resilient

1:03:04 ↗ community and um

1:03:06 ↗ overall look forward to continuing the

1:03:08 ↗ conversation

1:03:09 ↗ thank you

1:03:12 ↗ okay councilmember Joe

1:03:15 ↗ Jared first let me say thank you for all

1:03:17 ↗ your hard work

1:03:18 ↗ um

1:03:19 ↗ you have the ability to collaborate with

1:03:22 ↗ people and bring them to the table I

1:03:24 ↗ think that's a very important trait for

1:03:26 ↗ this type of position

1:03:28 ↗ in my spare time I was looking at the

1:03:31 ↗ comprehensive emergency management plan

1:03:33 ↗ for the City of Issaquah and I just had

1:03:36 ↗ a couple of comments that may already be

1:03:39 ↗ taken care of and if they are fantastic

1:03:41 ↗ obviously the city council is

1:03:43 ↗ responsible for keeping the continuity

1:03:45 ↗ of government for the legislative branch

1:03:47 ↗ and that is done through our

1:03:49 ↗ appointments or other processes

1:03:51 ↗ processes that we have in place the

1:03:54 ↗ executive branch of course takes care of

1:03:56 ↗ continuity of government

1:03:57 ↗ through the mayor's office but

1:04:00 ↗ I'm a fan of those disaster movies or

1:04:03 ↗ you know where the mayor is still alive

1:04:06 ↗ but stuck under a rock somewhere or in a

1:04:10 ↗ mine or what have you do we have a

1:04:12 ↗ continuity of government plan in terms

1:04:14 ↗ of who

1:04:16 ↗ does what and

1:04:19 ↗ um I just don't want us to have a

1:04:20 ↗ situation where

1:04:22 ↗ you know council president and the

1:04:25 ↗ police chief and the fire chief all

1:04:27 ↗ think

1:04:29 ↗ three different things should be done

1:04:30 ↗ and then

1:04:32 ↗ um

1:04:33 ↗ you probably have talked about it and

1:04:36 ↗ um gone through those

1:04:38 ↗ um just want to make sure that we have

1:04:40 ↗ so that we have smooth operations in the

1:04:44 ↗ event that things are

1:04:46 ↗ distorted or out of community people are

1:04:49 ↗ out of communication and and our normal

1:04:51 ↗ lines of communication aren't open we

1:04:53 ↗ depend so much on our cell phones

1:04:55 ↗ have the cell phone towers are down

1:04:58 ↗ you know we have

1:05:00 ↗ we did in the past had a pretty robust

1:05:02 ↗ CB system Citizen band system that

1:05:05 ↗ certainly is going away as Our

1:05:07 ↗ Generations get older just want to make

1:05:10 ↗ sure that we have a clear continuity of

1:05:13 ↗ government and a clear communication

1:05:14 ↗ plan an event that cell phones go out I

1:05:18 ↗ want to complement the comprehensive

1:05:20 ↗ emergency management plan the 200 Page

1:05:23 ↗ document that's there I don't think that

1:05:27 ↗ any big changes need to be made to that

1:05:30 ↗ is a complement to all the hard work

1:05:32 ↗ that you and your predecessors have done

1:05:34 ↗ but I look forward to the product that

1:05:36 ↗ comes out from that thank you thank you

1:05:41 ↗ and to answer the continuity of

1:05:43 ↗ government question I mean that that's a

1:05:45 ↗ standard piece at any point

1:05:48 ↗ council president

1:05:51 ↗ Deputy council president after that

1:05:56 ↗ seniority accounts

1:06:00 ↗ seniority of Council in terms of years

1:06:02 ↗ served

1:06:03 ↗ all right and continuous years served

1:06:05 ↗ right

1:06:07 ↗ unless the council changes its rules yes

1:06:09 ↗ thank you very much I appreciate that

1:06:12 ↗ I got to get that clarification figure

1:06:14 ↗ out where in line you are appreciate it

1:06:16 ↗ appreciate it

1:06:18 ↗ um anybody else have any comments

1:06:22 ↗ uh council member D Michelle

1:06:25 ↗ thanks I wanted to say I really

1:06:27 ↗ appreciate the enthusiasm we heard

1:06:29 ↗ tonight and the energy that's going into

1:06:32 ↗ this the

1:06:34 ↗ um the planning for the quote-unquote

1:06:37 ↗ event so

1:06:39 ↗ um I live in a condominium down on Front

1:06:41 ↗ Street and a couple of years ago

1:06:43 ↗ Eastside fire and rescue came and gave

1:06:45 ↗ us all a overview of what would happen

1:06:48 ↗ if we had a major earthquake if we had a

1:06:50 ↗ wildfire and so forth so I really

1:06:53 ↗ appreciate that I learned a lot from

1:06:56 ↗ just a it was about an hour and a half

1:06:58 ↗ session we had several firefighters come

1:07:00 ↗ and talk about different areas and

1:07:02 ↗ things that we ought to do so I would

1:07:05 ↗ just encourage that kind of Outreach to

1:07:08 ↗ multi-family you know groups like

1:07:11 ↗ Condominiums and apartment buildings

1:07:13 ↗ and thought it was just a very useful

1:07:16 ↗ exercise so it was a little bit like you

1:07:19 ↗ said that was the scary part of the

1:07:21 ↗ presentation was how long it might be

1:07:24 ↗ before somebody could get to us at a

1:07:26 ↗ major earthquake and how long it might

1:07:29 ↗ be for us to be able to get out and so

1:07:32 ↗ planning for those kinds of things

1:07:33 ↗ having food water and other things on

1:07:37 ↗ hand

1:07:38 ↗ and also knowing I think that I believe

1:07:41 ↗ in my condominium conflicts that three

1:07:44 ↗ or four people have been trained in cert

1:07:45 ↗ so we have that push as well so just

1:07:49 ↗ that community-based approach where you

1:07:53 ↗ might be on your own for quite some time

1:07:55 ↗ is really really important and so the

1:07:58 ↗ more that we can do to educate our

1:08:00 ↗ community the better I really appreciate

1:08:03 ↗ all the work that's gone into this thank

1:08:04 ↗ you

1:08:05 ↗ oh and I I like the director tonight I

1:08:08 ↗ think council member hunt made some

1:08:10 ↗ really good suggestions but overall I

1:08:13 ↗ really like the direction that we're

1:08:14 ↗ taking thanks

1:08:17 ↗ okay anybody else

1:08:20 ↗ I'm gonna finalize it up rapid fire

1:08:24 ↗ um I'd like to know more about how we're

1:08:27 ↗ going to work with our new Urban Forest

1:08:28 ↗ Steward to mitigate the risk of wildfire

1:08:32 ↗ um in the terms of emergency alerts you

1:08:36 ↗ know who's really aware of their cell

1:08:38 ↗ phones teenagers so I might just make a

1:08:43 ↗ suggestion that we work with the schools

1:08:45 ↗ particularly the high schools and

1:08:47 ↗ encourage them to sign up and turn that

1:08:49 ↗ alert on and that will get to the

1:08:52 ↗ households

1:08:54 ↗ um I would really like to encourage you

1:08:56 ↗ to think big about what our needs are as

1:09:01 ↗ a community I think the generator the

1:09:02 ↗ resilience hubs all of those things are

1:09:04 ↗ really important and they're the type

1:09:07 ↗ things that we as city council need to

1:09:09 ↗ know about when it comes to budget

1:09:12 ↗ periods so that we can really make those

1:09:15 ↗ big decisions about hey where are we

1:09:18 ↗ putting our money

1:09:20 ↗ um and keeping those needs in mind there

1:09:23 ↗ I will second that it looks like the

1:09:26 ↗ comprehensive emergency management plan

1:09:28 ↗ was last updated in 2022 so it seems

1:09:31 ↗ pretty recent I hope that's not a big

1:09:34 ↗ overhaul or anything like that

1:09:38 ↗ [Music]

1:09:39 ↗ um

1:09:40 ↗ Let's see we already talked about

1:09:43 ↗ language barriers I think that's really

1:09:45 ↗ important I want to make sure that we're

1:09:47 ↗ coordinating with the hospital the

1:09:48 ↗ schools the retirement communities the

1:09:51 ↗ Leo house any of those organizations

1:09:53 ↗ that have that particular set of needs

1:09:57 ↗ there

1:09:59 ↗ um really love that we've got certain

1:10:00 ↗ involvement I attended it was fantastic

1:10:04 ↗ way scarier than your presentation ways

1:10:08 ↗ carrier

1:10:09 ↗ um but I have everything underneath my

1:10:12 ↗ bed now and it's been years and that

1:10:15 ↗ stuff sticks with you

1:10:17 ↗ um really care about the evacuation

1:10:19 ↗ options

1:10:20 ↗ um those emergency access road openings

1:10:22 ↗ really glad to hear that there's some

1:10:24 ↗ training going on because as much as

1:10:26 ↗ it's there and some people know about it

1:10:28 ↗ I want to make sure that it's

1:10:31 ↗ um really able to be utilized

1:10:35 ↗ um feels like Communications we still

1:10:37 ↗ need some work there you know I've been

1:10:38 ↗ discussing that a lot about all of our

1:10:41 ↗ various needs so just want to make sure

1:10:43 ↗ that is considered and then I'd love uh

1:10:47 ↗ for at some point to know what the next

1:10:49 ↗ steps and the next Council touch point

1:10:51 ↗ is again all of those are just rapid

1:10:53 ↗ fire questions to give you

1:10:55 ↗ get back to us

1:10:58 ↗ didn't want to take too much time so

1:11:00 ↗ anybody else have any

1:11:02 ↗ big questions no

1:11:05 ↗ yes I'd like to ask Autumn to come up

1:11:08 ↗ there's one project I don't think we

1:11:10 ↗ talked about and that's our new

1:11:12 ↗ partnership with Yakima County

1:11:18 ↗ not ready for prime time

1:11:21 ↗ all right we have a partnership with

1:11:23 ↗ Yakima County which we're going to talk

1:11:24 ↗ to you about sometime

1:11:31 ↗ we'll look for more information on that

1:11:33 ↗ at some point we're going to be the Palm

1:11:35 ↗ Desert of Washington Springs

1:11:38 ↗ okay fantastic so Jared

1:11:42 ↗ need anything else from us no I just

1:11:45 ↗ want to say thank you it's um it's truly

1:11:47 ↗ a pleasure honestly to have such a

1:11:48 ↗ supportive Council and a council who

1:11:51 ↗ cares about these topics you know it's

1:11:52 ↗ um yeah I'm really taking your heart

1:11:54 ↗ your feedback and your direction that

1:11:56 ↗ you provided so thank you very much for

1:11:58 ↗ cutting time out of your very busy

1:12:01 ↗ Council schedule for an extended

1:12:03 ↗ discussion around Emergency Management

1:12:04 ↗ so thank you

1:12:07 ↗ and we very much appreciate you coming

1:12:09 ↗ bringing the partners bringing all the

1:12:11 ↗ team and uh keeping us up to date

1:12:15 ↗ thank you so that is

1:12:18 ↗ um the I guess we have good of the order

1:12:21 ↗ does anybody have anything for go to the

1:12:23 ↗ order

1:12:23 ↗ okay

1:12:26 ↗ just to mention uh it was alluded to

1:12:29 ↗ earlier mayor Pauley uh along with Chief

1:12:32 ↗ of Staff Eggers and members of our

1:12:33 ↗ sister city commission R in Morocco they

1:12:37 ↗ are safe uh the mayor posted a video

1:12:40 ↗ today

1:12:41 ↗ um

1:12:42 ↗ letting everyone know that she is in

1:12:44 ↗ touch looking for the best ways that

1:12:47 ↗ Issaquah residents can be supportive of

1:12:49 ↗ our our friends in Morocco so we will

1:12:52 ↗ continue to make people aware through

1:12:54 ↗ our very excellent Communications team

1:12:57 ↗ um again we've posted that video from

1:12:59 ↗ the mayor this afternoon but we've been

1:13:02 ↗ getting inquiries about what uh riskar

1:13:05 ↗ residents can do to support those in

1:13:07 ↗ Morocco especially those

1:13:10 ↗ associated with our sister city which is

1:13:13 ↗ uh many miles from the epicenter every

1:13:17 ↗ indication that we have is Chef Sharon

1:13:20 ↗ is it in good shape the mayor will be

1:13:22 ↗ with the mayor of Sharon tomorrow

1:13:25 ↗ um today their time already but we have

1:13:28 ↗ been getting many inquiries from members

1:13:30 ↗ of the public asking what they can do so

1:13:31 ↗ we will be sharing that

1:13:36 ↗ sounds good

1:13:38 ↗ so that's the only item on our agenda at

1:13:41 ↗ this point so we're able to adjourn we

1:13:43 ↗ do have a special meeting afterward

1:13:47 ↗ um which I believe is close to the

1:13:50 ↗ public yes executive session so at this

1:13:53 ↗ point this meeting is adjourned at 7 45

1:13:56 ↗ pm

Approved minutes

Extracted from the next meeting's packet, where this meeting's minutes were approved as a consent-calendar attachment.

Open PDF

Attendance

Council / Members (6)

Barbara de Michele

Victoria Hunt

Russell Joe

Tola Marts

Chris Reh

Lindsey Walsh, Chair

Excused

Zach Hall