Behind the scenes: How Commerce’s emergency management team responds to crises

At 4:58 p.m. on July 29, the Energy Resilience and Emergency Management Office (EREMO) got an urgent alert: A magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Russia could trigger a tsunami. The waves could reach Hawaii, the western U.S., and British Columbia, with Washington’s coastal communities in the path.

Within an hour, EREMO staff were on a state coordination call with the Emergency Management Division, discussing possible impacts and response plans. The first waves were expected to reach La Push, in Clallam County, at 11:35 p.m.

But for EREMO, the danger wasn’t only the water. Washington relies heavily on fuel from Alaska, and disasters there, like earthquakes, tsunamis or severe storms, can disrupt that supply. That meant monitoring the situation for flooding risks and for potential impacts to fuel shipments, refineries, and energy infrastructure across the state.

Protecting communities through energy management

EREMO’s role in a disaster is highly specialized: It is the primary link between all energy providers and the State Emergency Operations Center, ensuring providers have the resources they need to restore Washington’s energy supply.

“When there are potential impacts to the energy sector, we get involved,” said Energy Resilience Specialist Kate Pedersen.

After the tsunami warning, Commerce Energy Emergency Management Director Elizabeth King and her team contacted utilities and refineries along Washington’s waterways to share the tsunami advisory and discuss potential impacts. They also began thinking through worst-case scenarios, like how to move fuel to isolated communities if roads or rail lines were damaged.

Timing is everything

Communication can be the most challenging part of an emergency response.

“One of the hardest parts of being an emergency manager is knowing when to share information, what to share, and who to share it with,” said Deborah Witmer, EREMO senior program manager. “If you don’t share anything, the public may turn to unreliable sources. But sharing too early can cause confusion if the situation changes.”

During the tsunami advisory, the state held hourly coordination calls to update agencies, counties, and tribes. EREMO also monitored conditions using WEIAT (Washington Energy Infrastructure Assessment Tool), a secure analysis tool that tracks potential impacts to critical energy infrastructure and identifies risks before they escalate.

“WEIAT gives us a higher level of monitoring than we’ve had in the past,” Pedersen said. “It lets us catch potential downstream impacts from outages, fires, or other incidents quickly.”

Planning for the worst-case scenario

In the end, big tsunami waves never reached Washington’s shores. But for EREMO, the calls, monitoring and planning weren’t wasted.

“We plan for low-probability, high-impact scenarios,” Pedersen said. “And we hope we never have to put those plans into action.”

That’s the nature of their work: If Washington’s communities never notice the behind-the-scenes coordination, it means the job was done well.