Here in the Pacific Northwest, we live in a bubble. No, not the political bubble, or even the tech bro bubble (though anyone who’s ever spent time on dating apps seeking viable men knows what that’s like). I’m talking about the blissful temperate climate bubble—the illusion that this region has two weather modes: drizzly winter depression and sunny summer euphoria.
For a long time, the thinking seemed to go: We barely deal with snow here. We spend our long wet winters covered in moss and Goretex, and our glorious two months of summer absorbing a year’s worth of Vitamin D at exactly 75 degrees. The big thing we worry about regarding environmental disasters is “The Big One,” which constantly occupies our regional imagination. Yet far from mild-mannered, our region experiences a range of extreme weather such as floods, snow, ice, heat waves, wind storms, and, of course, cyclones.
But how does that stack up against our low-key seismic panic? In Washington, we’re getting more serious about prepping for the next big earthquake. For instance, the state added seismic updates to building codes for new construction, runs 1.4 million person statewide earthquake safety drills each year, and is working with coastal communities on plans to build artificial higher ground as refuges from tsunamis spurred by a major quake. There’s now a West Coast early-warning system that can send alerts to people and automatically slow trains or open fire station doors before strong shaking starts.
Meanwhile, last month’s bomb cyclone, which left more than half a million people without power, some for more than a week, serves as the latest reminder that the Pacific Northwest actually has complicated, diverse weather. With East and Southeast King County especially hard hit, the King County Council approved legislation last week to help affected residents clean up, rebuild, and recover costs, such as short-term hotel charges and replacing spoiled food for those in financial need, after the storm. It also suggests, ahem, creating a report card to evaluate the response and identify ways to better prepare the county for future storms and power outages.
While cities in the Pacific Northwest consistently rank high on lists for climate resilience, we shouldn’t get too comfortable about our little climate refuge. Those rankings are based on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency index, which highlights that King County, for instance, “has been impacted by extreme heat, extreme rainfall, flooding, erosion, infrastructure damage, and sea level rise.” So it’s all relative—we just aren’t sinking into the ocean as quickly as Florida.
Kirby Cook, Science and Operations Officer with the National Weather Service in Seattle, says that climate projections for our region indicate that “extreme weather events will become more frequent, stronger, and more extreme.” So buckle up. It’s time to burst the Pacific Northwest weather bubble.
After decades of prepping for The Big One, what are we doing to prepare for what’s right in front of us?
It Was the Bomb … Cyclone
Because the November 19 bomb cyclone stayed offshore, its powerful winds ended up coming from the east, instead of the south like usual, instead funneling through gaps like Snoqualmie Pass in the wall that is the Cascade Mountains. The result is like putting your thumb over a garden hose, says Cook. Trees weren’t prepared for high winds from this direction.
“It was an absolutely devastating storm,” says Robert Ezelle, Washington Emergency Management Division Director. At least two people died. At its peak, the storm left 700,000 homes and businesses without power, according to Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Andrew Padula.
The outages were a massive disruption to the region. “People’s lives stand still when they unplug,” says Sheri Badger, King County Emergency Management Public Information Officer. She noted that the City of Issaquah reported 300 to 500 people arriving at their community center on November 21 to charge electronic devices, while others went to hospitals to charge medical devices.
In contrast, during heat waves, only a handful of people typically visit cooling centers, she said.
“Nationally, and here in the Northwest, heat is the biggest threat to life,” says Cook, in terms of severe weather. “That’s surprising to a lot of folks.”
“The heat dome was a wake-up call for us because the mild weather that we do experience, I think has lulled us into complacency,” says Badger, referring to the deadly 2021 heat wave which brought back-to-back days of triple-digit heat and killed an estimated 700 people from the U.S. West Coast to British Columbia.
She says the high number of people relying on community charging stations indicated they didn’t have battery packs or power banks on hand. “We aren’t used to having power out for long periods of time,” she says.
Badger describes a different mindset from her time working in emergency management in hurricane-prone North Carolina: “You don’t need to remind people to be prepared, because they’re constantly exposed to it. Here, people get complacent because our emergencies happen sporadically, and people have short memories.”
Even a goldfish could remember the series of extreme weather events piling up in recent years: the devastating November 2021 flooding in northwest Washington, the record-setting summer 2021 heat dome that killed hundreds across the Pacific Northwest, and the December 2022 ice storm that sent cars sliding (and smashing) across Seattle streets—an event that the more topographically challenged parts of the nation found hilarious.
Climate scientists expect our region to see stronger storms, warmer average temperatures, and more precipitation, according to Cook. “If I could boil it down, it would be more extreme of everything.”
Ask Not What Your Country Can Do to Prep For You—Actually, You Should
Emergency managers often talk about an “all-hazards approach,” which is jargon for preparing for every terrible disaster you can imagine—and some you can’t. This ranges from floods, heat waves, and winter storms to earthquakes, tsunamis, and lahars (massive debris flows that can move like “rivers of concrete” after rushing down volcanoes like Mt. Rainier…shudders).
But preparing for extreme weather and other disasters does require resources. “It's kind of a mixed bag,” Ezelle says. Some people are very well prepared for disaster while others are not at all. For a large family living paycheck to paycheck, he says, “It may be very tough for them to stockpile the food and supplies that they need.”
However, the burden can’t be entirely on individuals to go into full-on prepper mode. Nor should it be, given that the bulk of the impacts disproportionately affect the communities least able to cope.
That’s where public leaders come in, says Tania Busch Isaksen, a public health researcher with the University of Washington’s Center for Disaster Resilient Communities. “Policies that are effective in minimizing extreme weather-related impacts to unhoused, low-income, and historically marginalized communities are also beneficial for everyday healthy living.”
King County has been incorporating that ethos into its broader hazard reduction planning, says Badger, and is the first in the nation to add equity and social justice determinants—think “affordable, safe, quality housing” and “access to affordable, healthy food”—to such plans.
Both King County and the City of Seattle point to efforts to adapt the built environment to better withstand extreme heat, cold, and precipitation, and help the most vulnerable populations prepare their own homes and communities. For instance, the county is adding more bus shelters in the hottest urban spots and planting and protecting millions more trees—because according to a 2020 heat mapping study by the County and City, residents can experience a 23-degree difference depending on where they live thanks to considerations like vegetation and land use. Seattle offers rebates (or an entirely free program) for low and moderate income households to switch from heating oil or gas to energy-efficient heat pumps that also serve as air conditioning during heat waves. This year the County received $1.5 million from the Climate Commitment Act to install heat pumps in 50-60 adult family homes, which care for seniors and those with developmental disabilities, for instance.
Additional steps for Washington came in 2023 when the state passed a (by some counts imperfect) law preventing utilities from turning off power and water for nonpayment during extreme heat and when it updated its labor standards for employers during extreme heat, setting requirements around basic human decency—aka offering shade, water, rest, and acclimation—for outdoor workers when the mercury rises above certain temps. And Badger says that King County has an extreme weather planner who works with the cities within the county and the Regional Homelessness Authority to help people who are unhoused access shelters and warming or cooling centers.
Coming soon to Seattle: the City is funding the development of year-round, community-managed “resilience hubs,” which put decision-making power in local people’s hands and double as communal spaces between disruptions. “These hubs will ensure our most-impacted communities are prepared for climate-related emergencies by offering shelter, communications lines, education, heating and cooling during extreme weather events like extreme heat and wildfire smoke, supporting increased resiliency year-round,” says Callie Craighead, City of Seattle Press Secretary, who says a citywide resilience hub strategic plan will come next year.
“Involving communities in the development/design of resilience hubs and other resilience enhancing strategies is essential,” says Nicole Errett, director of UW’s Center for Disaster Resilient Communities and Busch Isaksen’s colleague. In 2022, they partnered with community groups, city, county, and state agencies to survey residents in the Duwamish Valley in Seattle about their top issues of concern. The results, which found air pollution, extreme heat, and wildfires among the top environmental impacts of concern, are meant to give rise to climate and disaster resilience strategies centered on local communities’ needs and conditions. Community members there showed strong interest in resilience hubs.
That kind of community-first program dovetails with the attitudes of emergency managers. We want people to feel empowered to take care of themselves and their neighbors, and not wait around to call 911, says Badger. That means before severe weather strikes, Seattleites need to start talking to their neighbors (oh, the horror). Don’t worry, we’ve got a discussion guide for organizing neighborhoods and other community resources to help you do this. Neighbors are already helping neighbors, and you can either plug into existing efforts, or start something new in your own neighborhood.
How Not to Die, or at Least How to Be Less Stressed in a Disaster
While the region gets its act together, there are some things that individuals can do to prep for the next disaster, whatever it may be.
“Our mantra is: make a plan, build a kit, and stay informed,” says Badger. She recommends having a portable go bag with essential supplies, like medications and extra glasses, and important documentation—things you can grab quickly if you need to evacuate. She also suggests building a home emergency supply kit with food, water, first aid, clothing, and other supplies to sustain you, your family, and any pets for up to two weeks. And if that New Yorker article on our impending seismic doom scared you into creating a go bag, congratulations, it’s now old enough to attend fourth grade. Time to refresh those supplies.
And don’t forget about a kit for your car or workplace, in case you get stranded overnight. Badger also recommends talking through how you would communicate with your family, where you would meet, and how you would handle expectations around work, school, or daycare during a disaster. Then do practice runs.
King County has created an emergency planning workbook to guide you through this process. You can start by building an emergency kit gradually, adding items as you go until you feel ready. Then update it annually, swapping out expired items. Residents can also sign up for emergency alerts through Alert King County, which are available in 27 other languages.
When a bomb cyclone takes your power out for a week, having a pantry full of canned goods only goes so far. “The impact is going to be frustrating. It's going to be disruptive,” recognizes Ezelle. But he adds that having a plan and supplies can help reduce both the impact and stress. “Be prepared to have the food, the water, the medical supplies, and things that you can survive on your own until that power is restored, or until the help that you need is able to get there to you.”
Ezelle realizes the challenges of getting ready are different for each family but says everyone should understand, “This really could happen to them.”
Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I’m off to restock my supply of energy gummies and finally learn the real name of my neighbor who uses a leaf blower 8 hours a day.
Ashley Braun is an award-winning science and environmental journalist based in Seattle. You can find more of her work at ashleybraun.com. When she's not at her computer, she's probably trying to figure out how to fit even more plants into one of her already-full-thanks urban gardens.
