You normally think of an emergency management position being with a city, county or state. But sometimes you find an emergency management position in departments. That is more of a trend I’ve seen for things like public works or transportation departments.
In this case there is a brand-new position being established, as “the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) Engineering Services Division is hiring for an Emergency Manager (Strategic Advisor 2).”
There are no incumbents, since it is a new position. A great opportunity to come in with a “somewhat blank” program and build it from the ground up. Given the seismic risks that Seattle has it is wonderful to see the department taking this step to hire an emergency manager! It has been 22 years since the Nisqually Earthquake of 2001. The return interval for that type of earthquake is an 86 percent probability within 50 years. Previous earthquakes included 1949, 1965 and 2001. You can see that we might not have to wait 50 years.
