BI council gets glimpse of new Emergency Operations Center

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 28, 2025

The Bainbridge Island City Council received a tour of the new Emergency Operation Center May 20, located at the Ted Spearman Justice Center on Madison Avenue.

Previously, City Hall served as the primary EOC and Fire Station 23 as the backup EOC location, BI emergency management coordinator Anne LeSage said.

“I am excited that the EOC is set up and ready to be activated as soon as needed/requested. There is no longer a 60-90 minute delay (at minimum) to activate because the space is set up and ready to go all the time,” she said. “We also have state-of-the-art technology and redundancies to support response operations.”

LeSage said one of her primary concerns about emergency preparedness is the public’s awareness and general preparedness.

“We are an island day to day, but we will truly be isolated from the rest of the region after a major earthquake. Amazon is not coming with your just-in-time delivery of food, household items, prescriptions, etc,” she said. “We need everyone on the island to have at least 30 days’ worth of emergency supplies on hand.”

Councilmembers learned about their roles in the event of an island-wide emergency. The City Council will provide policy direction for the emergency management functions within the city, per city documents.

LeSage said the EOC has up to 30 primary positions that can be activated during an emergency response and costs $50,000.

“I am most excited to see (an EOC) worthy of our city’s position as a leader in disaster preparedness through partner organizations such as Bainbridge Prepares,” Mayor Ashley Mathews said. “ Our former ‘center’ was in a closet in council chambers. In the case of an emergency, the first step would be getting laptops and supplies assembled from the closet in order to begin emergency operations. Now we’re ready to get to work keeping our community safe immediately.”

Mathews said the 2023 M/V Walla Walla grounding in Rich Passage served as a valuable learning opportunity on how to improve the city’s emergency management capabilities. She said the new facility will include real-time transit mapping and the ability to stream drone photos from other locations, like the Rotary Auction. There is also wildfire tracking and future opportunities for new technology.

“We want folks to know where their nearest disaster hub locations are. Many who are part of our disaster management teams live off-island and may not be able to get here. We need to be as prepared as we can,” she said.

LeSage said collaboration between Bainbridge Prepares, the Bainbridge Island Fire Department and city leadership is crucial to a successful emergency activation and response.

The EOC has three activation tiers: standby (monitor) for minor emergencies; partial activation for major emergencies such as a major fire or earthquake, and a full activation for a catastrophic event, requiring heavy resource involvement, including outside assistance, e.g, mutual aid, per city documents.

“The city…is doing everything we can to prepare our government agencies and community organizations for a disaster, but we cannot do it alone. We need people to take personal responsibility to be prepared as well,” LeSage said.

To learn more about emergency preparedness, visit bainbridgeprepares.org/