Getting Help During a Flood through Mutual Aid Agreements – FbD Lunch & Learn Series

Join us on Thursday, October 2nd, for a special Flood Awareness Month session exploring how the Washington Intrastate Mutual Aid System (WAMAS) helps communities respond to floods and other natural disasters. This session will help floodplain managers, habitat restoration practitioners, Tribal staff, and local governments understand how mutual aid can protect communities, infrastructure, and restoration investments and what steps to take before an emergency happens.
Mark Douglas from WA Emergency Management Division will share the nuts and bolts of how WAMAS works, who can participate, how to sign up, and why it matters. Kirk Holmes will then share his perspective with real-world examples from his past experience as a Public Works Director. As always, we encourage attendees to come ready to ask questions and share any insight into WAMAS or how you’ve used it to gain support in an emergency response crisis.
Speaker Bios
Mark Douglas is the Logistics Program Supervisor for the Washington Emergency Management Division. His portfolio includes emergency communications for the State EOC, logistics, WebEOC incident software, and the management of mutual aid responses for WA State EMD using International, Interstate, and Intrastate mutual aid compacts for emergency response.
Kirk Holmes is the Director of Public Works in the Emergency Management Division at Perteet. He is the co-chair of the Emergency Management Council and Past-president of the Washington Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA-Wa). He leads the annual Emergency Management for Public Works Professionals workshop hosted by the Northwest Public Works Institute.
While we update the specific details of the Lunch & Learn sessions monthly, the topics are informed by feedback from the Floodplains by Design network of practitioners and partners.
As always, we welcome feedback and ideas for upcoming topics so please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself (Allan Warren awarren@b-e-f.org), Carol MacIlroy (cmacilroy@gmail.com), Lisa Nelson, (lnel461@ecy.wa.gov) or Matt Gerlach, (mger461@ecy.wa.gov).
Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2125469094
Passcode: 1234