October 16, 2018
Great UW ShakeOut 2018 is coming!
WHY? With all the recent catastrophic hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires impacting the US, let’s talk about the next Great UW ShakeOut. Our biggest natural hazard threat here in the Pacific Northwest is an earthquake. While Washington does not experience earthquakes as frequently as, say, California, when we are hit with the next 7, 8, or…
December 22, 2015
Holiday Hours for UWEM Office
To allow UWEM staff to enjoy the Christmas and New Years holidays with their families, UWEM will observe limited on-campus staff coverage on the following dates this year: December 24 and December 31. In case of a campus-wide emergency or incident, please call our 24/7 UWEM Duty Officer phone at 206-765-7192. HAPPY HOLIDAYS !
June 24, 2019
From the archives: UW stadium civil defense drill during WWII
While the UW prides itself in our regular schedule of emergency and disaster trainings, drills and exercises, we also recently discovered some old news footage of a massive community-wide emergency drill conducted on June 13, 1943. This daylong civil defense drill at University of Washington stadium (now called Husky Stadium) sets a faux village ablaze. …
June 5, 2019
Ready for another HOT and smoke-filled summer?! The UW “leans-forward” in its planning efforts
On June 4, 2019, a group of nearly 3O UW staff and external experts convened for the first time to begin an intensive process to plan for the likelihood of yet another hot and dry summer season in Washington State. Joined by experts from the WA State Climatologist’s Office, the WA State Department of Health,…
June 4, 2019
UW Leadership Convenes to Plan for the Unthinkable
Early in the early morning hours of May 28, 2019, most of us were slowly transitioning back our normal routines after a long Memorial Day holiday. However, members of the UW’s senior leadership team took this opportunity to meet in the campus emergency operations center (EOC) to learn, discuss and share information on the importance…
Clayton Brainerd elected ERC Vice Chair
The Emergency Readiness Committee unanimously elected Mr. Clayton Brainerd, Analyst in the UW Facilities Partner Resources Department, as its first Vice Chairperson during its May 2, 2019 meeting. Immediately prior to his election, the ERC updated its governance Charter, which included a new provision requiring that the Committee elect a Vice Chair as part of…
May 20, 2019
May 2, 2019 – July 2019 (Accidental Radiological Spill Forces Extended Closure of Harborview Research & Training Building)
During a planned decommissioning of a piece of medical equipment, federal cleanup contractors accidentally spilled a small amount of highly-radioactive materials inside of the Harborview Research and Training Building. As a result and to ensure the safety of occupants and nearby personnel, the entire building was closed during the remediation and cleanup process. 13 UW/Harborview…
April 12, 2019
Say HELLO to our newest employee: Barry Morgan
After an exhaustive nationwide search for the best-qualified candidate, we are happy to announce that we found “our guy” literally in our own backyard. Formerly, the Emergency Manager for Central Washington University, Mr. Barry W. Morgan recently accepted the position of Plans, Training and Exercise Manager. Barry started with UWEM on April 3rd and already…
Barry Morgan Bio
Barry is the current Plans, Training, and Exercise Manager for the University of Washington. Selected in 2019, Mr. Morgan is responsible for working with stakeholders to enhance emergency planning, as well as the development of exercises, and natural hazard mitigation planning for the university. Previously, he served as a consultant for the Department of Homeland…
March 27, 2019
Snowpocalypse 2019: A podcast describing this freak event in Seattle
Want to really understand why our 10+ days of snow, ice and record cold weather in early February 2019 was so unusual? Click here to be taken to a 12-minute podcast detailing why this series of February storms were so unusual for Western Washington and how many records were broken. Courtesy of our local FOX-13…
March 18, 2019
UW Alert …or Advisory?!? How does that System Actually Work?
Ever wonder why and how the UW Alert campus notification system actually works? Who sends out those messages? How do they determine what the message is? Well, our friends at the UW Daily newspaper dispatched their finest investigative reporters out to unravel this mystery. The full feature article can be found HERE.
March 15, 2019
Off the Richter Scale … Can the Pacific Northwest prepare for the cataclysmic quake that’s coming?
Americans have long dreaded the “Big One,” a magnitude 8.0 earthquake along California’s San Andreas Fault that could one day kill thousands of people and cause billions of dollars in damage. The Big One, though, is a mere mini-me compared with the cataclysm forming beneath the Pacific Northwest. This fascinating, and yes, quite scary article…