About us

Vision: A county with disaster-ready communities where everyone is prepared for and resilient to emergencies.

Mission: We provide regional leadership to strengthen community resilience and access to emergency services.

King County Emergency Management provides for the effective direction, control and coordination of County government services functional units; provides liaison with other governments and the private, non-governmental section; and, serve as the coordinating entity for cities, County departments, and other appropriate agencies, during incidents and events of regional significance. This is done in support of the Executive's Vision of King County as a welcoming place where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Emergency management, in general, is the nexus of a number of other practices and professions, focusing them on solving the problems of emergencies and disasters. We specialize in emergency preparedness and emergency operations in the prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery mission areas. This includes hazard and threat identification, risk assessment, capability building, planning, training, exercises, and operational execution and coordination of capabilities. Our four key initiatives are to develop and provide better situational awareness, strengthen Emergency Operations Center (EOC) readiness, promote public awareness, and contribute to disaster risk reduction.

In addition, a team of volunteers supports King County Emergency Management during activations of our Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC Support Team participates in training, exercises, and emergency coordination activities throughout the year.

Our priorities

Our priorities include four specific outcomes:

• Regional emergency services - To provide region-wide planning and emergency response coordination for jurisdictional and private sector partners
• Standards-based programs - To achieve a state of continuous improvement through the adoption of standards-based programs
• Resilient and inclusive systems - To develop resilient and inclusive systems for King County departments and the whole community
• Quality workforce - To develop a strong workforce made up of internal and external partners, ready to coordinate emergency preparedness and operations

Our Annual Reports provides specific examples of how we've achieved these outcomes.

Annual reports from prior years

• 2022
• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017