Washington is no stranger to rain, but December 2025 saw historic rainfall hitting the state, prompting flooding across 13 counties near simultaneously. Over the course of the disaster, over 100,000 residents were subject to evacuation orders over hundreds of square miles.

At the center of managing the response to this extreme weather event was the Emergency Management Division (EMD) within Washington’s Military Department. When any significant emergency or disaster threatens or affects the state,  EMD manages the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) which is staffed and supported by dozens of state agencies, centralizing information and response decision-making.

Kevin Wickersham, Response Section Manager at the EMD, says that the SEOC began to closely monitor weather reports and flood forecasts as soon as December 5th. By December 8th, the EOC was partially activated with full activation less than 24 hours later, coinciding with Governor Ferguson’s Emergency Declaration. A full activation means that all capabilities available to the SEOC are being utilized - this is only done for the most significant and threatening situations.

The EMD prepares for emergency declarations like this regularly; about 80% of EMD roles are related to preparation for, response to, or recovery from emergencies and disasters, and all but a few EMD staff work in the SEOC when needed. Some EMD staff serve in highly specialized roles such as GIS Analysts while others may be trained to fill in multiple roles as the situation demands. Staff are kept sharp though quarterly training, and of course hands-on experience in more significant emergencies.

A map from FEMA showing the status of local federal personnel and resources. 

But Wickersham describes despite this preparation, they were honestly overwhelmed by the scale of the area impacted and volume of incoming data. Not only did this disaster affect a much larger geographic area than usual, this is also the largest flooding incident in Washington in which modern means to capture and use data were available. Data was coming in from dozens of local, county, state, Tribal and federal sources across many jurisdictions. Wickersham said that EMD only has two GIS specialists available on staff and they had to work back to back shifts and bring in analysts from other state agencies to try to keep up with the flood of data to inform leaders of the constantly changing situation. 

The SEOC had to lean on other state and federal agencies just to get a handle on the situation. Wickersham first described the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were brought in to tap into their GIS Modeling staff to assist in forecasting and modeling of impact using pre-incident data. The Corps of Engineers were already responding to the situation, including with a representative in the SEOC, and were able to help the EOC estimate the likely extent of flood inundation. These calculations were used alongside other data to estimate impacts to residence and infrastructure in the affected areas. 

One inundation map produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The SEOC was also able to request that NASA reposition satellites to obtain fresh imagery data of the evolving situation. The SEOC also worked with FEMA and a federal contractor to obtain and process synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery data to see though dense cloud cover and estimate water depth and extent of flooding below the clouds. The contractor was able to acquire and process the data within about 24 hours, assisting in expediting immediate post-disaster damage assessments much more quickly than the slow process of deploying ground teams to conduct manual inspections of every damaged residence. 

The EOC still did their due diligence and in ground truthing the water depth estimates, found most estimates to be accurate within just a few inches of actual water depths, measured by high water lines on buildings and infrastructure! Impressive when you are looking through clouds! FEMA also provided additional support with their Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP) in coordinating search and rescue operations, where the locations of areas searched were plotted along with photography and limited damage assessment information captured by the search and rescue teams in between performing rescues.

Maps showing a snapshot of evacuation order statewide and in specific localities: Skagit, Lewis, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties.

A little closer to Earth, the Washington Department of Natural Resources flew its fixed wing planes with visible-spectrum imaging equipment, and helicopters equipped with LiDAR sensors to help the SEOC to assess damages and landslide risk and danger on saturated slopes. Imagery data was uploaded every day after it was captured, sometimes mid-flight, to give the SEOC a constant stream of fresh data. The Civil Air Patrol also contributed to efforts, providing aerial photos of impacted locales. All of this data and more was hosted on state servers through WaTech, keeping the data centralized and accessible to every agency contributing their expertise.

It is clear from top to bottom, so many agencies and personnel were committed to joining forces and building a lightning fast understanding of the situation and responding efficiently and effectively. As Joanne Pearson, State Geographic Information Officer at WaTech said, “If you need anything else, let me know, that was the attitude.”

Wickersham deeply appreciates the support from every agency involved and the GIS expertise they lended. He acknowledges that their support was critical in the difference between the success and failure of coordinating response efforts. 

As he put it, “They really saved our bacon!”