Executive Director of Administration
Helen Fitzpatrick oversees the Human Resources, Finance, Information Technology and Public Affairs divisions. She has served in a variety of positions during her more than 15 years with the department, including Executive Director of Staff, Communications Director and Public Information Officer. She has an Executive Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Washington and a Master’s Degree in Homeland Security from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. She is also a graduate of the 2007 City of Seattle Leadership Institute.
To Helen:
Earthquake / tsunami presentations to emergency personnel and the public for you. Mac Macdonald 206-932-1232
I left a message with Kari about this, I’m sure she’ll soon return my message to say she’s received it.
I have been working with the Clallam County Emergency management up in Port Angeles, preparing the public, boaters, the coast Guard, various Tribes, and emergency personnel as to what to expect when the Cascadia Subduction Zone decides to uncork. With the use of a riveting slide presentation, I have been helping everybody understand what we are in store for and how to prepare for it. In an exceedingly stimulating manner I compel action, action to prepare, and the understanding that help is not coming.
I have now moved to Seattle and wish to engage with you the idea of my providing these same two-hour programs to your employees and those you serve.
I would like to apply for employment with Seattle Fire visiting every station in the city giving lectures to your personnel and providing local ideas of just what they are personally in store for when this expected 9.0 breaks loose, i.e. the inability to take engines and vehicles very far out onto probable fissured roads.
Here are questions I have been answering to yacht clubs, chambers of commerce, church groups, CERT leaders and members, Coast Guard, police and fire, and others.
Why will we see this happening in our lifetime, if we are young enough now, and the geological and geophysical reasons for it?
What Seattle homes will suffer greatest from a six-minute duration earthquake that makes the Nisqually quake look like child’s play?
How fast will the first wave (does everyone know there will be seven to nine waves and the sixth or seventh is generally the tallest and strongest) travel? Does everyone know what it will be carrying besides salt water?
Are you aware how fast the tsunami will hit Washington’s shores? How fast the waves will come down the Juan de Fuca Strait? How soon it will hit Seattle and at what strength?
I answer questions people have such as where is my evacuation route? What is an emergency backpack? What is to go inside that backpack? What is the one thing everybody forgets to have inside that backpack? What to do with animals – how to care for them during an upheaval, what to do if they won’t come out of the house to escape with you? What about larger animals, horses and livestock for example? How do you identify them for later retrieval?
What if your kids or spouses are in a different part of the city, how do you plan for that?
I have created some AI generated pictures to show what areas of Seattle will look like which add urgency to our preparation and will be glad to show you the presentation.
And what about boaters? They all have the answer to what they will do when this thing unleashes, it I always; “Well, I’ll just go out and let it float underneath me” as if a day at the park, WHICH IT WON’T if they are not deep enough. Do they know what depth to be? Do they know where to find that depth? Are they aware that what is coming towards them, the cross currents from above sea and below sea landslides? The Whirlpools they’ll face? The things being washed back at them are not things they want to hear go bump in the night.
How do they prepare? I have the creatively crafted slides to show them, and to you all so that you can provide them the information. How do you help them with their escape routes? What to do with refugees as they circulate around the stations, and where do you lead them from there? There will be many in Seattle learning from those who are currently unhoused. How many bridges will go down?
I am adept at public speaking having been a national trainer (see http://www.lyfeco.com) and know how to present this in just such a way so that no one is spooked, no one impelled to leave the area, but activated in just such a way they prepare themselves for this or any other type of emergency. They’ll still point the finger at you for not preparing them or saving them, humans being who they are, but less so.
Have you the idea that this is a good one? Yours, Mac A. Macdonald 206-932-1232