Cashmere reviews county emergency response after flood, approves 2026 contract

CASHMERE — A recent flood and a routine contract review came together the night of Jan. 12 in a broader conversation about what the City of Cashmere receives from the county’s emergency management program — and how the system can work better the next time the Wenatchee Valley faces a large-scale disaster.

Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison appeared before the City Council at its biweekly meeting alongside Sgt. Jason Reinfeld, who works in Chelan County’s emergency management program, at the council’s request. The discussion followed questions raised at a previous meeting about the city’s annual contract for emergency management services and what tangible benefits Cashmere sees from the arrangement.

Councilmembers acknowledged early in the discussion that the city is required to have an emergency management plan in place, and that maintaining that plan locally would be far more expensive than participating in the countywide system. Still, some said that because Cashmere rarely experiences major emergencies, the value of the program can be difficult to see from year to year.

Morrison and Reinfeld outlined the scope of the county’s emergency management work, which includes maintaining the county’s comprehensive emergency management plan, coordinating disaster response among agencies, managing public alert systems, and keeping the city and county eligible for state and federal grants tied to disaster preparedness and recovery.

They also walked the council through the county’s response to the December flooding, which created simultaneous emergencies across much of Chelan County, from the Wenatchee River corridor to the upper valley. Morrison said the county’s focus during the height of the storm was on life-safety issues in the hardest-hit areas, including rescues and evacuations in communities that were cut off by water.

In Cashmere, city officials described a brief but intense period during the flooding when public works crews were working to protect infrastructure along the river and were also dealing with onlookers gathering near the scene. During that window, the city asked for help with traffic and crowd control and did not receive a deputy on site.

Morrison said that, in hindsight, the county should have found a way to provide assistance in that moment, even as resources were stretched thin across the region. He emphasized that there had been communication with the city and that the situation was part of a much larger, fast-moving response effort, but said the concern raised by Cashmere was fair.

City Administrator Steve Croci also noted that the window of need was short and that the city was able to manage the situation, but said the moment stuck with councilmembers because it was one of the few times in recent memory that Cashmere had needed that kind of support during an emergency.

The conversation stayed focused less on the specific incident and more on expectations, coordination, and how the city and county can tighten communication during future events.

Reinfeld described the behind-the-scenes work of emergency management, including the county’s public alert system, which pushes warnings through cell phones, radio, and television, and the planning work that allows cities to qualify for disaster mitigation grants. Croci, in fact, noted that one such grant helped fund a generator project in Cashmere, a benefit that would not have been possible without an approved emergency management plan.

Morrison said the department would like to schedule a tabletop emergency exercise with the city to walk through scenarios and clarify roles before the next major incident, and emphasized that the goal is to make coordination smoother when real-world conditions are chaotic.

In the end, the council approved the 2026 emergency management contract, while making clear that the discussion had been about understanding the system better, not about backing away from it.

The exchange reflected a reality shared by many small cities in regional emergency systems: much of the value lies in planning, coordination, and preparedness that is largely invisible until something goes wrong — and when it does, even small gaps can feel much larger in the moment.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media