Island County names Justin Ross emergency management director amid department overhaul

Justin Ross has taken over Island County’s emergency management job just as the county is sharpening how it handles disasters, hazards and major incidents. The move lands at a high-stakes moment for Whidbey and Camano, where severe weather, infrastructure failures, wildfire, power outages and other emergencies can ripple quickly from one community to the next.

Ross arrived this month and has already started assessing how ready the county is from the inside out. The new director brings experience in federal, state and local emergency-management work, and he has described the job as more than a solo assignment for one office. His emphasis is on building collaborative relationships with stakeholders and community members while strengthening the systems the county already has in place.

That work now sits in a more visible place. Island County recently restructured emergency management so it is no longer housed inside Public Works. The department now stands on its own and Ross reports directly to the county commissioners, a change that elevates preparedness, response and recovery planning across the county. For residents in places from Oak Harbor to Freeland, that shift means emergency planning is no longer buried inside a broader infrastructure department.

The county’s emergency-management office is responsible for coordinating preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery for both natural and human-caused emergencies. It also runs the Emergency Operations Center when it is activated and provides hazard information and training for residents and first responders. That makes Ross’s job part planning office, part coordination hub and part public-facing warning system when conditions deteriorate.

Ross said he wants to build on the work already done by former director Eric Brooks, but the scope of the assignment is bigger than a routine personnel change. Island County’s emergency-management history dates to the early 1950s, when Washington’s Civil Defense Act required it. Since then, the program has evolved into an all-hazards model, one designed to handle everything from storms and outages to wildfire and other countywide disruptions.

For households, the practical takeaway is clear: preparedness this season depends on more than waiting for the county to act. Residents should pay attention to county hazard information, know where emergency alerts come from and treat evacuation planning as a standard household task, not a last-minute scramble. With the department now standing alone and reporting directly to elected county leaders, the clearest measure of improvement will be whether Island County can warn faster, coordinate better and recover with less confusion when the next emergency hits.