HOOD RIVER, OR- Katie Skakel, Hood River’s new Emergency and Resilience Program Manager, is pictured in her new office inside of the Hood River County Courthouse in Hood River, Oregon on May 7, 2026. In mid-March, Hood River County welcomed Skakel as the new Emergency and Resilience Program Manager. She is quoted as being “a strategic resilience and land use planner with 35 years of cross-sector expertise,” as well as specializing in hazard mitigation, floodplain management, and climate adaptation.
Photo by Helen H. Richardson/Special to the Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER, OR- Katie Skakel, Hood River’s new Emergency and Resilience Program Manager, is pictured in her new office inside of the Hood River County Courthouse in Hood River, Oregon on May 7, 2026. In mid-March, Hood River County welcomed Skakel as the new Emergency and Resilience Program Manager. She is quoted as being “a strategic resilience and land use planner with 35 years of cross-sector expertise,” as well as specializing in hazard mitigation, floodplain management, and climate adaptation.
Photo by Helen H. Richardson/Special to the Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — Katie Skakel is now Hood River County’s emergency and resilience program manager. After a career across the country preparing for and recovering from disasters, Skakel returns to Hood River County with a goal to update the plans and procedures for different calamities. Skakel previously held planning positions in both Hood River and Multnomah counties.
“I see the role of an emergency manager to be ready for a natural hazard event. In our current time frame, we’re looking strongly at wildfire,” said Skakel. “My background comes at it from more of a resilience standpoint, where we’re doing work to be more prepared for an event causing a lot of damage.” She spoke about being a resource, convener, and coordinator of all the agencies that emergency management touches.
Skakel began her career in emergency management in Massachusetts, where she worked as the state hazard mitigation officer, and has spent a total of 35 years in planning and management. For the last five years, she’s overseen community engagement and outreach for Colorado State University’s (CSU) Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, holding a job with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency in between.
At CSU, the focus was on creating an open-source model for communities to assess their current state of resilience and to estimate the costs and benefits of actions to improve. “It was a complete interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary team of engineers and planners. Really just amazing work,” said Skakel.
In addition to a B.S. from St. Lawrence University, advanced studies in environmental law and land use planning from Tufts University, soil Science and wetland delineation at UMass Amherst, and site planning and design at Portland State University, Skakel is a certified climate change professional.
Skakel spoke about the unique challenges the Gorge faces in responding to and preparing for disasters, especially highlighting the trouble caused by heavy semi-truck traffic on the Interstate 84 corridor.
“It gets very gridlocked, which creates a great bit of concern if you’re dealing with high winds,” said Skakel. “We’ve been talking with our Oregon Department of Transportation partners. They have plans, but really bringing those to the forefront so that the trucks coming through on the I-84 corridor aren’t getting trapped in the Gorge.” This would involve diverting before the Gorge and keeping traffic moving safely through.
“I’m looking at what’s referred to as lifeline planning,” said Skakel. Potential relief valves include making small improvements to secondary roads, personnel planning, and better coordination. “I think there’s some low-hanging fruit that we might be able to do to improve some things,” she said.
For wildfire, ice storms, and other disasters, Skakel is working on getting the county prepared with implementing the measures called for in an updated multi-hazard plan. “It’s a very active document, and it addresses all of our hazards,” including the wildfire protection plan, because her priority is, “making sure people are cared for and protected, and particularly the more vulnerable populations,” she said.
She also asked that, as wildfire season arrives, the public do its part to help keep our area safe. “If they see someone with a cigarette, they might not be from around here. They might need to be told [to] be careful with that cigarette,” she said. “Snowpack is low. It’s heightened awareness right now.”
The resources in this guide, and from the county and the all lands partnerships between the county, local fire departments, forest, health, and emergency managements are a good place to begin preparing your own home.
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