‘The wording matters’: Ursula responds to Kent mayor’s criticism of flood alerts
Dec 28, 2025, 5:01 AM
Kent Mayor Dana Ralph criticized the National Weather Service for sending out “unnecessary” emergency alerts during the recent levee failure at the Green River.
Ursula Reutin, host of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, explained the mayor’s qualms with the emergency alert and why many Kent residents may have started to panic.
“She’s trying to make the distinction that this flash flooding wasn’t caused by sudden rainfall. Her argument is that the wording matters, because if you have to decide whether you’re going to take your kids from school or you’re going to evacuate or you’re going to flood emergency lines, that wording matters,” Ursula said.
KIRO producer Andrew Lanier addressed the communication failures during the levee break, stating that sometimes emergency action can be a personal judgment call.
“It seems like there were some communication breakdowns,” Lanier said. “We live in a place where we have floodplains. And I think to a certain extent, you have to rely on people to look out the window and say, ‘Hey, am I in danger? There’s no wall of water coming. We know this is not a place where that happens.'”
“My first instinct would be to get myself out of the area and move to higher ground,” Ursula responded. “I’m not going to be calling 911 because I know that they get inundated.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.
