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Oso Hero Deputy Honored With Officer Of The Year Award

Austin Jenkins
Snohomish County Sheriff's Deputy Glen Bergstrom receives the ''officer of the year'' medal from Lt. Governor Brad Owen.

 

A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy has been named “officer of the year” for his actions in the aftermath of the Oso landslide.

Deputy Glen Bergstrom received the honor Friday from the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs.

Bergstrom lives near the slide zone was alerted to the disaster last March by his wife. He immediately headed for the scene.

“As I came over Skaglund Hill, and at the bottom of the hill there [I saw] was a house in the middle of the road. And it was heavily damaged, and as far as I could see to the east was a sea of mud,” Bergstrom recalled. “That was the moment that I thought, 'Wow this is enormous. This is huge.”'

Bergstrom is credited with calling in a helicopter and jet fuel, and helping to coordinate the rescue of survivors. He was also there the day, months later, when the last of the 43 who died was recovered.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.