Emergency Operation Centers
/As a citizen of a village, a town, a county, or a city, have you ever thought if the municipality has a functioning emergency operation center to manage the response to a major emergency or a disaster? Do you know where is it? Who staffs it? How effective is it?
In 2007, I contributed a chapter in Emergency Management: Principles and Practice for Local Government, published by the ICMA Press. Part of that chapter, chapter 5, I discuss the critical functions of an emergency operations center, otherwise known in the field of response, the EOC. First, the section starts by siting the late and legendary disaster research scientist E.L. Quarantelli on his list of functions of an emergency operation centers:
Coordination
Surveillance Management
Establish Levels of Activations
Information Management
Planning
Operations and Missions Management
Policy Making and Legal Issues
Public Information
Facility Environment
Host Visitors
I will try to be brief.
Coordination
The most central function of an emergency operation center is the ability to coordinate all disaster related activities. McEntire (2002) provides a scholarly view of coordination as “the harmonious interaction of organizations participating in response operations”. It can be further viewed as the interaction of multiple organizations, from various levels of government to participate in the development of agreed upon emergency operation plans, the education of, and the training and exercise of such planning, as well as the implementation of these plans during response and recovery efforts.
Surveillance management
The monitoring of local, regional and national conditions to provide a constant situational awareness. Such items of interest (not limited to) tapered by local needs are forecasted and current weather; seismic activity; national and local terrorist threats; activity rate of crime, fire, and EMS; air, rail, marine and road traffic conditions; influence of current construction / repairs to traffic and communication and various other critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) such as the status of power supply (electrical / steam / nuclear); syndromic surveillance for early detection of disease outbreaks; and, hospital surge capacities.
Levels of activation
To set forth staffing needs from the emergency response organizational network (ERON) for an EOC. Level 1 through 3 are the most common beginning with level 1 to staff the EOC with a small contingent to ‘fire up’ the computers, check all communications, pull up all related plans for the event, etc., up to level 3, for a full staffing from all municipal agencies, volunteer organizations, and related businesses.
Information management
Today's technology provides the capability to manage the massive flux of data and information passing through an EOC, through the use of dedicated computer software programs. Critical functions of a software product for emergency operation centers are (not limited too)
Oracle based (or similar) for encryption capabilities
Provide real-time dynamic impact modeling of occurrences such as traffic, gas / vapor plumes, and high wind analysis
Storage of critical documents and updated emergency operation plans
Archiving capability of audio, visual, and text data
Contain current population
Designed around the National Incident Management System
Allow users to log-in under Emergency Support Functions
Prompt system to remind users of due situational reports, notifications, and plan activations
Maintain and store databases such as skilled and material resources, dynamic damage assessments, fatality and injury tallies, debris estimates, and similar
Archive financial data of overtime and emergency contracts and purchases allowing for financial recovery through the Robert Stafford Act
Geographical Information Systems
Global Positioning Systems
Import video surveillance from transportation systems, government and businesses facilities
Situational reporting, the most important product of computer software, should be able to compile and display the following:
Event identification and incidental incidents (recorded in-conjunction with federal and state cataloguing)
Organizational chart of current EOC staffing
Current incident objectives
Project objectives and missions
Complications and impediments
Surveillance information
Reports from individual ERON representative
Planning
The EOC should be the repository of current plans from all levels of government and partnerships. The National Response Framework, NIMS, relevant federal plans, State and regional plans that will augment local emergency operation plans. Plans and M.O.U ‘s from non-government entities, special district such as schools, universities, businesses, non-for-profit organizations, and Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD s) could also be part of the EOC library of documents. Prior to and during an event, the emergency manager can activate and refer to relevant plans for reference during a response.
The emergency operation center will also facilitate incident action planning (IAP) that occurs frequently during an event. Experience as shown that emerging issues arise warranting the response of multiple agencies to perform within un-chartered conditions.
Operations and mission management
To provide a seamless process in the constant transformation of lead agency and those organizations assigned as supportive. As the event’s time-line lengthens, disaster demands will either diminish and/or change requiring the activation of planning annexes, and/ or incident action plans establishing new missions.
Operations and mission management in effect, performs the unified command role from the EOC assigning which agency will perform specific tasks and activities and monitor the deployment of critical resources. This vital coordination and cooperation will ensure each organization to fulfill their authority and responsibilities, but what is important here is the communication between EOC and the field of what is being assigned and tasked.
Policy making and Legal issues
All disasters will require high level decision making that will be based upon information collected, analyzed, and presented from the emergency manager to municipal administration. In New York State, article 2B of the states executive law, addresses various legal issues during a ‘declaration of state of emergency’. Issues such as quarantine; criminal and terrorist investigations; mandatory evacuation; commandeer facilities; and the relaxation of regulations. More importantly, emergency managers and legal experts must be vigilant of Constitutional Law.
Public Information
Public Information is managed through a joint information center (JIC) of the EOC where public information personnel from all involved organizations are assembled to disseminate a unified message to the media and to the public. Information such as personal protection, traffic conditions, weather forecasts, evacuations, shelters, hotlines, and websites are disseminated for a consistent and credible message, especially for the public at risk. (See also categories of communication)
Physical Environment
The Federal Emergency Management Agency division of Homeland Security describes physical features of an Emergency Operation Center addressing the Survivability, Security, Sustainability, Interoperability, and Flexibility through a checklist of consideration. The following should be considered:
Square footage - anticipated staff per shift, equipment, security personnel, parking, berthing, landing zones, press, visitors and political leaders
Communication systems - phone-lines, computer servers, satellite equipment, radio and TV broadcasting equipment
Redundancies in generation and water
Conference rooms
Policy conference room
Secure communications room
Multi-use spaces
Sleeping accommodations
Kitchen and or cafeteria
The operations floor housing the ERON
Podium - located to observe the entire EOC, houses the emergency management staff with support representatives from federal and state emergency management.
Hosting Visitors
Critical to the exchange of practices and lessons learned, emergency managers should establish relations with other emergency managers locally, statewide and federally. The EOC should be an environment before, during and after activation for lessons learned of the event and prior events. Special consideration should be towards political leaders as well as establishing relations with academic centers that provide emergency management programs and/or conduct disaster research.