Emergency Operations Centers - Essay Example

Emergency Operation Centers An emergency operations center- EOC refers to an emergency response coordination center that gets tasked with conducting the principles of emergency management and emergency preparedness (PEP 10). The EOC is a physical location where an organization meets up during an emergency to plan and coordinate response and recovery actions as well as resources. Floods are the most prevalent hazards in the United States. Flash floods develop quickly and maybe unforeseen thus impacting on a neighborhood or community.

Creation of an EOC to mitigate such a disaster in Evergreen, Colorado is vital. The EOC to get used to manage the flash floods in Evergreen, Colorado should be an efficient and effective facility that will get used to coordinate emergency response actions. The EOC will get used to conduct operations, meetings, and training. Due to budgetary constraints, Evergreen’s EOC will be a designated building that gets modified to an EOC during the crisis. The size and physical configuration of the EOC will be dependent on the staffing and functional requirements as well as the equipment and resources needed during the occurrence of a flash flood disaster (PEP 43).

The physical design of the EOC will encompass the aspects of security, flexibility and open architecture, communications, survivability, and redundancy. The alternate location identified for the EOC will have communications equipment and back up power to ensure that operation get maintained and continued. The alternate location also gets located away from natural and man-made hazards. The Evergreen fire rescue facility can offer an alternate EOC location (Evergreen). The incident command system-ICS refers to a systematic tool that gets used to control, command, and coordinate emergency response.

An ICS entails policies, facilities, procedures, personnel, and equipment that get integrated into a communal organizational structure that is designed to uplift emergency response. The ICS is structured to guide activities under five major areas; finance, command, planning, operations, and logistics. It provides an organizational structure for disaster management (FEMA 16). Using the ICS guideline policies, emergency teams and agencies may use the EOC to coordinate their disaster management plans.

The ICS structure views the EOC as a resource facility that should get mobilized to mitigate the effects of the disaster. The EOC falls under the wings of the ICS in terms of a resource facility. Through the ICS policies, the Incident Commander and EOC team discuss on how to integrate the work of the EOC into the overall disaster management plan (FEMA 20). The ICS structure provides a guideline for the integration of the EOC into a collective organizational structure that seeks to improve on disaster management.

Multiple agencies involved in the disaster need to coordinate their activities to achieve a common goal. Coordination is vital in eliminating gaps, fragmentation, and duplication of services. Multiple agencies involved with the disaster can coordinate their activities by writing agreements such as memorandum of understanding. Independent agencies may coordinate their activities through sharing work and information with a common goal. Such agencies may also decide to coordinate their activities through collaboration or joint-strategic planning.

These agencies may also standardize their organizational activities to ensure coordination.Works CitedAgency, Federal Emergency Management. Incident Command System for Structural Collapse Incidents; ICSSCI-Student Manual. Maryland: FEMA, 2013.Program, Provincial Emergency. "Emergency Operations Center." Justice Institue of British Columbia (2006): 1-77.Rescue, Evergreen Fire. Evergreen Fire Rescue. 22 October 2013. 22 October 2013 .