Emergency operations center location and organization for coastal hurricane preparedness

¶ … Emergency Operation Center for a coastal town. This town is vulnerable to hurricanes, and needs a center to manage operations if a hurricane occurs. An emergency operations center provides protection for emergency management personnel who continue to operate the government and support services during an emergency, such as a hurricane. It must be in a safe location, and it can be compact to large and stand-alone. The location in question is vulnerable to hurricanes, and it needs a new emergency operations center design.

Planning a well-running emergency operation center takes coordination and an understanding of what disasters the center could face. In a hurricane prone area, it should be located well away from the coast, where there can be a danger of flooding when hurricanes occur. It should have a minimum of windows, which can blow out during a hurricane, and it should have underground, secure utilities to ensure that communications and operations can continue when the power goes out. It should be designed to be discreet, so it is not obvious to the public, and it should be in a protected area. It has to be secure, and access should be controlled. If possible, it should be located near other emergency services, such as fire or medical responders, and it should be in a location that is easy to access by the emergency staff members. It should also be constructed to resist hurricanes due to specific building standards.

The center also needs sleeping and eating areas, and needs to be self-contained, so staff members can live in the center during an emergency. It needs to have excellent communications equipment, so news about the disaster can be broadcast to the public. The communications team should have contacts to local media, so they can pass on news about services and other issues during the emergency.

Planning the center should include extensive plans for the future expansion of the center due to area growth and development. Planning for a larger center in the future eliminates the need to build an entire new center if it is someday required. The director should also do a risk analysis of the type of threats that face the community, and the facility. Another writer notes, "The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed guidelines to assist a community in a risk assessment process" (Vaughn, 2008, p. 26). While hurricanes are the main concern, there can also be other treats, such as safety, security, staff health, and the overall operation of the facility.

Organization