What is an emergency operations centre?

Activity 9.1 Before you run your mouse over the definition provided below, take a moment to consider what you believe an Emergency Operations Centre or EOC as it is commonly referred to, is. On a piece of paper write down in your own words how you would define and EOC, and then see how your definition compares with the ones we have provided below.

If your definition contains similar words and meanings to the description above then you are on the right track as to understanding what an EOC is and why we need them.

EOC location

In major disaster/emergency incidents, there may be a number of EOCs in operation. Individual response agencies might be operating their own EOC from where command and co-ordination of their own organisation is being managed. There will hopefully also be a multi-agency operations centre activated, where overall control and co-ordination of the various response agencies will be managed.

The location of an EOC is dependent upon the incident.

Some factors to be taken into consideration when selecting an EOC site are:

• access to communications facilities, i.e. telephone, facsimile, radio, telex, etc.;
• radio reception and transmission capability;
• general security of the EOC;
• security of the EOC from the hazard;
• availability of parking and storage facilities;
• access and egress routes;
• location in relation to other agencies/organisations;
• size of the facility in relation to staff requirements.

These are some of the major factors. Hopefully you will have identified some or most of these and maybe some additional ones as well. Add those that you hadn't thought of to your list in your Activity 9.2 Table document, as these considerations will be useful to you later when you are examining the location of EOCs established for your selected emergency/disaster event.

It is advisable that suitable EOC sites be identified before an event occurs. These locations should be investigated and the factors discussed above examined. This information should then be passed to those who need to know and documented. This information can be documented in a variety of ways.

Activity 9.3   Read Reading 9.1: Extract from Bell Bay Industrial Mutual Aid Group Emergency Management Plan. Reading 9.2: Extract from George Town Emergency Management Plan. Reading 9.3: Extract from Northern Region Emergency Management Plan. The above readings have provided you with an appreciation of how the location and siting of EOCs has been determined within a number of emergency management jurisdictions (local government area, regional area and specialist Industrial Mutual Aid area) in Tasmania. What I now want you to do is examine your own local area and the various emergency management strategies developed by organisations. Ascertain if locations for EOCs within your local community have been identified, whether they are single or multi-agency and where the location is documented. Place your information in the Activity 9.3 table document provided in the link below and don't forget to save your work to your Learning Portfolio upon completion. Location of EOCs Community Location: EOC location Single or multi-agency? (provide details of agency/agencies serviced by the EOC) Where is the location of the EOC documented?             Save or print this activity