Evolution of emergency operations center

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. ANTHONY RAMAGE
  • 56th Civil Engineer Squadron commander
Consider this your introduction to the Air Force Incident Management System. Events that have transpired over the last few years have taught us that major emergencies, both natural and man-made, require interagency cooperation on a massive scale. The effects of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have yielded sweeping changes in the emergency management community, one of which is the implementation of a comprehensive national system for managing domestic incidents. 

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 mandated that all government agencies establish a system that meshes with the overarching incident management infrastructure. The Air Force has put forth AFIMS as the answer to that challenge. For emergency management systems however, one size does not fit all. 

The city of Surprise has a very different mission and composition than Luke Air Force Base, yet they must be able to communicate with their counterparts and use resources effectively should an F-16 go down in someone's backyard. There have been some definite growing pains in the emergency management community, and one of the biggest has been the incorporation of the emergency operations center. 

Under the old construct, this entity is the combination of the survival recovery center and the disaster control group. This new organization puts a great deal of tactical authority in the hands of the on-scene experts and relegates the higher-level decision makers to the supporting position. The incident-scene commander can request any level of support, from a bomb squad, to a fleet of ambulances, to mortuary affairs with a mere phone call. 

The emergency support functionals back at the EOC task their unit control centers to provide personnel or material support. 

Meanwhile, operational and strategic decisions are being made by the EOC director and wing commander based on the free flow of information that, little by little, brings the emergency into focus. This many people exchanging critical information at once brings to mind a picture of Wall Street at the opening bell. 

In order to stay connected to the developments as they happen in real time, the EOC must be a communications hub of epic proportions. The only problem is that the funding that accompanied this directive in 2006 was not as epic. So, bases everywhere have had to pull together a patchwork of resources - some laptops here, a spare room in a building there, and miles of telephone and CAT-5 cable everywhere - in order to provide this new emergency management capability. 

Luke, in particular, has invested heavily in this process (more than $150,000 in the last four months alone). From software that will soon be able to provide a single Web page where all parties can access a real-time log of events, to big screen TVs to display the common operating picture, to 25 independent stations each with Internet and critical phone access. And just in time too. 

The upcoming UCI team will not care that resources have been tight; they will be looking at Luke to demonstrate the capability to assess, communicate and act accordingly in the face of adversity. And Luke won't be doing it alone. Emergency management, fire department, police and medical community representatives in the local area will be playing along, just as they would in real life. 

Luke's new EOC provides the capability to ensure all the important information goes to the proper recipient, and AFIMS ensures that the recipient will understand what to do with it, whether it is the Luke fire chief talking to the West Valley Hospital ambulance dispatcher or the FBI forensics unit talking to local law enforcement. They will all be speaking the same language, and doing their best to ensure that if the West Valley ever experiences a catastrophe on the scale of Hurricane Katrina, that everything possible has been done to ensure we don't lose our brave responders due to miscommunication like we did in 9/11.