Planning in the emergency operations center

摘要

Planning is a deliberate process that often times calls for the integrated efforts of numerous individuals from a variety of disciplines. From my personal experience, nowhere is this more apparent or critical than with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during a disaster or catastrophe. During an EOC activation the planning function is critical to the success of field operations and overall situational awareness. The planning function is conducted within very stringent timeframes and often with limited information. While creating a plan on time is important, making sure the plan is as accurate as possible is essential. One of the most difficult hurdles to overcome in EOC planning is getting the opportunity to actually perform to function. Many times EOCs do not activate for weeks or even months. This constrains those who are charged with actually participating in the planning process. There are avenues that can be taken to address this problem but it all comes down to getting into the environment and doing the work.