Emergency Operations Center (EOC) | Emergency Management Department

A side view of the main wall of the LA City Emergency Management Department's "second home" -- the Emergency Operations Center, in diowntown Los Angeles. A very large monitor mounted on the wall is surrounded by six smaller screens showing traffic views of key City locations. Desks and computers can be seen at the bottom and a podium for holding meetings. The logos of the City and EMD are on either side of the words on the wall EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER.

In 2002, LA City voters passed Proposition Q, a $600 million Public Safety Bond Measure earmarked to finance the improvement, renovation, expansion, and construction of public safety (police/fire/paramedic) facilities. Approximately $107 million of the bond measure funds was set aside for the site acquisition, design, and construction of a new City of Los Angeles Emergency Operation Center (EOC).

The EOC is the focal point for coordination of LA’s emergency planning, training, response and recovery efforts. Its processes follow the National All-Hazards approach to such major disasters as wildfires, earthquakes, weather emergencies, acts of terrorism, and large-scale events within and/or affecting Los Angeles and which require involvement by multiple City departments and even regional response agencies. Also co-located in this state-of-the-art, 84,000 square feet, two-story, seismically base-isolated facility are the offices of the City's Emergency Management Department (EMD), a Fire Dispatch Center and Fire Department Operations Center, and the LA Police Real-Time Analysis and Critical Response (RACR) Division and Operations Center.

EOC features include the Main Coordination Room (MCR), a Media Center, Training Room, Management Section Room, Joint Information and Business Operations Centers, Executive Conference Room, and flexible-use break-out rooms, along with a dedicated Amateur Radio Operations Room.

MCR Highlights: 7,500 square feet, 29-foot high ceiling, 90 responder work areas arrayed into 16 functional “work pods.”

An EOC responder watches emergency developments one a large screen during a recent activation. The back of his red duty vest reads: Resource Status Unit Leader

EOC Organization: Arranged according to NIMS/Incident Command System (ICS) standards into Management, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance & Administration sections

Emergency Support Function (ESF) Layout: Arranged according to ICS Branch/Federal Emergency Support Functions: Law Enforcement, Fire Service, Transportation, Utilities, Public Works, Mass Care, Damage Assessment, Emergency Management, Port, and Airports

Communications: EOC local- and wide-area information management network, City, countywide and amateur radio systems; primary, backup and satellite telephone systems; fully integrated audio-video display systems; video-conferencing facilities; connection to external video systems (LAPD and LAFD airborne video units; LADOT ATSAC), access to NC4, NOAA weather information, Caltech seismic event information, and the State of California’s Operational Area Satellite Information System and Response Information, among others.

EOC Survivability Features: 30-foot setback from the street, perimeter fencing, blast-resistant exterior surfaces, video surveillance system, 24-hour on-site guards, emergency back-up generators, a centralized uninterrupted power source (UPS), reserve water storage tanks, redundant heating/ventilation/air conditioning systems, and reserve sewage storage tanks.