The City of Los Angeles is committed to ensuring the safety, resilience, and recovery of our 4 million residents, over 400,000 businesses, and the vital infrastructure that sustains our city. To fulfill this mission, the City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department (EMD) facilitates emergency planning across all City departments and coordinates the City’s response to major emergencies and disasters.
There are multiple types of emergency plans that City departments, first responders, and other government officials utilize to delineate emergency response roles and capabilities. EMD leads the City's efforts in the development, regular maintenance, and distribution of Citywide emergency plans and also provides guidelines and review for field-level or department-specific emergency response and recovery plans. Most notably, EMD maintains the City’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) as well as conducts exercises of City-wide plans with City departments and agencies to ensure they are ready to fulfill their respective missions.
City of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Plan
The City of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Base Plan serves as the comprehensive, all-hazards response framework, established in accordance with the Los Angeles Administrative Code, Citywide ADA guidelines, FEMA’s Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101, and the California Emergency Services Act. The EOP synchronizes complex citywide response operations by defining the roles, resources, and coordination processes required to save lives, protect infrastructure, and minimize the physical, psychological, social and economic impacts of disasters. Intended for use before and during incidents, this document empowers City departments, partner agencies, and the broader emergency management community to execute a unified, actionable response when it matters most.
Download Emergency Operations Base Plan
While the EOP Base Plan establishes the overarching framework for Citywide response, it is supported by a series of functional and hazard-specific annexes.
Scope of the EOP
The EOP Base Plan and its annexes are high-level strategic plans describing how the City organizes, mobilizes, and coordinates its response to emergencies and disasters. It outlines overarching authorities, policy, organizational structure, and defines the roles and responsibilities of various agencies, rather than how certain missions should be done.
EOP Annex and Appendices Reimagined Project
In 2023, EMD initiated a massive project to completely overhaul the City’s EOP and throughout the past few years, the City has developed new plans and improved existing annexes and appendices to its EOP. The objective of this effort is to create plans that are more operational, accessible, and reflective of current City capabilities, policies, and interdepartmental coordination capabilities.
By streamlining the City’s response planning framework in this way, EMD is shifting from static, long-form documents to operational tools designed for active use during an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) activation or major disaster.
Project Goals
- Creating plans that are actionable and user-friendly for City departments and partner agencies when time is of the essence.
- Consolidating redundant annexes to create a more cohesive and efficient response structure.
- Ensuring City Emergency plans account for current City capabilities, policy changes, and the interdependencies of our complex urban environment.
- Enhancing clarity to ensure that roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes are well-understood by all responders, enabling effective and cohesive City emergency responses
This initiative is a multi-year effort that reflects the City's dedication to continuous improvement. EMD is working methodically to update and approve this new suite of plans, with the full project slated for completion by 2027.
This process includes a phased approach that allows for rigorous stakeholder review, ensuring that every annex and appendix is technically accurate, operationally sound, and vetted by subject matter experts. As the review and approval process progresses, finalized annexes and appendices will be made available here for public access. As of October 2026, the following plans have been approved by the Emergency Operations Board:
- Adverse Weather Annex
- Alert, Warning & Public Information Annex
- Assistance Center Annex
- Civil Disturbance Annex
- Damage Assessment Annex
- Evacuation Annex
- Mass Fatality Annex
- Transportation Incident Annex
- Wildfire Annex
These plans will be available here in the website once they are remediated to ensure it meets the Title II of American with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.
