We are not going to be able to put the EOC staff Genie back in the physical EOC bottle—all the time.
See my January, International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Bulletin Disaster Zone Column below.
Email me and tell me what you think—ericholdeman@ericholdeman.com
IAEM Disaster Zone Column, January 2022
The Virtual EOC
For a number of years I’ve read and written about the possibility of a virtual Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Now two years into the worldwide pandemic many if not most organizations have had some practical experience with executing a virtual EOC. What have we learned and what troubles lay ahead?
There is nothing like a disaster to cause people to be responsive, innovative and adaptive to the situation that confronts us. In about mid-March 2020, many parts of the United States started implementing social distancing measures. That meant that the idea of an EOC crammed full of people coordinating a response to the pandemic went out the window and the virtual EOC was born.
I must note that not every EOC followed this pattern. Some communities soldiered on from their normal facilities and others moved to larger spaces that would accommodate, in some cases, hundreds of people. Therefore, there was not one homogenized response to the situation presented by COVID.
Electronic communications became the norm with people either operating from their homes or disparate office locations. With remote access, security became a bigger issue. Laptops had to be provided to many people since they normally operated from a desktop environment. Most people I have spoken to about this early part of the pandemic found it confusing to operate virtually. However, like in most situations, organizations found a battle rhythm that allowed them to become functional in coordinating.
One of the highlights of the entire pandemic experience for me was that the telecommunications systems around the United States held up. Not only were emergency managers working remotely, but also businesses, other government agencies and school districts that had gone to remote learning. Throw in a passel of people all streaming Netflix and playing games online and it was the maximum of maximums when it comes to bandwidth and robustness of our commercial communications systems. This won’t always be true in natural disasters when portions of our critical infrastructure are nonfunctional, so note that there are future vulnerabilities to the virtual EOC.
Is the virtual EOC just as effective as an in-person EOC? Based on my personal experience, I don’t know how it can be so. We are still dealing with humans and their variability. In the virtual EOC we share information with those we think need to know it. Many times, the “who needs to know” goes beyond who we think should be in the loop.
The chance encounters, the stand-up regular briefings, and the what I call “ring the bell moments” when we need to get everyone’s attention to an issue or new development, will often cause a redirection of activities. These are hard to achieve in the virtual EOC.
Then there is the “planned overhearing” of information. One of the techniques I used in a physical EOC setting was to collocate fire and law enforcement immediately adjacent to one another. Not that they would ever intentionally coordinate—but it does lead to the inadvertent sharing of information as they listen to their counterparts coordinate an issue.
In a totally virtual environment, you need a functional information management system that everyone is comfortable operating in. During the pandemic another movement I saw was for governments to adopt or expand their use of Microsoft Teams for the EOC function. It has the advantage of everyday use and thus even the neophyte coming into the EOC can have immediate functionality electronically. Note, MS Teams does need some configuration to meet the needs of an EOC, e.g., boards, incident action plans, etc.
Then there is the final challenge that you are going to face in the future. There will be those people who operated virtually during the pandemic who will not want to come into the physical EOC in the future. They are much more comfortable at home—and it’s snowing. They don’t feel the immediate pressure to be physically present, since maybe they are playing what they consider a minor role. Trust me, getting those people to now report to the EOC at the time of a disaster is going to be a problem.
Whatever the future holds when it comes to the virtual EOC, I can tell you we are not going back to what was before. So, adapt, innovate, and respond accordingly!
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by Eric E. Holdeman, Senior Fellow, Emergency Management Magazine He blogs at www.disaster-zone.com His Podcast is at Disaster Zone
