I think people and organizations are all over the place on this question and topic. How to organize the EOC? Back in the civil defense days it was not uncommon with many military types being emergency managers to set up the EOC with "Intelligence, Operations, Plans, Logistics." Sound familiar to ICS right? Still, there would be Policy Room for the decision makers.
With the advent of the Incident Command System (ICS) people have adopted that model that has Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics and Administration. At the King County Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) I had instituted "Coordination" versus Operations since we don't typically operate from an EOC. And, I see the primary role of the EOC being to consolidate information, share it, coordinate with others and support field operations. There is little "command" done at an EOC. The challenge is that we are such a diverse discipline I can see a small city having their EOC become a "Command" facility.
The other organization option for an EOC is to organize by Emergency Support Function (ESF). The advantage to that is that it matches up well with FEMA when you have a major disaster. They will call up and want to talk to "ESF X."
For the "moment" I think I like the idea of a hybrid ICS-ESF model. Where ESF's are placed within the various ICF functions. And, in this model the Policy Room is there, not as command (other than for the jurisdiction they are responsible for), and instead make the tough resource allocation decisions that will have political implications down the line. Are there any wails of complaint on this last point?
People are passionate about this topic, so I'm expecting a few to weigh in and make a comment or two on how they organize.
Let's hear from you!!
