When an emergency occurs, responding to it and directing operations effectively becomes crucial. For this reason alone, having a good emergency operations center to rely on becomes essential.
There are three basic parts that form an effective emergency operations center.
- The equipment – this needs to be as state of the art as possible. Getting the best that is possible with you budget can mean the difference between life and death depending on the situation you are dealing with. Equipment like large screen displays and good audio visual integration will help to quickly deliver the “big picture” of the situation so far.
- The staff – The size of the staff really should depend on the scale of the situation at hand. Whatever size you go with, you must ensure that the staff are well trained. They should also be able to work under intense pressure, think on their feet and think outside the box at the same time. This may be asking a lot, but it is what is required to deal with emergency situations effectively.
- Good communication – this is essential in any human interaction, but especially more so when dealing with emergencies. Information from the field must get to the command center instantly and clearly. Every little bit of information that is gathered will affect how decisions will be taken to respond to the situation at hand. Messages to and from the field must also go through without any confusion. Ensuring that this is done as best possible will contribute vastly to how you respond to the emergency.