Large-Scale Coordination in Emergency Response

Abstract

Coordination is a key element in emergency response. This paper focuses on coordination as it occurred in a county-level Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during a simulated tornado. The EOC is responsible for locating, purchasing, and transporting resources to the disaster scene(s). The EOC is an ad hoc team made up of government agencies, private companies (i.e., hospitals, utilities, etc.), and non-governmental agencies. These decision makers come together to engage in creative problem solving in order to solve often complex logistics and coordination problems generally under intense time pressure during a rapidly evolving situation. Lessons learned from this exercise highlight coordination challenges including asymmetric information flow, natural fault lines, roles and functions, co-location benefits, emergent leadership, fragmented situation awareness, information displays, room design, and quick reference tools.