The Providence Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

About the Emergency Operations Center Logo

PEMA has designed its logo to represent the four key goals that will help focus the City in responding to and recovering from ANY major disaster.

Those are…Safety, Access, Power and Presence.

In Safety we first want to meet the needs of Disaster Victims and People while at the same time caring for our First Responders;

Second, we want to make sure free and open Access to Critical Infrastructure like Hospitals and Fire Stations are unimpeded;

Third, is restoration of Power and utilities to Critical Infrastructure, the general public and other local priority entities. Through some of our research 80% of all problems are resolved when the Power is restored; and

Lastly, is Presence and our ability not only to show the flag, but move the City back to pre-disaster functionality, the return to normal Government Operations and the establishment of Disaster Recovery Centers to provide Individual and Public Assistance.

These are four simple outcomes that will focus the EOC staff and City policy-makers.

The Role of the EOC

The EOC provides a central location from which the City can provide interagency coordination and executive decision-making in support of the incident response.

The EOC does not command or control the on-scene response. The EOC carries out the coordination function through:

• Information collection and evaluation.
• Priority setting.
• Resource management.
  

EOCs--The Critical Link in Emergency Response

The City of Providence EOC coordinates with on-scene incident managers (Incident Commanders) and other agencies and organizations to:

• Acquire, allocate, and track resources.
• Manage and share information.
• Establish response priorities among incidents.
• Provide legal and financial support.
• Liaison with other jurisdictions and other levels of government.

Our well-organized EOC has several distinct advantages during an emergency because it:

• Serves as a conduit for information passed from the incident scene, through lower-level coordination agencies, to higher-level coordination entities.
• Allows the Incident Commander to focus on managing the incident.
• Promotes problem resolution at the lowest practical level.
• Provides strategic guidance and direction to support incident management activities.