Alternate EOCs on a dime: Preparation

By Tom Carey / tom@theklaxon.com / 11.29.2009

Updated on: 01.26.10 at 6:58 pm

In today’s economy, emergency managers (EM) and continuity planning coordinators (CPC) are forced to make smart choices in choosing needed resources and obtaining funds for needed projects during the mitigation and preparedness phases of the emergency management cycle. This can be especially challenging in obtaining funding from senior management, since these are unforeseen events and are labeled as unnecessary.

Often, too many companies believe that a major disaster will only happen to someone else in another city and not their business. Many senior managers do understand the need to have an effective business continuity plan (BCP), but hold onto the purse strings until the last minute (the response phase) when it’s too late. To avoid this common pitfall, the CPC in the organization has to put his salesman hat on (among others) and put together a warranted proposal to his or her sponsor.

Identifying needs in the preparation phase can enhance your organizations capabilities in its response efforts. This identification process also can be achieved through information gained during an after action review (AAR, also known as a debriefing or hot wash) immediately following a response activity.

Resource identification

Evaluate possible sites based on availability within your organization to include computer training areas and other areas, such as conference rooms that are not used at all hours of the day. This is known as retasking your current facilities as EOCs.Your backup site should mirror the basics of your primary EOC facility. “The backup center should be on a different power company electrical grid and be serviced by a different telephone central office. If you have another facility across town or in a nearby city, this makes a perfect choice,” according to Michael Wallace &Weber’s “The Disaster Recovery Handbook.”

This method is probably the most cost efficient, but may not be possible if this site becomes unusable due to unforeseen circumstances.

Options such as partnering with other companies for a backup facility, hotel usage, as well as hot-site agreements, provide feasible solutions if an organization’s main facility becomes damaged. However, in a case such as a hurricane or other wide-area disaster may render these options impractical within the affected region. Competitors and other business to include governmental agencies are sure to exploit and use these same available resources you may want to utilize.

Mobile EOCs are a good alternative to stationary buildings that hot sites and cold sites often provide. These vehicles come in various configurations to include attached trailers. Lynch Diversified Vehicles is one such vendor that offers these special service vehicles to emergency management organizations and private sector companies.

Depending on your budget, they can be customized to meet your needs. This alternative approach also offers flexibility to senior management to remain in the area of the disaster to reestablish organizational leadership, access damage and provide direction to department heads.

Mobile trailer vendors provide EOC personnel with the same advantages and constraints of company-owned EOCs, minus the acquisition and maintenance costs. The drawback in utilizing this option is the deployment factor. Most vendors promise a mobile shell of this configuration within a 48 hour timeframe upon notification. The CPC must make a determination whether this type of resource will benefit the organization based on the time factor.

Another alternative to deploying an EOC hard site is to use a virtual EOC (VEOC). This Web-based mechanism provides command, control, and communications (C3) to disaster recovery teams.
According to Jon Toigo’s “Disaster Recovery Planning: Strategies for Protecting Critical Information Assets,” “A VEOC can be hosted on a web-server appliance, retrieved from a secure off-site storage function of plan activation, or it can be an Application Service Provider service customized in advance of use, then stored on a fee-paid basis, until its activation is required.”
A VEOC provides management, employees and recovery personnel a central point to retrieve information about the disaster.

Use of tents

The use of tents in conjunction with other hard-site EOCs is useful. Like mobile EOCs, tents come in a variety of colors and configurations. The U.S. military currently fields what is known as a “DRASH tent” (Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter).
The DRASH design incorporates multiple patents with a composite frame structure fabricated from Titanite. Titanite is 270 percent stronger than aluminum for the same diameter and cross sectional area, according to Army Technology. The author has found this design to be both quick and easy in its deployment, and it provides adequate space to conduct command and control functions.
As with any tentage, extreme weather, such as high winds may make this option unavailable until conditions improve.

Team redundancy

Each individual who is a member of your EOC’s Crisis Management Team should not only have the training and knowledge of his or her own individual job title, but that of other team members.

Pre-execution checklists, including necessary equipment, should be clearly marked and consolidated in a secure area to be loaded onto vehicles at a moments notice. Every member of the team should know what is to be packed regardless of what section or specialty he or she has in the organization.

This is crucial since not all members will be available to start moving to an EOC at the same time. The EOC manager within the organization must orchestrate personnel to make this event happen since key personnel are sure to be displaced in the event of a disaster.

Proper planning, procedures in place and practical training will mitigate poor performance of your team.
As long as a few available members can start to roll the ball in a timely fashion the continuity of operations can be achieved.

Training and team building

All members of your EOC teams should be able to participate in either a supervisory or a practitioner role in the setting up, routine maintenance and breakdown of an EOC.

Team building and functionality exercises known as Battle Drills in the U.S. Army, is a sure way to improve your team’s performance and confidence.

These drills will birth a critical skill set that your personnel must perform on demand during a given crisis. They are practical in both corporate and austere environments.

This drilling technique should be part of your training package at a minimum when conducting tests at your location.

When conducting testing and training, have your team set up the EOC from scratch. Make them practice that part of the exercise since it is a necessary part of your evaluation as an EM. You may lose your primary location during a disaster, so think alternates.

To succeed, you must also blow the cobwebs out of your alternate locations and test them with your people. This type of training should be conducted at least quarterly due to personnel and procedural changes that take place daily within any organization.