Emergency Operations Center

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC), is located in the 911 Emergency Communications Building. The center provides a place for representatives of the mayor's office, police, fire, emergency management, public works, and other city departments to assemble and coordinate the support of any type of emergency in the city.

The center equipped with computers and communications equipment enables officials of the various departments and outside agencies to communicate with their departments and to bring needed resources to the emergency. If additional resources from outside the community are required, Emergency Management will coordinate requests through the Mass Emergency Management Agency.

The EOC will support the incident commander of localized incidents such as large fires and hazardous material emergencies by coordinating outside resources to the incident. The EOC's role is to support and provide resources to the police, fire and other emergency responders, not to direct their individual operations.

In city wide or larger emergencies, such as hurricanes and blizzards, when a state of emergency has been declared by the mayor, the Emergency Operations Center may serve as the center of municipal government coordinating all services to the citizens during the emergency.

In less serious situations, such as flooding where, fire resources may be stretched, the EOC may coordinate non-emergency public services such as residential basement pumping so the 911 Operators and firefighters are freed up to handle emergency calls.