Emergency Operations Center


A central component of the Emergency Services Division is the County's Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The EOC becomes the seat of county government and the single coordinating and warning point for any large-scale emergency in Washtenaw County. The EOC is normally staffed during business hours, but it remains staffed for approaching severe weather and it can quickly be activated with numerous government officials for any emergency twenty-four hours a day. The EOC can operate for an extended period, as needed.

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Emergency Communications Center

The Emergency Communications Center (ECC) is the technology arm of the EOC. Without solid communications during a crisis, it would be impossible to provide assistance to local governments and incident managers in the field, and very difficult to provide the public with official information. The EOC also functions as a critical link with state and federal agencies during a catastrophic event.

The ECC and EOC are connected to an automatically switching emergency generator and an uninterruptible power supply for surge protection and continuous operation.


Systems

Some of the systems available in the ECC are:

  • Weather monitoring station including radar, infrared satellite imagery, and lightning detection
  • Amateur radios (multiple bands)
  • Commercial facility emergency plans and maps
  • Emergency Alert System encoder/decoder
  • Quick-Call and community siren warning system
  • Radio communications consoles with capabilities on all public safety frequencies
  • Fax machine
  • Geographical Information Systems mapping and display
  • Everbridge emergency messaging with group text server redundancy
  • Hazardous materials response databases
  • Internet
  • Multiple landline telephone connections

View more information about the EOC’s technologies.