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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Integration of Jurisdiction Incident Management and Local Emergency Management

Emergency management operations support to the UC occurs through the jurisdiction's Multiagency Coordination Center or MACC, which is commonly based at an EOC. The EOC is the pre-designated facility in a jurisdiction from which emergency management personnel and government officials exercise direction and control in an emergency and provide high-level support to the UC. In the traditional disaster scenario, the UC operates from an ICP at the incident scene (e.g., site of a building collapse), and is geographically separated from the EOC.

Figure 4-3. EOC Incident Support in Traditional Emergency Response

Figure 4-3 shows the Incident Support that the Emergency Operations Center provides during a traditional emergency response. Within the Jurisdiction area, the EOC integrates political leaders with the Unified Command. The EOC also supports the UC on needs not met through available assets or mutual aid in support of the Incident Management Post at the incident itself. The EOC also addresses incident-related issues outside the focus of the US (e.g. traffic disruptions). Finally, the EOC coordinates support with other levels of government (e.g. federal, regional, state) that fall out side the actual jurisdiction area.

If the incident is diffuse, involves the entire jurisdiction, or in some other way prevents the UC from establishing its ICP elsewhere, the EOC may provide the structure and function for the ICP. When this occurs, the UC should occupy a space that is separate from emergency management operations support personnel so the focus of the UC remains distinct from that of the local emergency management and the MACS. However, the EOC leadership (in many cases, this is the local emergency manager) should attend and participate in the UC planning meetings and operations briefings, and related activities.[4] This integrates the UC with the local jurisdiction's MACS, but avoids risking crossover/conflict between their designated response roles. It also empowers the EOC to more actively support the UC by better anticipating possible incident response needs.

  1. When the UC is operating at a distant incident scene, EOC leadership could still participate in UC planning meetings via teleconference or some other defined mechanism. This is helpful in promoting full coordination between incident command and emergency management operations support.

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  • This page last reviewed: February 14, 2012