The renovation work started on July 13, 2010 during the summer break and was completed in October 2010. The newly renovated campus EOC opened in October, and network and technology improvements (including programming of a modern multi-media center) continued through the new year. EOC staff were oriented to the new facility in training classes conducted in November and December 2010.
In January of this year, the new EOC facility officially opened for business and is now disaster ready 24/7. Situational awareness training began using the crisis management software system (another need identified by the AAR).
The new EOC design seats 37-40 people working from 25 campus departments, supporting emergency operations in five work areas. Each EOC position is equipped with VOIP portable phones and desktop computers. Using a new campus-wide crisis management software program, each EOC position maintains situational awareness of key campus issues, infrastructure and coordination. This allows simultaneous coordination of information between three major coordination groups: the campus EOC, the public information unit and the executive policy group (chancellor and executive staff).
The renovated facility can be up and running in less than 15 minutes and is now considered a “warm” EOC facility (meaning it has a very short activation period). While it is not a completely dedicated EOC facility, it will still be used primarily for departmental training and other uses. It remains configured primarily for campus emergency readiness but is designed to be flexible enough to support a variety of the other uses for the majority of non-emergency duties.
UCLA Now Better Prepared for a Major Threat
The AAR identified many challenges, and UCLA stepped up to implement many of the issues and corrective actions it outlined. The new EOC facility is designed to support campus public safety during a major threat, such as a wide scale regional earthquake. The facility has wireless Internet, Intranet and backup power, plus VOIP phones, and as a backup, wired telephone service outlets and traditional wired telephones (which are kept in storage).
Our campus departmental operations centers (facilities, police department, transportation, and EH&S) can now easily coordinate with the department representatives stationed in the EOC using crisis management software and simultaneous situational awareness technologies. Each campus department has also created a capabilities summary, which allows the EOC staff access to important reference and information in a crisis about their DOC, vehicles, personnel, resources and emergency contingencies (food, water, and emergency generation capability, fuel, etc.).
The use of the AAR process played a key role in the success and planning for this EOC renovation project. UCLA is now much better prepared to deal with its greatest threat (earthquake) and other hazards. Given the lessons being learned as a result of the recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, the renovation couldn’t have come at a better time. Japanese and New Zealand universities were impacted by this quake, and we will all be monitoring what happens given the damage to buildings constructed using modern building codes – but that’s another story.
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- Case Study: Radford U. Overcomes Emergency Management Hurdles
David Burns administers UCLA’s Emergency Management Office.
All photos courtesy UCLA and David Burns.
