The City of San Carlos has been actively involved in large-scale disaster planning for many years. In the event the city experiences a major incident we will open our Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Activation of the EOC can start at a cautionary level and then be expanded as the magnitude of the event unfolds.
Standardized Emergency Management Systems (SEMS)
The City of San Carlos Emergency Operations Center (EOC) operates under the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). SEMS is a hierarchical structure that facilitates continuity among the agencies providing the city with extra resources to fill our demands.
For example, if San Carlos needs five extra fire engines to respond to fight a fire, we would call our Operational Area (San Mateo County) who would open up their EOC and start the five-fire truck response. If the county fire truck resources were expended and unavailable to San Carlos, the county would contact our designated region (Coastal). The process would be continued to the State and then the Federal levels.
You can imagine how busy it would get in a major incident, such as the Loma Prieta Earthquake in October 1989, when the entire Bay Area is affected by a disaster. For more information on SEMS and how the County, State and Federal agencies prepare for a major event, please refer to the following agency web-sites:
Sharing Resources Among Agencies
At any level of emergency preparedness planning, and particularly at the local government level, it is impossible and unrealistic to purchase equipment and resources for every possible circumstance. Instead, government agencies have a system of mutual aid and sharing of resources to respond to these problems.
The City of San Carlos is no different in this respect. We share our resources when other agencies need them with the expectation that we will get the same cooperation in return when events require such resources.
Training and Preparation at the City
The City of San Carlos has had an emergency incident plan in place for many years. The components of that plan include such topics as planning, mitigation, response, resources and threat assessment.
In order to train city staff members about the City's EOC program, a formal EOC program was started in 1987. Since that time, the City has conducted small-scale and large-scale disaster event simulations. These simulations initially involved the City's front-line staff who would be "first up" to respond in an emergency. Later on, the training was expanded to additional staff members so that the City now has an extensive number of employees that are trained in the EOC response program.
The San Mateo County OES conducts an exercise twice per year for all of the cities in the county to practice operating their EOC’s and simulating disasters. The City of San Carlos participates in these exercises, and over and above that, adds two more simulations per year internally to make sure that CIty staff members are ready for such an event.
For More Information
For more information on the City's Emergency Preparedness program, feel free to contact Heidi Morrison, Police Service Technician.
