Written by David Whittier

It’s a warm and sunny summer afternoon, and you are settling down on your deck with a nice iced tea and a stack of reports from the office, looking forward to catching a few rays while you catch up on your work.

The phone rings.  You look at the call display and see it’s from your supervisor.  You pick up.

She starts in without any preamble.  “We just got a call from Engineering.  Looks like a tanker truck stalled out on the rail crossing at Pine Street and was hit by a train.  We don’t know much more than that at the moment, except that Police and Fire have responded and the deputy Fire Chief has taken on the role of Incident Commander.  We think maybe the truck was carrying hazardous chemicals.

“I’m activating the EOC to Level 3.  I know you just finished up your EOC Planning Function course at the JIBC, so I’m assigning you the job of Plans Chief.  Meet me here at the EOC as soon as you can.  See you when you get here.”

She hangs up, leaving you staring at your iced tea.  With a sigh you get up and make your way to your office in the basement.  You’ll need to grab your notes from the course before you go.  As you drive in to the EOC, you try to review what you learned.

The Planning team is a critical part of the EOC, responsible for directing a good portion of what it does: consequence management and Situational Awareness.  The Planning Section collects, processes, evaluates and displays situation information; develops Action Plans and Situation Reports; tracks status of EOC-issued resources; maintains all EOC documentation; obtains technical experts for the EOC as required; plans for EOC demobilization; and facilitates transition to the recovery phase.

Whew – big job!  Ideally, and depending on the size of the activation, you will have a team behind you:

• The Situation Unit. Collects, organizes an analyzes situation information, prepares reports in action plans, and liaises with operations section. 
• Resources Unit. Maintains resource status boards and coordinates with operations and logistics to centralise resource status information required for tracking. 
• Documentation Unit. Collects, organizes, files, an archives all completed forms and documentation relating to the activities of the EOC. 
• Advance Planning Unit. Develops plans to address potential issues likely to occur beyond the next operational period and for the longer term.
• Demobilization Unit. Develops the demobilization plan for the EOC and monitors progress of its priorities and actions to identify EOC functions that are no longer required.
• Recovery Unit. Assesses the need for recovery direction and assistance for the organization, its personnel, and stakeholders. For a local authority, community stakeholders can include the general public, businesses, and industry. 
• Technical Specialists Unit. Obtains specialists to provide technical observation and recommendations to the EOC. For example: soil experts, hazardous materials experts, structural engineers, etc.  

Ultimately your activation was successful:  the threat was contained, cleanup and remediation is well underway and, most importantly, there were no serious injuries.  Luckily you and your team took the time to make sure you were prepared.