Florida Focus: Three Key Questions Regarding Emergency Operations Centers

We are excited to continue our series “Florida Focus: Three Key Questions,” where professionals from throughout H2M will dive into the key topics shaping Florida’s future. Below, Director of Operations David Pacheco, AIA, NCARB, answers questions regarding the importance of Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) within the Sunshine State.

Question 1: What level of security and hardening do we need for our EOC?

The easy answer is as much as you can afford. The better answer is to conduct a Threat Hazard Identification Risk Assessment (THIRA) to maximize and tailor security level to your specific needs. Refer to the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Enhanced State Mitigation Plan which helps categorize and rank natural, human-caused, and technological hazards most relevant to Florida. A winning move is to choose a site large enough to provide adequate standoff distance.

H2M has found that standoff distance is one of the most cost-effective EOC security measures allowing for space to mitigate many threats. Standoff allows for extended site lines, protection from blast effects, better security for personnel and their vehicles, easier separation of internal secure Wi-Fi networks, the ability to layer protection and adjust topography, reduction of ultra-hardening elements, and flexibility to maximize protective facility configurations.

Question 2: How can an EOC be optimized for overlapping uses in integrated facilities?

The key is to find uses that are synergistic and don’t require time consuming effort to convert during EOC Level 3, 2, or 1 activations. A tactical breakout room makes a great everyday conference room. The EOC main response floor generally can be used as a training or classroom space.

H2M has designed large, shared facility meeting rooms adjacent to the EOC that have moveable partitions which allow quick conversion and subdivision into media briefing room, logistic support space and bunk room during EOC activation. Often, the EOCs in integrated facilities were traditionally carved out of “found spaces” in buildings that were undersized, poorly configured for response and often infringed upon by other primary uses in the facility.

Today’s EOCs need to be purpose-built and ready at a moment’s notice for their intended purpose, but not rigidly unavailable sitting unused for a majority of the time. An interesting statistic is that the Brevard County Florida EOC, which is often cited as the most frequently activated in the state, had only 88 activations in 2023. Even a facility of that activation volume has a significant amount of down-time. Smart design can bridge the gap between function and use in integrated facilities.

Question 3: What innovations are needed in an EOC to meet current and emerging challenges facing Florida communities?

Resiliency, adaptability and technology are the critical drivers of modern EOC design. Gone are the days of “desks and phones” in static spaces. Today’s EOC needs to be a specialized hardened facility that acts as the centralized information hub integrating real-time and predictive analytics into management, operations, planning, logistics and finance/administration, and the EOC facility must enable this.

This unified ecosystem means EOCs are proactive platforms managing and monitoring weather telemetry, sensors, public alerts, logistics optimization, public health surveillance, environmental information, and fusion center data. They must be flexible in form and systems and easily upgradable as technology, especially AI technology, and AI fueled cybersecurity threats evolve. The facility must be designed for this adaptability and technology.

Threats to the EOC are tangible whether it’s hurricanes, flooding, civil unrest, targeted attack, or other dangers. The reality is that the EOC is useless if it’s affected by the same event responsible for its activation or other natural or human-caused events that impair its operation. Resilience encompasses security, protection, redundancy and continuity. EOC design must optimize these within the constraints of the budget.

Resiliency efforts can also create their own issues. For example: hardened structures interfere with Wi-Fi, cellular, and radio services. Wi-Fi 7 tri- or quad-band mesh systems with ethernet backhaul, Bi-Directional Amplifiers (BDAs), and Distributed Antenna System (DAS) are features that experienced EOC designers know are critical to EOC resiliency and functionality. This highlights why selecting an experienced EOC design team is so important.