What the City Government Does During and Immediately After a Disaster

The Office of Emergency Management (OEM) maintains the City's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on a ready footing so that it can be quickly activated at any time. To do this there is always a Staff Duty Officer assigned that is responsible for monitoring potential events, such as a windstorm, that may require an EOC activation. Similarly, this person is responsible for being available to help departments that respond to a suddenly occurring incident, and especially in circumstances where after arriving on-scene the department's first responders find that the situation requires a larger City effort and the activation of the EOC

From an operational standpoint there are 4 modes that are used by OEM. The first is the Increased Readiness Mode, which involves the availability of the Staff Duty Officer to quickly determine if the demands of a response require the activation of the EOC. The second mode is for a Major Incident that would require the coordinated interaction of multiple City departments and sometimes support organizations, such as the Red Cross, that provide the City with supplemental resources. The third mode is for a Disaster Activation that involves a large and destructive event that impacts a substantial part of the City's population, and by its severity necessitates a declaration of "Civil Emergency" by the Mayor. The last and fortunately least likely to occur is for a Catastrophe Activation that would immediately overwhelm the City's capacity to deal with all the vital actions necessary without the immediate assistance from both the State and Federal governments. Like the previous activation, this too would require the Mayor's declaration of the "Civil Emergency".

The EOC is the City's command center for executive leadership and direction. Staffed with senior City officials and support organization representatives, it is their job to determine how they can most efficiently help departments deal with the urgent demands and critical resource requirements they face in helping the community directly. Often this involves finding and deploying resources that exceed the capabilities or purview of a single City department. The EOC further centrally coordinates public information to give the media and the public the most up-to-date and complete account of how the City is responding to the crisis, in addition to those steps that citizens should take to help the City, and to ensure they can receive necessary assistance and are protected from any harm. Lastly, the EOC at the earliest practical time starts the recovery process so that the public can receive all eligible assistance, and so that the City can return to a state of normalcy at the earliest time. Overall, the main goals of the EOC are to:

• Save and protect the greatest number of people at risk.
• Ensure the safety of first responders and other City employees.
• Save and protect as many residential, business and industrial properties as possible.
• Save and protect as much vital infrastructure as possible.
• Restrain the spread of environmental damage.
• Minimize human suffering and economic interruptions.

To get a complete account of how the City uses all of its resources in a serious crisis, it is recommended that the Seattle Disaster Readiness and Response Plan (pdf 30 MB) be used as both a guide and reference. If you cannot download the plan, contact us for a copy on CD or for answers to any other questions. You can also reach us at (206) 233-5076.