EMERGENCY RESPONSE GROUP

Routinely, public safety personnel and emergency managers respond to natural, technological, or civil emergencies throughout the State of Arizona. Occasionally, these events reach a magnitude that is beyond the response capability of local or county level resources. Events of this nature may require the support of adjoining jurisdictions to include cities, counties, the State of Arizona, adjoining states, and federal resources.

Given an emergency of extraordinary scale, these events may be formally declared a disaster by the Governor of Arizona and by the President of the United States. The State of Arizona’s response to state and federal level disasters are managed in the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC).

In addition to SEOC operations, ADEM’s Search and Rescue (SAR) Unit provides 24/7 support to Arizona’s 15 county sheriff’s in SAR missions. Upon request, the SAR Unit assists the sheriffs’ with cost recovery and the coordination of multi-agency air and ground assets to aid individuals who are lost, injured, stranded or deceased in Arizona’s remote, inaccessible terrain. ADEM’s SAR Unit also coordinates inter-state and inter-county missing aircraft missions and the response to activated Electronic Locating Transmitters (ELTs) and Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs).

Whenever possible, emergency response organizations must anticipate and prepare for pending emergencies. ADEM’s Hazard Assessment Unit is devoted to the ongoing evaluation of potential hazards such as floods, damaging winds, drought, and wildland fires. Hazard Assessment includes the prediction, documentation and communication of threatening hazard potential to emergency response agencies and the public. This facilitates the timely preparation for potentially catastrophic events and will minimize a disaster’s impact upon people and property.

STATE EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (SEOC)
Routinely, public safety personnel and emergency managers respond to natural, technological, or civil emergencies throughout the State of Arizona. These events are under the command of the local jurisdiction’s Incident Management Team (IMT). Occassionally, these events reach a magnitude that is beyond the response capability of the on-scene IMT. In events of this scale, a city/county level Emergency Operations Center (EOC) may be activated to support the on-scene IMT. If an emergency exceeds the capacity of the county EOC, the SEOC will be activated.

The organizational structure of the SEOC is based upon the principles of the National Interagency Incident Management System (NIIMS). This structure compliments the Incident Command practices of the IMT and County EOC. Furthermore, the SEOC provides an environment wherein the Governor will direct state policy in a disaster response. Additional functions of the SEOC include the establishment of priority, the coordination of multi-disciplinary county, state, and federal agencies, the allocation scarce resources, big picture analysis, and the timely communication of public information.

In non-disaster conditions, the SEOC is maintained in an operational status that facilitates a timely response to rapidly evolving emergencies. Current emergency plans, operating procedures, mapping systems, resource status, and staff training are maintained and exercised on a daily basis. The SEOC’s ability to exchange critical disaster information is achieved through diverse and redundant communications technologies.

CONTACT
For additional information regarding Emergency Response, please contact us for your area of interest.