Emergency Operations Plan

An Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is a document describing how citizens, property, and the environment will be protected in a disaster or emergency.

Response to Hazards

The EOP describes actions to be taken in response to natural, technological and/or adversarial or human caused hazards, detailing the tasks to be performed by specific organizational elements at projected times and places based on established objectives, assumptions, and assessment of capabilities. 

Plan Requirements

An Emergency Operations Plan should be: 

  • Comprehensive. It should cover all aspects of emergency prevention, preparedness, and response and address mitigation concerns as well. 
  • All-hazards in approach and, thus, flexible enough to use in all emergencies—even unforeseen events. 
  • Risk-based. It should include hazard-specific information, based on the hazard analysis. 

Primary Users

The primary users of this plan are elected officials, department heads and their senior staff members, emergency management staff, coordinating response agencies, and other stakeholders that support emergency operations.  An emergency declaration is not required in order to implement the EOP or activate the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).  

Plan Implementation

The Emergency Manager may implement the EOP as deemed appropriate for the situation or at the request of an on-scene Incident Commander.

Plan Elements

The County EOP is composed of four main elements:

Base Plan

A Base Plan provides a framework for emergency operations and information regarding the County’s emergency management structure.  It serves as the primary document outlining roles and responsibilities of elected officials during an incident. Specifically, the Basic Plan identifies:

  • Legal authorities, including the emergency declaration process, activation of mutual aid agreements, and requests for resources and emergency spending powers.
  • Hazards and threats facing the community, including planning assumptions based on the County’s response capabilities.
  • Roles and responsibilities for elected officials, County departments, and key response partners.
  • A concept of operations for the County that describes how the County will conduct its emergency operations and coordinate with other agencies and jurisdictions. 
  • The County’s emergency response structure, including activation and operation of the County EOC and implementation of ICS. 
  • The County’s protocols for maintaining and reviewing this EOP, including training, exercises, and public education components.