Humboldt County Operational Area
Humboldt
County Sheriff’s Department
Office of Emergency Services
826 Fourth Street
Eureka, CA 95501 June 2002 |
An Overview
Humboldt County Ordinance 2203 established the Humboldt Operational Area (OA)
and identified the
Sheriff as Director of Emergency Services for the County. The Humboldt OA is
composed of the
County of Humboldt, serving as the lead agency, and all political
subdivisions (Cities and Special
Districts). The Office of Emergency Services (OES) assists the Sheriff in
controlling and directing the
effort of the emergency organization of the County and is part of the Special
Operations Division
within the Sheriff's Department.
Humboldt County OES and the Humboldt OA are part of a total emergency
management hierarchy
established to assist all the citizens of the United States during times of
crisis. At the federal level, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) oversees United States government
response efforts.
Each state has a Governor's Office of Emergency Services to manage
state-level organization and
response efforts. Within the states, each county is its own OA. This
hierarchy is in place to assist the
organization and movement of resources to areas of need. At each level -
federal, state, and local -
the response organization has the statutory power to requisition resources
and assistance from other
governmental entities at that level.
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The response hierarchy works in the following manner: When a City or Special
District cannot
effectively handle a crisis with their own available resources and
organization, they request OA
assistance. OAs will provide whatever resources and assistance which can be
mobilized locally from
county assets and from other Cities and Special Districts within the county.
Should additional
resources and assistance be needed, the OA will request help from the state
Governor's OES. The
state, in turn, will provide whatever resources and assistance thath can be
procured from state
assets. FEMA is contacted when the state needs assistance to handle the
crisis. In some large states
such as California, there is an intermediate level between the OAs and the
Governor's OES for better
efficiency in response efforts. In California, the Coastal Region is
comprised of the sixteen coastal
counties from Del Norte to Monterey. Any assistance requests from the
Humboldt OA go directly to
the Coastal Region which immediately canvasses the sixteen coastal counties
for needed resources
and assistance. Should more assistance be needed, the Coastal Region will
contact the Governor's
OES in Sacramento which will, in turn, canvass the other Regions in the
State.
The Humboldt County OES manages the OA response from the Emergency Operations
Center (EOC)
located in the basement of the County Courthouse in the old Civil Defense
Shelter. The EOC consists
of a large room area for displaying/exchanging information and smaller room
areas for specific
applications depending on the need. An extensive and varied communications
system allows instant
information transfer anywhere inside and outside the county. The EOC can
operate independently of
external power sources. Previously identified and trained personnel with
expert knowledge and
expertise from county departments, state and federal agencies, and other
local governments,
agencies, and organizations meet and efficiently coordinate the OA response
from the EOC. All
responders are trained in the use of the Standardized Emergency Management
System (SEMS) and in
the Incident Command System (ICS) to best facilitate a coordinated response
from all levels of
government.
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