The Yolo County Office of Emergency Services (OES), a division of the County Administrative Office, is the emergency management agency for Yolo County, and as such is the lead agency that fulfills the county's requirements under the Emergency Services Act (Government Code Section 8550 et. seq.). This office works with partners in the emergency management programs of the Cities of Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, and Woodland as well as the University of California at Davis and the Rumsey Rancheria. OES also works with the various special districts, authorities, and joint powers authorities within the boundaries of Yolo County.
The primary mission for OES is to coordinate the county government’s role in response to disaster or other large scale emergency. The four aspects of emergency management are:
Preparation: Training, drills and exercises, plan development, and other such activities are part of the preparation before the disaster happens. OES works with county staff, allied agencies, neighboring jurisdictions, and state agencies with a local role to ensure the necessary procedures and networks are in place.
Response: This is where “the rubber meets the road”. Time for preparation is over and the county has to respond. This office responds to a disaster (or potential disaster) in the unincorporated area of Yolo County, to support another political jurisdiction within the boundaries of Yolo County deal with a disaster in their territory, or both. Personnel from the various departments and allied agencies that have participated in the training respond to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), where the county’s effort is coordinated. The EOC does the following:
- Manages the county's overall response to natural and man-made disasters.
- Tasks various county departments with emergency responsibilities (some pre-identified, some generated as the disaster requires).
- Coordinates the response and recovery efforts of governmental and allied non-governmental agencies.
Recovery: After the response, and the threat has been removed, it is time to move back to normal, or at least as close to normal as possible. This involves ensuring the functions of county government are back in place as quickly as possible. OES is unable to provide direct disaster assistance, including financial assistance, to the residents of Yolo County. However, this office is a primary conduit for information, including information about the agencies that can directly help.
Mitigation: What happened during the disaster and why did it happen? If steps can be taken to either reduce the likelihood of similar events, or reduce the amount of damage from a similar event, such steps are considered.
These aspects are not separate from one another, and they continue to cycle without end. It is not uncommon to still be responding to an event, while at the same time, recovery is underway, and early mitigation steps are being implemented. Doing all of this takes more than just the few people assigned to OES. It takes involvement of personnel from many county departments and allied agencies. Their participation is vital and is greatly appreciated.
Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) As a result of the Oakland / East Bay Hills fire of 1991, the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS) was adopted. The components of SEMS were not new, but were simply identified as the consistent way to manage emergency response operations throughout California. Similarly, the federal government recently acknowledged a need for consistent emergency management protocols between the states. The federal National Incident Management System (NIMS) is significantly based on California's SEMS.
One aspect of SEMS involves the chain of communication to both request resources, as well as share information. The links in this chain are:
Field: This level is where the actual response occurs. Firefighters are putting out the fire or sandbags are being put in place. If the response personnel need resources beyond what they have with them in the field, a request is made to the next level up.
Local Jurisdiction: Supporting the field responders is the local jurisdiction, such as a city or county. At it's most basic, for day-to-day emergencies, this may be the 911 dispatch center. When the emergency is large enough, the jurisdiction will open an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to coordinate resources and requests allowing the dispatch center to focus on dispatch operations. If the local jurisdiction is unable to meet the need through its own resources and agreements already in place, a request is made to the next level up.
Operational Area: California law defines the Operational Area (OA) as all political jurisdictions within the boundaries of a given county. Given that response from close by is preferred to response from farther away, the resources needed are looked for first within the Operational Area. Since the OA does not exist, other than as a planning structure, somebody has to fill the role when needed. Typically, this is the county government, and Yolo County is no exception. The Yolo County EOC, in addition to directly supporting operations in the unincorporated areas, acts as the Operational Area EOC to facilitate resource and information requests among the county, the cities, and the special districts. If the resource cannot be found within the OA, a request is made to the next level up.
Region: The Governor's Office of Emergency Services (State OES) has divided California into six mutual aid regions, each of which is assigned to one of three administrative regions. Yolo County is in Mutual Aid Region IV, part of the administrative Inland Region. If the resource cannot be found within the Region, a request is made to the next level up.
State: At this point, the request is made to other regions in the state to find the resource needed.
Similar to the resource requests, information flows along the same chain. This allows State OES to know what is happening throughout the state, while keeping communications manageable. Similarly, they can distribute information down the chain.
Other aspects of SEMS include the Incident Command System (ICS), a structure for organizing a response. SEMS also includes the concept of Unified Command, where all agencies responding to the scene of an incident coordinate their actions as one plan, rather than multiple efforts all taking place in the same location.