EOC

An Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is a centralized facility from which public officials coordinate emergency response and public safety operations during disasters or major events. The EOC serves as a hub for information gathering, decision making, resource coordination, and public communications, bringing together representatives from emergency management, police, fire, health, transportation, utilities, and other relevant agencies. Its primary purpose is to provide strategic oversight and support to field operations, optimizing the allocation of personnel, equipment, and funding.

In practice, EOCs operate under standardized incident management frameworks, often aligned with the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Activation levels vary by severity and can range from monitoring or watch to partial activation and full activation. The EOC coordinates situational awareness, incident action planning, logistics, finance, and communications, and it may work in concert with a field Incident Command Post (ICP) as well as a Joint Information Center for public messaging. Facilities typically include dedicated rooms for operations, planning, and information sharing, with redundant power and communications capabilities and specialized software for real-time data and resource management.

Common tools and practices in EOCs include situation status boards, maps, dashboards, and familiar software such as WebEOC or other incident management systems. The EOC operates with standardized processes, keeps public authorities informed, and supports interagency coordination across local, regional, or state levels.

Other uses of the acronym EOC include End Of Course assessments in education and Educational Opportunity Centers, a U.S. Department of Education TRIO program. The meaning depends on context and field.