Colorado Deploys Four Emergency Operations Center Support Teams to Florida



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Contact:  Micki Trost, 303-472-4087 or micki.trost@state.co.us
Centennial, Colo. – Sept. 9, 2017 – This morning the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) deployed 24 emergency management professionals from across the state to Florida.  The 24 individuals will break into four teams to provide emergency operations center (EOC) support to counties throughout the state of Florida as part of an Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) request for Hurricane Irma. 

The teams will be led by six field services staff from the Colorado DHSEM.  The remaining 17 members represent emergency management and public safety agencies from across the state.  Those agencies include:


·         Lake County Office of Emergency Management
·         City of Brighton Office Emergency Management
·         Custer County Office of Emergency Management
·         Clifton Fire Protection District
·         Mesa County Public Health
·         Bent County Office of Emergency Management
·         UC Health
·         Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office
·         Aurora Police Department
City of Aurora Office of Emergency Management
·         Pritchett Fire
·         Littleton Fire Rescue
·         Gunnison County Office of Emergency Management
·         Parker Police Department
·         Grand Junction Fire
·         Pitkin County
·         City of Fort Collins
·         San Juan Public Health
·         Colorado Springs Utilities


The team receives their final assignments tonight after they arrive in Tallahassee, Florida.  They will support Florida for the next 14 days.

Additional DHSEM Resources Deployed


In addition to the EOC support teams Colorado also sent a 23 member incident management team (IMT) to support law enforcement resources for Hurricane Irma. The IMT is working from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia on a 14-day deployment.  DHSEM has also deployed a logistics section chief to the FEMA National Resource Coordination Center in Washington D.C. as an EMAC liaison and a field services staff to serve as logistics staff in Puerto Rico on an National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) resource request.


What is EMAC

EMAC, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact is an all hazards - all disciplines mutual aid compact that serves as the cornerstone of the nation's mutual aid system.  EMAC is the first national disaster–relief compact since the Civil Defense and Disaster Compact of 1950 to be ratified by the U.S. Congress. Since ratification and signing into law in 1996 (Public Law 104-321), 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted legislation to become EMAC members.


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