Colorado Springs opened its new Emergency Operations Center today. As KRCC’s Liz Ruskin reports, it’s the city’s first dedicated multi-agency command post.
The new center east of downtown is a large room dominated by projection screens and long tables with new computers. Emergency Management director Bret Waters says when the next disaster hits, commanders will be able to watch live video of the incident, direct their people in the field and coordinate with other agencies all from this room.
"One of the big parts of an Emergency Operations Center is really to get situational awareness from what’s happening out in the field, what’s going on out there so we can support it. A lot of the technology is through A/V equipment, so we can control all of the feeds in here -- what people watch -- though an iPad, an even in the breakout rooms."
This project was in the works before the Waldo Canyon fire, when the command center was in a multipurpose room in the Police Operations Center. The new facility cost about $300,000 in city and state funds.
