Operational Area Emergency Operations Plan - County of Santa Clara

CHAPTER THREE: WHEN THE EVENT HAPPENS
A. Initial Response Operations
Concept of Operations
The County and local governments, volunteer agencies, and segments of the private sector are
responsible for initial response operations in an emergency. During initial response operations,
field responders will place emphasis on saving lives, property, and the environment, controlling
the situation, and minimizing the effects of the emergency. ICS will be used to manage and
control the response operations. The disaster/event may be controlled solely by County
emergency responders or with other agencies through the mutual aid system. If the resources
available at the field response level are not sufficient to mitigate the situation, the Incident
Commander may request that the County Emergency Operations Center be activated to support
the field operations.
B. Alerting and Warning Systems
Emergency Alert System (EAS)
EAS is designed for the broadcast media to disseminate emergency public information. This
system enables the President and federal, state and local governments to communicate with the
general public. This system uses the facilities and personnel of the broadcast industry on a
volunteer basis, with the exception of national EAS alerts which are mandatory for the
respective participants. EAS is operated by the broadcast industry according to established and
approved EAS plans, standard operating procedures and within the rules and regulations of the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). FCC rules and regulations require all
participating stations with an EAS operating area to broadcast a common program. Each
broadcast station volunteers to participate in EAS and agrees to comply with established rules
and regulations of the FCC. The FCC has established committees of broadcast industry
personnel at each governmental level to develop EAS plans. These include federal, state and
regional communications committees. Each state has been divided into a number of EAS
operational areas, consisting of one or more counties within radio reception range of EAS
stations serving the area. California has 30 EAS Operational Areas (OA). One primary station
in each OA assumes the function of the Common Program Control Broadcast Station for the
OA. It is called the CPCS-1 station. If for any reason the CPCS-1 is unable to carry out this
responsibility, either primary or alternate broadcast stations assigned as CPCS locations will be
activated in descending order. CPCS assignments are made by the FCC, not the State or local
governments.
Santa Clara County is part of the San Francisco EAS Operational Area. Our CPCS-1 station is
KCBS (740 KHz on the AM dial). Its local back-up is KSJO (92.3 MHz on the FM dial).
County OES and County Communications have the pass codes needed to access EAS and script
the emergency message to inform the public of a threat, the steps to be taken by them, and
where additional information can be obtained.
National Warning and Alerting System (NAWAS)
NAWAS is a dedicated wire-line system that provides two-way voice communications between
federal warning centers, state warning points and local warning points. If the situation ever
presents itself, NAWAS is a nationwide system developed to send warnings of impending
attack throughout the nation. The system may be activated from two federal facilities that are
staffed 24 hours daily: the FEMA Operations Center (FOC) (Bluemont, Virginia) and the
FEMA Alternate Operations Center (FAOC) (Thomasville, Georgia). During major peacetime
emergencies, state agencies may use portions of NAWAS augmented by state and local
systems. Each state has a warning point that controls the NAWAS connection within the state;
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