After a two-decade wait, Florida's Brevard County will soon have a new emergency operations center (EOC) to coordinate activities among different agencies in case of disaster.
State elected officials, county commissioners and staff were on hand at the construction site earlier in September for a celebratory groundbreaking to commemorate the start of construction of the new 42,000-sq.-ft. facility, built to accommodate upwards of 400 emergency workers.
"It is certainly a long-term recognized need for us," said John Scott, the county's emergency operations director. "We talk about where our limits are. From a current facility standpoint, our building was built in 1964, which makes it the second oldest EOC in the state of Florida."
Some administrative processes have yet to be completed, Florida Today learned, but construction is planned to before the end of the year, with an expected completion in the spring of 2024.
The cities of Palm Bay, Melbourne and Titusville, among others in Brevard, have been vocal for years about building a larger EOC building in the coastal county along the Atlantic Ocean.
"It has been needed for a very, very long time," Brevard County Commission Vice Chair Curt Smith told Florida Today, a news source based in Viera.
The current EOC is meant for only 60 people, and the facilities require a significant upgrade to incorporate the latest technology needed to coordinate all emergency activities needed in a disaster.
Brevard's EOC Busiest in Florida
According to information released by the county, Brevard's emergency operations center is the most activated site in the state because of the many NASA launches from Cape Canaveral, and the annual threat of hurricanes in the area.
The necessity of a new EOC became clear during Hurricane Matthew in 2016, when 200 people were marshalled to deal with the multi-day incident. Staffers, along with media, found themselves squeezed into a building too small for their numbers.
Florida Today reported that people brought sleeping bags and were forced to rest where they worked. Power and air conditioning issues also plagued the building, and the restrooms became clogged.
According to Brevard County, though, the newly constructed emergency facility will include much more space for personnel activated during an emergency. A dedicated room for the media will give members a place to plug in their equipment and meet the technological demands for getting information out to the public.
The building also will feature an upgraded kitchen to feed those who will need to remain onsite throughout a disaster, as well as a rest area for staff that need a break from their duties.
Brevard County's new EOC also is designed to support upgraded technology, Scott explained.
"We are going to be able to integrate more systems," he added, "[and] have a better common operating fixture in what is going on because we are able to bring in more technology."
That translates to shorter response times for county residents, noted Scott. Frontline workers will be able to identify problems sooner and dispatch resources to needed areas at a faster rate.
"All of it is going to get more efficient and [run] smoother," he explained.
Funding New EOC Was ‘A Real Nightmare'
Many of the delays in building the new EOC stem from funding issues, county official told the news source.
"It has been a real nightmare," Smith said. "We have been working on this for all the years I have been on the commission, and probably before that."
In total, the EOC building will cost upwards of $30 million, double the original estimate of $15 million.
The county used several funding sources to offset the construction costs for the new site. Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a $1 million allocation from the $101.5 billion state budget.
However, the new operations center would not have left the drawing board without the money Brevard County was distributed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, the county commission approved a $6.75 million outlay from federal coronavirus emergency funds. Another $2 million in COVID-19 funding from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office also will be used for the EOC construction project.
This year, Brevard County commissioners approved an added $12.2 million from the second allotment they received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
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