Weather Blog Used For Oklahoma Disasters
It's called Web EOC and it's a computer program new to Oklahoma's Emergency Management Operations. It's sort of a message board where crews in every county in Oklahoma can post or chat on line
"All the 77 counties are logged in on this program with the Emergency Operations Center and we use it to communicate," said Leflore County Director Michael Davidson.
In Poteau, on Tuesday Eastern Oklahoma crews tried out the site with a drill centered around flooding. Other crews in Western Oklahoma tried out the site using a drill based around wildfires.
Before Web EOC came about emergency coordinators in any county in Oklahoma would have to call each other. It could take dozens of phone calls and hours to secure volunteers, equipment or anything in the event of a disaster.
"You would exhaust the local and county resources first, then regional, then state," said Arkoma Oklahoma emergency management director Bobby Parker.
Now, everyone can log on, post what's going on and the entire state can help out.
"Every single incident and disaster, communication always comes down to being a problem. Every exercise, every real world event, communication has been at the top. This is one of the communications we have come up with," Parker said.
The site will not be open to the public.