When disaster strikes, failing to plan is planning to fail.

No one wants to believe a catastrophic flood or snowstorm or mine disaster could happen in Raleigh County, but they could. If those events occur, the county will now be ready.

Monday morning, operations will officially begin at the new Raleigh County Emergency Operations Center, located on 6 acres off Industrial Park Drive in Beaver. Jack Bowden, EOC director, said the $3.3 million facility not only brings much more advanced technology for those dispatching 911 calls, but it also has additional facilities needed in case of major disasters.

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony, during which the public will be invited to tour the new facility, has an August target date, Bowden said.

“Everyone has a loved one, someone they care for,” Bowden said. “Statistics show that people will call 911 at least twice in their lifetimes — and that is likely increasing now. When you dial 911, with the technology we have, we can try to save lives or reduce property loss.

“Someone may say they don’t need 911, but the likelihood that you will need it in your own personal life is increasing. If you may not need it, a person you care about may need it.”

The facility has been in the works since 2001-02, Bowden said. One event that sparked the planning was the catastrophic 2001 flooding in the Clear Creek area. During that time, eight National Guard units were sent to Raleigh County to help — and people in those units had to sleep on the floor of the old EOC, located in the Beckley Police Department basement. The kitchen was not functional for the amount of cooking that needed to be done, so the Guard members had to eat MREs (Meals Ready to Eat).

“For 31 days, they ate and slept on the floor,” he said.

“Now, we can handle 17 agencies and bunk 16 people. ... If we have agencies come in from the federal or state (governments), we have sleeping quarters for them.”

Afterward, county officials began work on their vision of what they wanted, Bowden said. Expansion of the facility in Beckley could not be done. For example, one wall could not be knocked down because of structural concerns. Officials then realized a new facility altogether was needed, and ideas were solicited from the city, county, state and federal levels.

“We knew we didn’t have the facility, and we couldn’t meet the needs of the city and county and the agencies responding to assist their citizens,” he said.

Citizens were urged to write letters to Sen. Robert C. Byrd on the EOC’s behalf, Bowden said. He was thankful for the ones who did.

“Without everyone, this would not be a reality,” he said.

Bowden said about $2.43 million was spent on the building and construction alone and an additional $800,000 was spent on new technological equipment such as radio, phone, computer-aided dispatch and mapping systems. Furnishings cost around $29,000. Through Byrd, Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Nick Rahall, $1.43 million in federal grants were provided for the facility.

From former state House Speaker Bob Kiss, Raleigh County received state grants, plus smaller amounts of state funding was provided by the state’s Emergency Management Program grants, Bowden said. The county’s 911 fees paid for the facility’s remaining price tag — except for furnishings, which were provided by the fees collected from monitoring private security systems.

As a result, Bowden said the county did not have to borrow any money for the facility.

“It is 100 percent paid for,” he said. “At one point, we thought we would have to borrow money or ask the city or county for additional funding. But this is the way it worked.”

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The center of the new facility is the 911 telecommunications dispatching center where all operations are computer-aided, Bowden said. One key element of the new dispatching is the Motorola 5500 series equipment which acts as a reverse 911 system.

Situations such as a hazardous material spill have the potential to hurt several citizens at once. Bowden said the new Motorola software will call the landline numbers of residents in the effected area, and they will receive a pre-recorded message about what is happening and what they must do.

Several people, however, only use a wireless phone. Bowden did not know of any available technology that could notify wireless users, but he would want it if it were out there.

“If the technology would be available, we would definitely pursue any avenue to tie in wireless communications,” he said. “Technology in wireless communication is growing in leaps and bounds.”

Any time a call comes into the center, a map will automatically bring up the caller’s location, Bowden said. The EOC is also working to better pinpoint those calling 911 on a cell phone. Right now, it can usually pinpoint cell callers’ street location, even possibly an intersection. But it cannot yet pinpoint the exact street address.

When any emergency service agency finishes a call, the center is also capable of sending paperwork from that call to the appropriate agency by fax, Bowden said.

Throughout the facility, 14 cameras are positioned, and the particularly useful function of this is that all dispatching in the center can be monitored anywhere in the facility.

“You can see everything,” Bowden said. “Everything being dispatched, any (calls) holding and all the mapping.”

The cameras are particularly useful because, on flat-screen monitors also placed throughout the facility, everyone can see what is happening, Bowden said. Multiple dispatchers working the same incident can keep abreast of what one another are doing, and supervisors — plus any state and federal officials coming because of a major incident — can monitor the dispatching and anything else in the building.

The EOC plans to soon tie in ham radio operators, Bowden noted, and these people will be soon be able to send real-time audio and video of any disaster so it can be viewed at the center on any of the monitors.

“We can view this right in the offices,” he said. “If we had mayors, county commissioners, someone from the governor’s office in here, they could all see what is happening.”

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Near the 911 dispatching area is the center’s new incident command center where up to 17 emergency service agencies can work during a major incident. The main meeting room has hookups for laptop computers at all stations, and unless it is being used to handle a catastrophe, the room will be used for monthly board meetings.

“We hope it is just used for meetings and planning,” Bowden remarked.

Located near this room are sleeping quarters which can hold up to eight people per room, Bowden said. There are separate facilities for both male and female personnel, and these facilities include lockers and showers. In each of the rooms, there are Internet connections visiting authorities can use. Bowden was personally thankful to his technology specialists for this insight.

“They can do their reports and send them to D.C. or to Charleston,” he said. “There’s a TV to watch, so they can unwind for eight hours — if they get eight hours.

“We hope this is not used that much, but if (an incident does happen), that’s what it’s for.”

The new kitchen can hold four to eight people, Bowden said. More food can be stored and prepared by those literally having to live at the center during a major incident. The old center’s kitchen was nothing more than a small stove and refrigerator, and there was no room to store items.

“We had no storage at all,” he said. “Now, we can keep food in the back and feed people.”

In case of disaster, the EOC can also keep food and supplies on hand for affected citizens, Bowden noted. The new center has a large storage facility where needed supplies from agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be kept.

The EOC also plans to keep a stock of items such as non-perishable food in this area at all times, Bowden said. The stock already includes 4,000 blankets, 250 cots and about 150 cleaning kits.

“I don’t want to mislead anyone by saying we will have a large warehouse (at all times),” Bowden said. “But there will be some things here we can immediately use.”

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The future of the old EOC is unknown, Bowden said. With city officials, he has briefly discussed the EOC keeping at least one room at the old location to keep older equipment for backup. If the city were to ever build a new police department, the EOC would like to have a room in that building for backup equipment as well. In case something were to destroy the new equipment, Bowden wants to keep dispatching 911 calls.

Employees have already trained with the new equipment, plus supervisors have undergone advanced training, he said. While he is confident in his employees, he noted that one cannot help but worry about something going wrong.

“Have I worried about things? Sure, I have,” he said. “You often wonder what you have left out. The female employees pointed out that in kitchen we left out a dishwasher. We’ll be able to fix that.’

“I have faith in the people from Motorola, Interact (software manufacturer) and Verizon that they will do their jobs properly. I know there will be some glitches, but we will go back to the drawing board.

“The big nightmare is nothing working. But we will just go back to the old systems until we figure out what is wrong. Every plan also needs a backup. If the power goes out, we have a generator. We have lightning suppression.”

Bowden noted that when employees began using computer-aided dispatching — rather than filling out several pieces of paperwork — some believed they could not handle the change. Now they would likely become flustered without it.

“We are here to serve,” he said. “In an emergency, we are the first line. Our people are trained to get fire, police and emergency medical services to the public quickly and accurately as we can. We must also protect these people when they respond — whether it be a shooting, fire or a heart attack.”

— E-mail: apridemore@

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