An Emergency Operations Center is a centralized command and control facility that is activated during a crisis. It is a place where various stakeholders will congregate to share information, and to ensure a common, unified picture of the crisis, in order to facilitate critical decision-making.
During a crisis, the EOC Director has overall responsibility and oversight for things such as:
- Establishing strategic priorities
- Ensure information flow to the public
- Declare a local State of Emergency
- Issue evacuation orders
- Request support from regional/national authorities
- Conduct media interviews
During an emergency, the first priority is always people. However, cultural heritage is interwoven into cultural identity; so much so, that a loss of cultural heritage can create feelings of a loss of identity. That is why it is important to think of the ways we can protect, maintain, and preserve cultural heritage BEFORE a crisis emerges.
Check out EU Interreg ProteCHt2save’s Decision Support Tool to learn what you can do BEFORE a crisis emerges, so that you are better prepared to handle it when it does.
