Who's minding the ship when an emergency strikes Plainfield?

PLAINFIELD — Town officials recently codified how Plainfield’s emergency operations center will be staffed and run, laying out formal guidelines on its organization, activation and functions.

“We wanted to set some parameters on what’s done at that site,” First Selectman Kevin Cunningham said on Tuesday, a day after the Board of Selectmen approved a new “purpose and scope” document. “This way everyone – whether it’s the emergency management director or someone else named responsible for the center – has a clear idea of what support is needed in an emergency.”

The town’s emergency operations center, or EOC, is located in a large meeting room inside the Central Village Fire Company station off Black Hill Road. Inside the space this week, a large Eversource map listing “critical facilities,” denoting police, fire, medical and shelter locations, was laid on one of several folding tables.

On the walls, white boards were filled with the phone and fax numbers of regional emergency contacts, including Red Cross, Eversource and state liaisons. Another board, not far from a coffee maker and microwave, featured the names of local news and weather outlets. A large television was suspended in front a desk bristling with communications cables fronting a shelf filled with radios and chargers.

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In the past, the EOC has been activated for large-scale weather incidents, including hurricanes and blizzards. The room serves as a hub where the staff of various law enforcement, highway and fire crews can be coordinated and deployed to everything from downed trees and wires to medical emergencies, Emergency Management Director Constantino Galasso said.

“The number of people in the EOC is dependent on the specific event,” he said. “For instance, when (tropical storm) Isaias hit last year, the first selectman was here and he ended up driving out to check on downed trees.”

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Galasso, who also serves as the town’s fire marshal, said the new operational framework document clearly lays out the responsibilities of the site’s director, under what circumstances the center is activated and its functions once on-line.

“Prior to its activation, we’re coordinating with police, ambulance and fire personnel to check staffing and ensuring there’s good lines of communication, whether that’s by cell phone, radio or email,” he said. “Once an incident starts, we’re marking out closed roads on maps and starting to plan on how to get them open again.”

The approved document also brings non-emergency officials into the process, including town finance employees responsible for tracking incident costs and the potential payments due responders and contractors. It also lays out the core functions of the EOC, including its responsibilities for collecting accurate incident information and disseminating it to the public; serving as a communication link between the local, regional and state entities; and serving as the sole coordinating point for related state and federal aid requests.

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The guidelines for the first time describe the three levels of center activation, from the lower “monitoring” phase to a “Level I Full Activation” mode – for incidents expected to last longer than 24 hours – that brings in representatives from the town and public safety ranks, as well as additional support staff.

Galasso credited Deputy Fire Marshal Travis Irons with spearheading the formal EOC policy plan. Irons, who also serves as chief of the Plainfield Fire Company and the operations manager for Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications, the region’s main 911 dispatching center, said an EOC is a crucial element when dealing with an adverse incident.

Irons said a properly-run EOC serves as a funnel for the large volume of incoming emergency calls typical of a major incident.

“That center acts as a hub and responses can be prioritized,” he said. “911 personnel love it when they're dealing with EOC directors in towns like Killingly and Plainfield. And this document lays out very definite thresholds for things like EOC activations and the actions that need to be taken to get to those places.”

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Cunningham said the new formalized framework will ensure a level of continuity of operations no matter who’s tapped to oversee the center.

“And it lays out what happens when we need to give the director a break and not have them working 36 hours in a row,” he said. “We want it clear who the second or third person on call is.”

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: How does Plainfield respond to a damaging hurricane or major blizzard?