Over the past several years, communities throughout the United States have been faced with unique climatic conditions or what scientists are now calling “extreme weather”. Some of the most dramatic and destructive being those of hurricanes, tornados, wildfires, and floods. An overview of the quantity and frequency of extreme storms clearly reflects the magnitude of natural events that have struck the United States, causing damage almost beyond comprehension.
All in all, the past few years have had some of the most memorable extreme storms to hit the United States. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy or “Superstorm Sandy” hit the northeast with such power it was declared the second-costliest hurricane in United States history with damages estimated to be over $68 billion. South Caroline saw historic rainfall with widespread amounts of 15-20 inches and localized amounts over 25 inches causing flash floods in October of 2015. South Carolina State Officials said damage losses were $1.492 billion. Even more recently in 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit the coastlines of Texas and Louisiana, causing $152 billion in damages and over 103 deaths. Even this year, we have seen wildfires wreak havoc on California claiming of 2.2 million acres.
To protect citizens and help ensure community resiliency during these extreme weather events, federal officials and state and local communities have realized the need for sustainable critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure includes systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the community that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.
The concept of community resiliency evolves from the need for sustainable, survivable infrastructure. It includes the need to strengthen existing buildings and systems such as roadways and bridges, electrical power, water and sanitary distribution, and communications systems. It also includes the design and/or identification of redundant pathways for infrastructure systems, and in the case of flood prone areas, the relocation or elevation of living and working space within existing utility corridors and building structure.
To meet this need, and provide communities with a central organizing and communication point before, during, and after a natural or manmade disaster event, communities not only need a designated emergency operations center (EOC), but have an EOC that operates 24/7, can accommodate at least a dozen state agencies in a central command center, includes state-of-art technology, have a hardened infrastructure that can withstand more than 250 mph wind loads, and redundant systems that will sustain the facility for a minimum of 72 hours.
The technology planning for these types of facilities is key to the public safety staff’s success in operating these facilities while responding to an event. Communications with outside agencies and the public, as well as receiving information from other agencies, depends on utility providers for general phone and internet connectivity. It is imperative to provide diverse connectivity from multiple providers which ideally arrive at the building from different roads / directions and different points of presence in the city or county where the building resides. In addition to the commercial providers, a prepared facility will also enlist the aid of HAM operators who can provide communications to the outside world if utility connectivity is lost.
Audio visual and voice data planning is essential to the successful dissemination of information to agency responders and event staff. Communication of event situations graphically, textually, and audibly is a prerequisite to a successful operation. Each of these systems will require detailed planning for power and connectivity to maintain the lines of quick and efficient communications.
Security is an important consideration for the facility and staff. Security starts with the exterior site and moves into the facilities in layers. The security system provides adequate protection of the EOC staff and emergency responding agencies to allow them to do their job without disruption. The design should include Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) concepts to take advantage of as much passive security measure as possible. Electronic access control and video surveillance should also be deployed to provide enhanced detection and monitoring.
The EOC should be configured to eliminate non-essential pedestrian traffic or at least have the capabilities to do so under emergency operations. Consideration should be given to limiting the number of entrances (consistent with life safety codes) and providing for a reception area that is screened from the main part of the EOC.
There should be areas of secured parking assuring key personnel have a place to park their vehicles and enter the building without the threat of the public blocking access or taking their space during emergency operations. From this point there should be safe secure passage to the building entrance point for a 24/7 operation.
That, and more, is what the Monroe County Board of Commissioners and its Department of Emergency Management had in mind when they embarked upon a program to establish a new, stand-alone Emergency Operations Center.
As a result of its unique location on the island of Marathon, situated halfway between Key West and Key Largo, the facility was designed to face storm forces of a magnitude greater than those typically affecting an EOC structure. To compound the complexity of the project, the state, through the Division of Emergency Services, mandated that the structure be capable of withstanding forces beyond those of a Category 5 storm or even the greater storm designation of “near absolute”, by introducing a new criteria designated as the “Ten-Thousand Year Storm” or, as the expression goes, “off the scale”.
Criteria included storm surge waves of 18-20 feet, flooding over the island for a sustained period, as well as wind loading of 205 mph and 225 mph for a three second gust, clearly criteria beyond that utilized for designing standard EOC’s.
Architects Design Group, a Florida based firm that nationally specializes in the design of facilities of this type, was selected to program and design this unique facility. ADG is currently providing architectural services for similar facilities throughout the U.S. including facilities in Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington. It is, in many respects, an emerging art form and a very specialized building type.
This particular structure, with a finish floor of 123′-0″, is elevated 23 feet above the existing grade (100′) and is situated on a base pad approximately four feet above grade, creating an area utilized for the protection of emergency response vehicles during relatively minor storm events. To achieve access to the elevated building, vertical circulation elements had to be protected from the hydrostatic pressure of storm surge waves, as well as the sustained wind loading, to provide a safe means of access and/or egress.
As designed, the facility and its sophisticated services and technology, incorporates more than 30 years of EOC design experience, aptly called “lessons learned” as reflected in ADG’s book, Public Safety Architecture. The basic building program premise was to provide specialized spaces that permit governmental entities to provide appropriate emergency response during an activation, in essence, the typical protocol for an EOC as established by the Federal Department of Emergency Management (FEMA), as well as those functions mandated by the State of Florida Department of Emergency Management (FDEM). Key to the planning process was the stated goal that the survivability of the critical facility be based upon the adage that it is only as strong as its weakest link, requiring the detailed design of every exterior element; such as windows, frames, doors, fresh-air intakes, plumbing vents, exhaust baffels, exterior electrical outlets, towers, etc., etc. Everything must be fully capable of withstanding forces of a unique and dynamitic nature.
The many lessons we have learned can be summarized as – the failure of any exterior element generally means that exterior forces quickly become interior forces and render a facility unusable.” Thus, every element or system, located on the exterior, must be fully capable of withstanding all the unique criteria of a 10,000 Year Storm, and remain fully capable of continued operational capacity over a sustained period.
While Florida has a long history of hurricanes and tornados spun off from strong thunderstorms, the premise of protection from large storm surges, such as Hurricane Katrina that produced a storm surge of 20′ – 30′ in Florida in 2005, is being realized as a real threat. Such a demand results in unique structural elements; a premise we can only understand when we envision a series of 20-foot waves repeatedly striking a building over a sustained period. It is, in that respect, difficult to envision such a magnitude of impact upon a building, much less to design for it.
Similar to redundancy needs for whole communities, there is a need to design redundancy in the EOC for all critical power, data, security, communications, and audio-visual systems. In the case of an EOC located on an island, the mandate of survivability is the need to not only have the building survive, but to have it remain fully operational as the island floods. This mandated the inclusion of dual emergency generators, each fully capable of providing 100% of electrical demand, based upon the learned experience that emergency generators, when placed in continued operations over a sustained period, have demonstrated a regrettable propensity to fail. The loss of electrical service, even for a short duration, quickly renders a facility unusable, particularly in structures that are entirely sealed, with no natural light, nor natural air movement. These are expensive decisions, difficult for taxpayers and the public to accept when we are in a period of economic stress, yet imperative if the facility is to be capable of functioning for its intended and critical purpose.
With this structure, Monroe County both addresses the unique criteria related to its geographical location, as well as providing emergency services during periods of extreme weather. This building endeavors to address protection and survivability issues in an appropriate, secure, and cost-effective manner.
Updated: 2021.
