Page - 50 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

Figure 4 provides an organization chart for DWR’s Emergency Operations Centers and the Incident Command Teams that were activated during the Oroville Emergency. Fig. 4 Emergency Organizations for FCO Spillway Incident On February 9, 2017, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea contacted DWR’s Acting Director to request direct communication with DWR during the emergency. The Acting Director traveled to Oroville Dam to assess the status of the FCO Spillway chute, related facilities, resource needs, and to ensure that the communication and organization concerns were being properly addressed. The Sheriff met with the Acting Director at the Incident Command Post (ICP) in Oroville and, in a short discussion, the Acting Director and the Sheriff quickly agreed to support each other and their respective missions, with the highest priority being public safety. This understanding and agreement was critical to the outcome of this extremely difficult and dynamic incident. Organizations that are rarely involved in large emergencies do not have the real- world experience of emergencies, which cannot be fully replicated by training. This resulted in a limited number of experienced DWR staff that could fulfill critical EOC and ICT roles. During this period, it became clear that the ICT needed additional emergency management support, including emergency response personnel and emergency equipment. CalFire is the agency that routinely manages wildfire emergencies throughout the State of California and is very familiar with the incident command system. Therefore, CalFire was contacted at the Director level and was immediately activated to assist DWR in their ICT roles. A CalFire management team ramped up within a few hours and began setting up a CalFire incident command post. It was critical to quickly integrate the experienced CalFire management team into the DWR Oroville ICT to provide formal structure, communication and documentation process, and on- the-job training to existing and rotating DWR Oroville management and staff. Initial challenges included operational space, chain of command and control structure, internal and external communications, and developing a common understanding for the State Operations Center SOC Department Operations Center DOC Oroville Incident Command Team OICT Project Operations Center POC Flood Operations Center FOC Division of Safety of Dams DSOD 50