How Lincoln County EMA uses D4H to Maintain a Common Operating Picture in their Virtual EOC

Customer Background

It is the mission of Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency to protect the lives and property of the citizens and visitors of Lincoln County by ensuring mitigation of, preparation for, response to, and recovery from, the effects of natural and man-made disasters.

The state of Maine is broken up into 16 different counties, one of which being Lincoln County. Within Lincoln County itself, there are 18 different towns. There can be a great deal of coordination, communication, and collaboration involved between these towns during an incident.

The Challenge

With various representatives from each of the 18 towns working together during an incident, effective communication was always a challenge for Lincoln County EMA. Emails and excel spreadsheets proved to be time-consuming and inefficient.

“Trying to communicate back and forth through emails during an incident was timely. It took longer to make decisions in our EOC and longer to get information out to the public.”
— Casey Stevens, Director, Lincoln County EMA.

Further, Lincoln County EMA did not have a good way to collect data from the field. This information is vital for providing updates to the relevant agencies and making announcements to the public.

The Solution

“D4H Incident Management provides an instant common operating picture throughout our county. Each jurisdiction has access and can add information for each of their towns as it happens.”
— Casey Stevens, Director, Lincoln County EMA.

Lincoln County has experienced severe windstorms over the last few years. Road closures are put in place when trees are blown down, trees also often take down power lines with them. These closed roads need to be coordinated at the County EOC level with the utility companies to track priorities and give an overview of the situation. Towns can now enter their closed roads in D4H Incident Management, to create a common operating picture and notify the relevant utility company. This has created a far more organized process to achieve the quickest possible resolution.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to achieve situational awareness during an incident.”
— Casey Stevens, Director, Lincoln County EMA.

Creating a Virtual EOC for COVID-19

Most recently, the EMA has been using D4H Incident Management to create a virtual EOC throughout COVID-19, enabling staff to fulfill their roles regardless of their location. A big part of Lincoln County EMA’s COVID-19 response was managing resource requests and ensuring local first responder agencies had the PPE they needed.

Local towns can input their PPE requirements into a simple resource request form and the EOC can mark the status of every request so that all parties were well informed and on the same page at all times. This has saved on countless calls and emails and enabled them to track all of the necessary information in one place.

“D4H Incident Management is like a dream for an Emergency Manager, I don’t know how we’d operate without it.”
— Casey Stevens, Director, Lincoln County EMA.

The EOC’s quarantine status board displays how many first responders or critical government staff are being quarantined at any given time. This provides all of the information required to effectively plan out their capabilities and make appropriate mutual aid or resource requests as needed.

A custom expenditures status board enables staff to upload a copy of invoices and receipts, which they can then sort by town or department. This information is then used to obtain reimbursement from the federal disaster that was declared.