The Steuben County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) calls for the activation of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the event of an emergency in the County, or a portion of the County, which exceeds the capacity of the local area to handle with a "normal" response. This "normal" response can be through the resources of the local municipality and the routine mutual aid response. When the situation begins to exceed the capacity of the local area response, the EOC would be used to assess the situation and coordinate resources from across the County. In the event that the emergency were to exceed the resources of the County, the EOC would request additional resources from the State and other agencies. The function of the EOC is to coordinate resources and response to multiple operations in the field and keep the Chairman of the Steuben County Legislature apprised of the situation. Should a County Declaration of Emergency become necessary, these Orders would be issued from the EOC. 

The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan calls for the EOC to be located in the Office of Emergency Services located in the Steuben County 911 Center. Various County Department Representatives, Agency Liaisons and support staff would operate this facility. The EOC has a secondary dispatch center attached and can maintain constant communications with outside agencies through the dispatch center equipment and other data acquisition/dissemination systems. The EOC is intended to be a clearinghouse for information and resource needs for the County. 

The County EOC will be opened when emergency situations in the County warrant close monitoring of County resources under adverse circumstances.  The management of County government under disaster operations differs greatly from daily operations.  The number of emergencies and the nature of problems increase dramatically during disaster operations.  To gather pertinent information during the emergency, make decisions, and direct response and recovery actions requires the close coordination between key governmental officials.  This coordination is best obtained when key staff members are located in the same facility, with direct lines of communications between each other and their field units.  The establishment of an EOC will assist County officials in the management of large-scale operations needing their immediate control.