To: Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To: Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

The flow of mutual aid is in one or more of the following ways:

1. Within an OA - as by a city, district, or local agency to the county (OA); or
2. From an OA (county with all its jurisdictions) to the State OES REOC.
3. From the REOC to the State Operations Center (SOC) to other REOCs, States, Federal Agencies, such as FEMA

Mutual aid occurs in this manner:

1. In an emergency, City X exhausts its ACS or RACES communic- ations resources, then turns to the Operational Area (OA) which supplies them from other cities, agencies, districts within the OA if possible; and if NOT, then
2. Having depleted its available resources for communications the OA goes to the State OES Region Emergency Operations Center (REOC) that serves that OA.

As a direct result of SEMS, State OES implemented the Response Information Management System (RIMS) to improve data processing. RIMS is a computer-based system that replicates data, forms, requests, situation reports, and status reports between the OA, REOC, and SOC.

The process for communications between the OA EOC and the REOC changed when State OES implemented RIMS (Response Information Management System) as a SEMS function. Prior to RIMS, requests and reports were by telephone. The computer-based RIMS provided a significant improvement over the previous system in several different ways and received its first significant test within hours of its implementation.

The following description takes more time to explain than it does to work in the real world. Here is how the system now flows:

1. ACS or RACES Officer notifies his/her OA agency coordinator of the unit's need for (or ability to provide) mutual aid. This notification may or may not occur on RIMS, as that depends on how the OA has provided access to its ACS or RACES unit.

2. Agency coordinator authorizes the mutual aid request and it normally will go from the LOCAL EOC to the REOC via RIMS (either over the Internet or by Satellite (or, if neither, via telephone, fax, ACS, or RACES, depending on the situation).

3. At the REOC the request reaches the ICS logistics officer, who must determine what to do. If it contains an originating OA Incident Number, it can be assigned a mission number (by REOC Operations) and sent to a State OES Communications Coordinator to task the Region ACS Officer for ACS or RACES resources from one or more Operational Area ACS or RACES units.

4. Actual tasking MAY occur THROUGH RIMS once the ACS Region Officer has arranged details, IF the ACS or RACES unit in the respective OA has RIMS access. Without that, the OA ACS or RACES unit contacts will need to be by telephone or radio.

Continues, next bulletin.

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Bulletins archives: ACS Web page: acs.oes.ca.gov, ftp.ucsd.edu/emcomm or ftp.oes.ca.gov/ACS/EMCOMM and a Landline BBS at 916-255-0798 (graphical & standard interface)

EOM