Brevard County Breaks Ground On New Emergency Operations Center in Rockledge

new $30 million facility is projected to be completed in late 2023

BREVARD COUNTY • ROCKLEDGE, FLORIDA – Brevard County politicians and government officials conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Brevard County Emergency Operations Center on Friday in Rockledge.

The Brevard Emergency Operations Center provides Homeland Security for Brevard and coordinates information regarding the occurrence or threat of any disaster or emergency threatening the safety of Space Coast residents.

The EOC uses telephone, television and the Emergency Services of the Brevard County Sheriff, the city police and fire departments to provide coordinated management of all services for cataclysmic events such as hurricanes, floods and terrorism.

In cooperation with police and fire departments, Patrick Space Force Base and Federal agencies, including the Kennedy Space Center, the Emergency Op Center informs the public of an impending or actual emergency or disaster through the use of automatic telephone notification to everyone to start evacuating or other response. This Center operates 24 hours a day.

The EOC has successfully conducted mass evacuation and relief of hundreds of thousands of residents from hurricanes since 1999 including two in 2004.

The EOC also warns of tornadoes and serious thunderstorms. Central Florida is the lightning capital of America with more deaths each year than the rest of the states combined. Lightning kills ten times more people in the area than sharks and alligators combined.

It has been more than 20 years since the EOC facilities have been updated. The new 45,000-square-foot emergency operations center will be constructed next to the Rockledge Facility, which opened in 1964.

The new $30 million facility, which is projected to be completed in late 2023, will be able to withstand Category 5 hurricane-strength winds and will feature the latest technology to respond to emergencies on the Space Coast.

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