St. Lucie County officials knew their 7,500-square-foot bunker of an Emergency Operations Center was undersized and low-tech.

“We didn’t realize how inadequate it was until we had to live there for 30 days,” former County Administrator Doug Anderson said, referring to the 2004 hurricane season, when the county took a direct hit from two storms in three weeks.

When Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne raked over the area, emergency workers camped out at the EOC to coordinate the county’s recovery. They slept on floors, in hallways, under desks.

They won’t have to endure those conditions again.

Last week, the county opened its new EOC — a $12.75 million, 27,282-square-foot building that replaces the 23-year-old center on Rock Road.

Juno Beach-based Florida Power & Light Co. wrote the county a $400,000 check last week to help cover the tab. In exchange, the state’s largest utility wants to use the state-of-the-art EOC as a backup hurricane command center, just in case its Miami and West Palm Beach centers end up in the direct path of a major hurricane.

“Then we would bring our team here,” Amy Brunjes, external affairs manager for FPL on the Treasure Coast, said at the EOC last week.

Unlike the old emergency hub, which was mostly underground, the new EOC at the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds was built with eco-friendly features: lots of natural light; chairs made from recycled materials.

The building has sleeping quarters, enclosed generators, a morgue available on site and a helicopter pad outside.

Tags: eco-friendly, emergency, Florida, FPL, hurricanes, utility

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 9:21 am and is filed under Economy, Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Treasure Coast business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.