MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The leader of Shelby County's Office of Preparedness gave a tour Friday of the county's new state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center. The center has been online and ready to go in case of emergency since July.
Bob Nations, head of Shelby County's Office of Preparedness, says what the county has with its new operations center is "the best of the best."
"We moved from the 18th century to the 21st century in blazing speed," he said. "This is like going from pencil sharpeners to high tech white boards in zero to 60 seconds."
Nations boasts Shelby County's first responders will be able to react quickly to emergency situations thanks to the high tech, highly efficient and cost effective center.
Speaking of cost, it only cost $300,000.
The new war room will allow personnel to keep up with any blackouts that result from natural disasters.
According to Nations, "We can see which direction the wind is blowing based on power outages."
It also has very valuable and helpful capabilities which allow them to see how tall a building is in case they need to evacuate.
What's even more impressive about this Emergency Operations Center is the way different divisions within Shelby County government came together to make this happen.
"Our support services division, carpenters, electricians, they were fantastic. The sheriff's office here is one of our biggest partners, their audio and visual experts came over," he said, "we were extremely pleased at how everyone came together."
