Larimer County shifts emergency plans to FEMA ‘lifelines’ model, readies dashboards and call center

Larimer County emergency management told the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 24 that it has rewritten its Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) and Recovery Plan to align with the FEMA “lifelines” model and to reflect how the county’s emergency operations center (EOC) actually operates.

Lori Hodges, director of emergency management, said the county will present the two base plans to the board for signatures after the sheriff signs them. “We are no longer gonna use emergency support functions just because it's just not how we do business in the emergency operations center,” Hodges said, describing a move toward a problem‑centric approach organized around lifelines such as safety and security, food/water/shelter, health/medical, energy, communications, transportation and hazardous materials.

The change replaces the older emergency support function (ESF) structure with seven lifeline annexes that group multiple ESFs under each lifeline. Hodges said the lifeline approach is intended to get the right mix of partners into work groups to solve cross‑sector problems before they cascade into larger community impacts — for example, preventing fiber outages that could take 911 offline during the Alexander Mountain Fire.

Why it matters: County staff said the lifelines framework will let the EOC focus on keeping critical systems functional so field responders can do their jobs. Hodges told commissioners the revised EOP and a shorter Recovery Plan more closely match how the county has operated through recent incidents including Cameron Peak Fire and the COVID response.

Operational tools: Staff described two situational‑awareness tools tied to the new plans. Justin…