The Virtual Emergency Operations Center or VEOC is the central location for managing the national Waze response to massive crisis events. (These include hurricanes, typhoons, mud and landslides, floods, tsunamis, winter storms, earthquakes, and large fires.) The VEOC is designed to complement and enhance a state or region's ability to handle the map changes required including the addition of road closures and emergency shelters. It is designed to allow editors from the community at large, regardless of rank or experience, the opportunity to help those in the affected area(s). The more severe the event, the more map changes are needed and, unfortunately, the more likely that locals would have no power or would have evacuated.
Mission & Benefits
VEOC's primary mission is to coordinate national efforts to assist local editors in responding to a major event when they are overwhelmed or incapacitated (either for safety reasons or otherwise) and unable to respond appropriately. It is critical that the map reflect the current conditions before, during, and after the crisis event to support the affected community. Wazers require accurate routing when evacuating (and when returning home afterwards). Activated emergency shelters are highlighted on the map to assist those who choose to remain in the area. First responders need to know the current status of roads to provide services to the community during and after the event.
- Opportunity to learn from new local communities and experienced editors.
- Strengthen relationships inside the community.
- Getting more people together and making the community stronger.
- Data is available after the event for analysis and reports
Admin Team
This dedicated team was created as a national team, independent of any particular region. This composition allows greater flexibility in the creation and maintenance of feeds, channels, etc needed for effective VEOC management.
- Head Event Coordinator: DrDisaster (NOR); Assisted by spedracr (SER)
- Closure Form & Sheet: crazycaveman (SAT ARC), Owner; Maintenance assisted by dbsooner (SCR/SER), spedracr (SER)
- Form Filler Script: crazycaveman (SAT ARC); Maintenance of closure form
- Additional editors with process knowledge include,
- Driving79 (SER RC)
- karlcr9911 (SCR RC)
- Jakflash(SEC LC)
- spankdog (SER LC)
- itzwolf (SER ARC)
- grsmhiker (SAT MSM)
- jwe252 (SAT CM)
- LostRiver2008 (SER)
Communication
We have a dedicated server in Discord, Waze USA VEOC for communication. There are several channels created for each event: chat, closures, open, feeds, places.
This server is for
Tools
Recommended Scripts
It is highly recommended that all editors have the following installed
- Tampermonkey is needed for the installation of some scripts.
- Form Filler Script when activated, transfers information from the editor into related forms. It greatly Improves productivity and reduces the opportunity for errors.
- WME Government Boundaries superimposes county boundaries on the map and places the county name in the upper left corner with the city/state. This is very important to use to verify that you are locating and/or closing the correct road segment in the correct county. (Some road names are used in more than one county.)
- WME ME provides assistance in identifying the correct longitude and latitude for a place. (If you are looking for permalinks, the lat/lon for the pin will be centered on your screen. Use the WME ME! script to easily see where the pin will be dropped.)
VEOC Forms & Sheets
- VEOC - Closures Entry Form can be used by all editors. The data entered into this form is transferred to the closure sheet for action. This form is pinned to the event closures Discord channel.
- VEOC Automatic Access Request Form is used to request instant access to the VEOC Closures Tracking Sheet (below). rack closures for events. PLEASE NOTE: This form is needed ONLY if an editor has not previously asked for access.
- VEOC - Closures Tracking Sheet (sample) is the google sheet used to track closure activity for events. Used by editors who have the ability to close segments.
- VEOC - Shelter Tracking Sheet (sample) is the google sheet used to track shelter activity for events and is named using this format: "[VEOC Event Name] - pins - "calendar year" ". Each event's sheet is pinned to its Discord channel for places.