Office of Emergency Services (OES)

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OES is made up of two distinct functions that work together hand and hand. As of December 2015, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors approved a reorganization of the San Benito County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) to fall under the leadership of the Office of Emergency Services. With this change, EMS was physically moved to be co-located with OES and was classified as the Emergency Medical Services Division. Please visit the EMS page located here to learn what this specific function of OES does!

Beyond the EMS Division of OES, the office handles a wide variety of functions and programs all aimed and preparing the County of San Benito to effectively and efficiently respond to and recover from any and all types of hazards and threats. Using a “All-Hazards” approach to planning, OES is able to touch a wide variety of possible situations and give our partner first responder agencies the support and coordination needed to handle any type of crisis.

OES Mission Statement

The San Benito County Office of Emergency Services (OES) mission is to lead the San Benito County Operational Area’s collective efforts to protect life, property & the environment by developing, coordinating and managing programs that prevent, protect, respond to, recover from, and mitigate natural and man-made disasters and emergencies.

OES Responsibilities

The Office of Emergency Services (OES) provides emergency management services for the County Operational Area including its two principal cities and all special districts and political subdivisions. OES coordinates emergency operations activities among all the various local jurisdictions and develops written guidelines for emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation to natural or man-made disasters.

OES is charged with providing the necessary planning, coordination, response support and communications with all agencies affected by large scale emergencies or disasters. OES works in a cooperative effort with other governmental jurisdictions within the county; disciplines such as law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services, state and federal agencies, utilities, private industry and volunteer groups in order to provide a coordinated response to disasters.

The Emergency Services Manager is responsible to manage the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC). In any disaster the EOC becomes the single focal point for centralized management and coordination of emergency response and recovery operations during a disaster or emergency affecting the San Benito County Operational Area. The EOC will be activated when an emergency situation occurs that exceeds local and/or in-field capabilities to adequately respond to and mitigate the incident.

The San Benito County Office of Emergency Services (OES) is also responsible for the administration of the several county emergency management programs on a day-to-day basis.

Visit the links below for more information about some of our programs.

Register with Genasys to Stay Informed!

Click here to go to the SBCAlert portal!

Include your cellular, VOIP phone, and email in the Emergency Notification system used by Santa Cruz Regional 9-1-1 personnel to send important messages to residents and businesses within Santa Cruz & San Benito County. The system has the capability of sending thousands of messages in a very short time based on geographic location of the incident.

Know your San Benito County Emergency Evacuation Zone!

San Benito County has designated emergency evacuation zone! It's important to know your zone in the event of evacuation warnings and confirmed evacuations. Evacuation warnings/notices and repopulation notices are issued based on zones.

Do you know what emergency evacuation zone you are in?

Click here to know your zone!

OES Authority

The San Benito County Office of Emergency Services is mandated by the California Emergency Services Act (Chapter 7, Division 1, Title 2 of Government Code to serve as the liaison between the State and all the local government political subdivisions comprising San Benito County.

OES Staff

The Office of Emergency Services and the Emergency Medical Services Division has a full-time staff of 4 people. Together, we work as one unified team to insure that at all levels, the residents, visitors, and workforce of San Benito County are taken care of across the wide scope of emergencies and disasters. The team below is dedicated to serving the community and working closely with all of our emergency responder partners to provide any and all needed support.