Dallas County officials on Wednesday opened the regional Emergency Operations Center one day before FIFA World Cup events kicked off.
More than 125 local, state and federal agencies are authorized to use the West Dallas facility, built as a joint operations hub for public health crises and public safety and weather-related emergencies.
County commissioners approved in 2024 more than $39 million from the Biden Administration's American Rescue Plan Act funds to design, engineer and build the facility from scratch.
Agencies like FIFA, North Texas city governments and the Secret Service have access to the hub, which is about half the size of a soccer pitch.
"Nobody looks for or wishes for a disaster," said Scott Forster, the county's Emergency Services Chief. "But this is Dallas County, Texas and something is going to happen. Hope is not a plan. We train the staff, we work with our partners, we have great relationships, and now we have a premier facility to be able to bring that all together."
On top of Dallas County's nearly 3 million residents, more than 100,000 visitors are expected through July 19 for FIFA World Cup events.
FIFA-related preparations at the center have included public safety around the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, where the International Broadcast Center is located, and coordination with the City of Arlington for "Dallas Stadium" safety, traffic and transit.
Forster said agencies recently practiced for FIFA emergency operations.
"It's almost like working with one mind and one voice," he said. "If something happens everybody is on the same sheet of music. Everybody has the same situation awareness, everybody knows the same information, and resources could be identified and allocated quickly if we need additional support at an incident location."
Commissioner Elba Garcia tracked much of the high-tech, EV-equipped building's progress, which was built in her precinct beyond the central business district, in case downtown Dallas was threatened.
"We knew we needed something like this and it was very obvious after COVID hit," she said. "We obviously had a big scare with Ebola, but when COVID hit, we were a panoramic circle — City of Dallas, 311, down there in the basement — we were all segregated trying to make the best of it with everybody being at different places. Now, you will see the FBI and all the law enforcement entities working for the World Cup."
The building, which is beside a fire station, features a multipurpose room for broadcasting news, a warehouse for supply storage and vehicle parking, extended-stay sleeping areas and a fitness center.
Weather radars, traffic cameras and news can continue to be monitored using the most current high-speed internet fiber.
Severe weather events that cause wide-spread damage are familiar to the region.
So parts of the building can resist up to an EF5 tornado, categorized as having wind gusts stronger than 200 miles per hour.
The National Weather Service has cautioned that heat indexes this week through Sunday could hit between 100 and 105 degrees.
Joint operations have prepared for those related rescues.
Some World Cup opening-weekend fans may be unprepared for Texas temperatures, said Garcia.
"This heat is not for, you know, Samba dancing for three hours outside in the middle of the day," she said.
Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins previously had hoped the design and features would allow emergency response and operations to continue — even during unthinkable scenarios, like a nuclear explosion.
"People say, 'Well, gosh, you know, that's that's not an emergency that you should be worried about,'" he said. "But the thing is, if that emergency happens, then the federal government is going to be focused on federal facilities and military response. We're going to be focused on the people who live here — get their power restored, their medical devices still working — all of those things."
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