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Philadelphia Shows Off Its Newly Renovated Emergency Operations Center

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By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The City of Philadelphia's emergency operations center has been given a makeover,  and today city officials unveiled the finished product.

The center has been reconfigured to handle the rigors of 24/7 emergency use.  Workers now have better lighting, roomier and more efficient countertop space, v-shaped workstations for face-to-face collaboration, and a video wall that's doubled in size.

OEM ctr chairs _kurtz
(Credit: Paul Kurtz)

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Renovations on the center began last summer, with completion targeted for this month. But Mayor Michael Nutter says Hurricane Sandy actually expedited the process.

"Monitoring the track of that storm well in advance of the expected landfall on October 29th, our OEM staff kicked it right into high gear to ensure that the torn up, empty shell of a room was up and running in time to make it operational for that storm. And you saw what they did and how they performed," the mayor said today.

The nearly $800,000 project was funded by Homeland Security and FEMA.

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