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The next time a new disease outbreak surprises Utahns or an earthquake rocks the Wasatch Front, state health officials will be able to coordinate disaster response from a new state-of-the-art operations center in Salt Lake City.

Housed in the Utah Department of Health offices, the Department Operations Center “gives us instant communication with public-safety officials and local health departments” when an emergency arises, said state health director David Sundwall.

Built inside the existing Cannon Building off North Temple, through federal grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the center is “protected with lead lining and underground wiring,” meaning it would likely survive an earthquake or similar catastrophic event intact, Sundwall said.

“There was considerable effort to reconfigure the building with wiring and fiber optics to make it more secure both physically and information-wise,” he said.

A dozen or so computer stations are dedicated to providing command services, as are a handful of television monitors on the walls.

Paul Patrick, director of emergency medical services and preparedness for the department, said the state has long hoped to establish the operations center, after putting together a temporary facility during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Patrick’s staff of about 40 people has been heavily involved with H1N1 flu operations and with emergency-medical-services training recently. The new center will provide a base of operations for them not only in an emergency, but to conduct regular training exercises for potential biohazard and terrorism events, in addition to natural disasters and disease epidemics.

“Any time there is a disaster, we do have an activation process here, and it becomes our responsibility to set up a command center to coordinate emergency medical services,” not only with the state, but with local service providers, he said.

e-mail: carrie@desnews.com