 Response and recovery in the Golden State. From the towering Sierras to the windswept coastline, California is a state of great beauty and promise. But with the landscape checkered with earthquake faults, floodplains and dense wilderness, California is also home to nature's fury. In the wake of the devastating 1991 East Bay Hills fire, California adopted the Standardized Emergency Management System. Today, Sims is California's organizational tool used at local and state levels to ensure coordinated management of emergencies. The system works because it incorporates the Incident Command System, which allows for a coordinated field-level response to an emergency. Multi-agency coordination to ensure multiple agencies affected by the disaster are working together. Mutual aid, a neighbor-helping neighbor system that draws resources and personnel from unaffected areas, and an operational area concept for a county and its subdivisions to coordinate the response to a disaster. Following the devastation of 9-11, the federal government decided to use Sims as a model for its new national Incident Management System. A van explodes. When a disaster strikes, Sims is utilized in the field as first responders establish an Incident Command Structure. Through a single Incident Commander, or Unified Command, management of the emergency remains at the field level. Through Sims, field-level Incident Commanders and local emergency managers are continually supported at all levels of government in their response activities. At operational area emergency operation centers, resources are managed from within a county. At state regional emergency operation centers, information and resources from among operational areas are coordinated. Ensuring that local emergency managers receive the full support of the state is the responsibility of the State Operations Center at the California Emergency Management Agency's headquarters in Sacramento. The SOC maintains a 24-hour vigil during every major emergency. Key players from all relevant state agencies are brought together to work together to guarantee the issues and needs from the impacted area are handled quickly and effectively. This includes managing the movement of federal assets and military equipment in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As a disaster moves from response to recovery, local government officials maintain control and oversight. Local involvement is key in California as CalEMA works with FEMA. California's Dynamic Emergency Management System will continue to guide the first responders and emergency managers charged with protecting the people of California. CalEMA logo, California Emergency Management Agency. For more on CEMS, Office of Public Information, 916-845-8400, www.calema.ca.gov.