Riverside County is the fourth largest county in the State of California, stretching nearly 200 miles across and comprising over 7,200 square miles of fertile river valleys, low deserts, mountains, foothills, and rolling plains. Riverside County shares borders with densely populated Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and San Bernardino Counties, extending west from within 14 miles of the Pacific Ocean east to the Colorado River. It is located in the southeastern portion of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Southern Region.

Elevations within Riverside County range from 227' below sea level at the Salton Sea southeast of the Coachella Valley to over 10,804' within the San Jacinto Mountain range of Central Riverside County. Today's population is just over 1.5 million people and we are one of the fastest growing county's in the nation. On any typical day, one community is recovering from a wind driven sand storm while another is digging out from under a winter snow storm. 

The County of Riverside is vulnerable to a wide range of threats. In recent years, the county has experienced several disastrous events, including earthquakes, floods, fires, pestilence and storms. The increased use, storage, and transportation of numerous hazardous materials create additional hazardous threats. The threat picture is further complicated by the recent terrorist attacks on the Trade Center, causing federal mandates for all localities to prepare for potential terrorist activities.

County OES is responsible for developing emergency plans and actions in response to actual or potential disasters which may impact all or part of Riverside County. OES designs and conducts exercises for different scenarios and coordinates emergency management training to insure that the County is able to respond to Natural, Human Caused and Technological emergencies. OES coordinates the interagency response for a wide range of emergencies including:  Earthquake, Terrorism, Wildfires, Flooding, Extreme Heat and Severe Weather, Utility Outages, Droughts, Transportation Accidents, Hazardous Materials Releases and Civil Unrest.

County OES fulfills a wide variety of roles from the field response to emergency incidents within the County to operating the County EOC in supporting and recoverying from major emergencies and disasters. All County OES activities are focused around the four primary phases of emergency management; Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. OES is the lead agency in fullfilling the County's responsibility under the California Emergency Services Act (Chapter 7 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the CA Government Code) and also serves as the Operational Area Coordinator for Riverside County under the Standardized Emergency Management System (CA Government Code 8605).