New State Emergency Operations Center opens in Blaine

(Blaine, MN/Minnesota News Network) — Minnesota now has a new State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Blaine. The facility was first used during the weekend of the political attacks on Minnesota lawmakers and the manhunt for the suspect. Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson paid tribute to Representative Melissa Hortman for her help to get this center built. Jacobson said, “I think in large part we can remember and be thankful for the leadership of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and the work she did.” The new emergency center is state of the art and replaces the old facility in St. Paul. The S-E-O-C can withstand winds of 165 miles per hour and has back-up generators to keep power on for 72 hours during an outage.