"When it occurred, people swung into action," said Mrs MacDougall, whose public information team worked from 1am composing accurate information to share online and through local media.
"Events like the earthquake and the May floods are examples of the great teamwork that comes from the EOC."
As the morning light rolled in, more staff arrived and filled the centre's main office, each dressed in labelled vests and adding to the buzz filling the purpose built EOC, opened in 2007.
Council's regulatory services group manager Kevin Currie was among them, as duty controller.
Like many locals who lost power at their homes, Mr Currie struggled to remove his car from his garage because of its electric doors, while some locals waited behind closed electric gates.
He said the event had prepared him for handling future emergency power outages, as it did for many families who had assembled survival bags equipped with days' worth of food and water.
"People need to make themselves aware and be prepared," Mr Currie said.
"We'll respond to any event that occurs and do what we can, but if there's an earthquake nearby that could be generating a tsunami, we can't respond in time to give the warnings necessary for people to move," he said.
"They should be aware what the tsunami risk is according to where they're living, which can be found on our council website.
"If we have an earthquake that's more than a second or two long and too strong to stand up, people near the coast should self-evacuate."
He said people did not need to go uphill however, with anywhere past the new expressway further enough away, according to predicted sizes of waves for the district.
"In a particularly serious event, where additional powers would be made available under the Civil Defence Act, the mayor would declare an emergency," Mr Currie said.
"Make plans with your family so that if you're separated, you know where you're going to meet and what you're going to do."
During last month's operations, a variety of teams made up the EOC, which boasts its own water supply and auxiliary power.
Included in the team was intelligence, planning, operations, welfare and logistics desks.
"Fire, police and ambulance sent representatives to contribute to the response, who also used the information sourced for their own emergency response.
"A big part of what we're doing here is co-ordinating and linking with other agencies."
With up to 60 EOC staff available, trained on a monthly basis, Mr Currie said six weeks before the earthquake, staff had attended national earthquake scenario training.
"One of the problems we had with the recent event was informal information being spread through social media, and not all of which was accurate, which led to confusion and alarm.
"It reinforced the importance of getting quality information out as soon as we can."
¦ To find out where your home sits in the tsunami zone, visit the council website.
