Maryland Emergency Management Agency Camp Fretterd Military Reservation 5401 Rue Saint Lo Drive Reisterstown, Maryland 21136 410-517-3600 877-MEMA-USA WWW.MEMA.STATE.MD.US Executive Director: Richard Muth Director of Operations: Vacant Director of Administration: Erin Easton Report to the Maryland State Firemen s Association November 13-14, 2010 1
The Maryland Emergency Management Agency MEMA Mission To protect the lives, property and environment of citizens by providing the emergency management leadership and coordination of response and support agencies throughout a comprehensive all hazards approach. MEMA Vision We will be the most effective emergency management agency in the country, integrating and coordinating services and resources for the safety and welfare of the public. MEMA Values The values for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency are: Professionalism Integrity Compassion Teamwork Creativity 2
MEMA Executive Director s Update To the MSFA November 13-14, 2010 MEMA Staff Changes Hired: Joseph Brocato, SEOC Manager ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MEMA Administrative Directorate Grants Management Distribution of FY 10 UASI/SHSP funding to local sub-grantees was completed in October Guidance on application procedures for FY 10 HSP awards expected in December 2010 Information Technology Progress continues on the development of EMMA (NG); an enhanced Flex-Viewer, for our GIS mapping solution both Private and Public facing with the integration of WebEOC for Incident mapping and Maryland s imap effort. Ongoing WebEOC improvements for data exchange and interoperability with Local, State, and Federal partners continue to include the potential implementation of WebFusion. New SHELTER board to be brought online on or about 01 December 2010 (awaiting final State and Local agencies review). Deployment of Internet based (IP) emergency radios continues bringing EMNET/EAS to those currently not receiving this information during off-peak, non-manned hours. Communication Interoperability continues to be enhanced. Most recently with the implementation of WAGIN (Washington/Allegany/Garrett Interoperability Network). MEMA Administration SB73 passed making the MEMA Executive Director a direct appointment by the Governor Operations Director (Acting) Paul Hajek MJOC Manager Gary Zamerski SEOC Manager Joe Brocato Preparedness Manager - recruiting Mitigation Planner conducting interviews 3
MEMA Planning Directorate Special Projects and Planning There is a rejuvenation of planning efforts with ESF 8, 12, 13 Maryland has taken on leadership for East Coast Tsunami planning effort. MEMA will be participating in DMIL Vigilant Guard exercise Nov. 3-9 Crafting of Winter Storm Incident Checklist (available in near future) Efforts are underway for our traditional Severe Storms Awareness Conference in the Spring Continued involvement with Regional Catastrophic Planning Program Category III Hurricane Planning continues MEMA hopes to have introduced 2011 legislation for use of school buses in an emergency. Operations Exercise and Training: MEMA Operations Directorate Vigilant Guard From November 5-8 th 2010, MEMA supported (as an active participant) a Maryland National Guard-hosted exercise that tested the National Guard as the first military responder in support of the governor and the state emergency management agency. Vigilant Guard reinforces that all incidents are local. The exercise demonstrated the capabilities of the Maryland National Guard Joint Force Headquarters, the Joint Task Force-Maryland, and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) the process where Governors reach out to other governors for more assistance. Specific National Guard homeland defense capabilities included the National Guard Reaction Forces, Joint Reception Staging and Onward Integration, Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package teams. Further, the exercise will seek to improve command and control and operational relationships with internal military and external civilian and military partners against homeland security threats, in addition to performing communication capability and interoperability testing and improving MDNG ability to successfully integrate with civilian agencies. This is a premier National Guard event, and one of only 4 such exercises conducted annually by the National Guard and will include our FEMA Region III partners. SEOC Activations: During late August and mid-september of 2010 MEMA activated to a level 3 on two occasions in preparation and in response to Hurricane Earl and TD 16 (aka Tropical Storm Nicole). While 4
both storms had potential, neither caused any serious issues and only minor damage was reported from most jurisdictions. Intel/Homeland Security MEMA continues to attending all relevant intelligence briefs to stay abreast of DHS and FBI reporting of uptick in chatter regarding threats against the homeland. Primary Election/Early Voting: MEMA served as the lead coordination agency in support of the Maryland Board of Elections for early voting on Oct 22-28 and for the general election on Nov 2 nd. Included in this preparation were recurring conference calls/briefings with state and local agencies. MEMA worked behind the scenes to help coordinate the flow of information and resources that were needed should a catastrophic event occurred. NWS: Is in early discussions with Chris Strong at the NWS regarding the development of NWS Slides and/ or power point to be used as visual support and reference during weather briefings. Pittsburgh successfully utilized this last winter. Regional Administrator Program Presently, all MEMA Regions have Administrators in place. The latest version of the Regional Administrator Map with contact information can be found on the MEMA website. Regional Administrators are available for presentations, attendance at events and support for items such as exercise/training and information & referral services. RAs recently spent a day with Civil Air Patrol to enhance their knowledge of resources available for incidents/events. ESF9/SAR update- ESF9 was up for the last 2 SEOC Activations; Hurricane Earl and TD-16. Fire Desk was staffed and participated in ESF9 activities as did other partner agencies. The MSFA SME was contacted-as well as MSFA President kept informed- during both activations; thanks for your input and assistance! If anyone has questions or would like additional information about the Regional Administrator program or ESF 9/SAR, please contact Erica Mowbray at emowbray@mema.state.md.us. Exercise and Training MEMA continues to coordinate Emergency Management Training throughout Maryland for both State partners and local jurisdictions. A full listing of our Exercise and Training calendar, including on line registration can be found at http://www.mema.state.md.us/calendar/index.asp. Selected upcoming offerings are listed below: ICS 300 & 400 Intermediate and Advanced ICS Training 11/01/2010-11/05/2010 Salisbury, MD 5
Soft Target Awareness Course (STAC) 11/02/2010-11/04/2010 Baltimore, MD ICS 300 - Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents 11/02/2010-11/18/2010 Middletown, MD Hazard Mitigation Planning Workshop (G-318) 11/03/2010-11/05/2010 Sykesville, MD MGT 318 Public Information in a WMD/Terrorism Incident 11/03/2010-11/04/2010 Sykesville, MD ICS-300, Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents 11/06/2010-11/07/2010 Ocean City, MD ICS-300, Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents 11/08/2010-11/10/2010 City of Alexandria, VA ICS 300/400 11/08/2010-11/12/2010 Westover, MD ICS 300/400 11/08/2010-11/12/2010 Westover, MD MGT 337 Food Vulnerability 11/09/2010-11/10/2010 Frederick, MD MGT 341 Disaster Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations Course 11/30/2010 Sykesville, MD MGT 318 Public Information in a WMD/Terrorism Incident 12/01/2010-12/02/2010 Reisterstown, MD ICS-400 12/04/2010-12/05/2010 Ocean City, MD 6
MEMA continues to Chair the Exercise and Training Integration Committee (ETIC). This forum provides opportunities for local jurisdiction and state agency collaboration in Exercises and Training. Through the MSFA Training Sub-committee, MSFA has been offered a seat on this panel. MEMA Acting Director of Operations, Paul Hajek, is the chair of the Exercise and Training Operations Panel (ETOP) for the National Capital Region. MEMA continues to meet your NIMS/ICS needs by offering numerous ICS and related courses. Mitigation and Recovery MEMA hazard mitigation staff has completed the process of soliciting notices of interest for the estimated $9 million that the state will receive under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program as the result of the two winter snowstorms. Approximately $26 million in Notices of Interest have been submitted to the State for planning and project applications. The Mitigation Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet November 17, 2010 to review these Notices of Interest, and determine which ones will move forward to project development The 2010 Unified Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Grant Application awards have been announced by FEMA. Eight mitigation planning applications for approximately $370,000 have been awarded. MEMA Mitigation Staff is in the process of conducting sub-grantee briefings for all planning grant recipients. Two Legislative Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants have been earmarked for the State of Maryland. These include a $650,000 grant to retrofit a police station in Rockville, and $1million for an alert and warning system. MEMA Staff has worked with the City of Rockville to develop and submit an application to FEMA. This project was deemed ineligible by FEMA due to benefit cost issues. MEMA is working with the City to develop an alternate project application. MEMA staff is currently working to develop an application for the alert and warning system application for submittal to FEMA. Public Assistance and Individual Assistance: Individual Assistance. The Individual Assistance (IA) Program and the Other Needs Assistance (ONA) Coordinating Officer from the Department of Human Resources are currently working on updating the State Administrative Plan, Individuals and Households Program, Other Needs Assistance Plan (Section 408 of the Stafford Act Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 83.560 to include the following functional elements to successfully implement the ONA mission: 7
o Disbursing Awards Standard procedure for inspecting and verifying individually reported disaster-related damages, which will be used to determine the level of Federal disaster assistance; o Staffing Includes the responsibility for having adequate space and an appropriate number of trained personnel; also includes the responsibility for having appropriate equipment necessary to process assistance (i.e. computers, telephones and facsimile machines); o Recovery of Funds An arranged procedure for collecting erroneously awarded funds; o Case Processing Standardized system to process applications and respond to applicant inquiries; o Appeals Official protocol for evaluating an applicant s request to have a program decision reviewed; o Preparation of Closeout Material Involves the preparation of the narrative and statistical documents that comprise a model closeout package. Duties of this function include ensuring that there are no cases pending and that all funds are reconciled for grants and reimbursement of State expense The Individual Assistance (IA) Program is working collaboratively with MEMA Plans Section to engage recovery stakeholders to create a comprehensive State coordinating structure that will enhance our ability to work together and effectively deliver long-term recovery assistance, in cooperation with the following emergency management partnering agencies: o Maryland Department of Human Resources o Governor s Office of Community Initiatives o Maryland VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) Key long-term recovery member agencies o Citizens Corp o CART, CERT Public Assistance MEMA Public Assistance continues to process Project Worksheets and reimbursements for the December Major Disaster Declaration FEMA-DR-1875-MD. This disaster was declared on February 19, 2010 for Public Assistance Category A Debris Removal and Category B Emergency Protective Measures for 12 Maryland jurisdictions and subdivisions. MEMA received 334 Requests for Public Assistance for this declaration. 369 Project Worksheets have been completed with a total of 370 total Project Worksheets projected for the disaster. Corresponding reimbursements for these Project Worksheets are being processed by MEMA and disbursed to applicants. Joint Field Office (JFO) operations for FEMA-DR-1875-MD were transitioned to the FEMA, Region III, Office in Philadelphia for completion as of August 13, 2010. Total obligated Federal 8
Share of Public Assistance funding for this declaration is $$24,360,052 for eligible applicants. This disaster is 99% complete. Major Disaster Declaration FEMA-DR-1910-MD was declared May 6, 2010 for the February Severe Winter Weather. All categories of Public Assistance Category A Debris Removal and Category B Emergency Protective Measures in addition to Categories C-G of the Permanent Work Categories were included in this Declaration. 56 local jurisdictions and subdivisions of the State were deemed eligible. Five jurisdictions were eligible for an additional 24 hours of snow assistance for a total of 72 hours of snow removal activities. 647 Requests for Public Assistance were received for the February Disaster Declaration. 900 Project Worksheets have been completed with a total of 1,132 Project Worksheets being projected for this disaster declaration. Corresponding reimbursements for these Project Worksheets are being processed by MEMA and being disbursed to applicants. Total obligated Federal Share of Public Assistance Funding for this declaration is currently $58,070,607 for eligible applicants. The total federal share obligated is expected to increase as the total projected project worksheets are completed. All Joint Field Office operations for this disaster will transition to the FEMA, Region III, Office in Philadelphia on or about November 19, 2010. The majority of all FEMA staff demobilized November 4, 2010 with only two staff members staying in place in Maryland for close out. This Disaster is approximately 80% complete. Applicants have 18 months to from the date of the declaration to complete all Permanent Work Category construction projects under this declaration. Major Disaster Declaration FEMA-DR-1652-MD - The floods of June 2006 has been closed. Federal Public Assistance Funds totaling $8,321,077 were disbursed to State and local applicants in the Maryland jurisdictions of Caroline, Dorchester and Montgomery for this disaster. Maryland Joint Operations Center (MJOC) The MJOC provides dispatch and communications services to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, Maryland Department of Environment, and the Maryland Department of Agriculture to facilitate twenty-four hour emergency response operations. Additionally, the MJOC now serves as the Maryland Occupational Safety & Health s (MOSH) call center for after hours notifications. The MJOC has started 24/7 coverage for MOSH calls. Will be working with the NWS regarding a program called the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP). The program is similar to the Skywarn spotter program, but the CO- OP program is occurring all the time, not just when severe weather strikes. Each weather office tries to have one station in each of its counties. There are four counties in Maryland that do not have such a site one of which is Baltimore Co. There is no equipment to purchase or maintain by MEMA that is all done by the NWS. Training is also provided by the NWS. As of November 1, MJOC has changed alerting procedures and moved away from all or nothing alerting to incident specific. 9
News Events Visit MEMA s website at www.mema.state.md.us, for all the latest highlights, events and local profiles. A link to MEMA s most recent newsletter, The Coordinator can be found on the home page under Quick Links. 10