Informing the Public During a Natural Disaster

The images make it look seamless and effortless – the governor and other officials standing at a podium, informing the public of every update and concern about the impending hurricane.

A bank of screens line the wall, showing real-time radar of Hurricane Irene on Google Earth, a growing number of power outages throughout the state and a list of counties requesting help to prepare for the worst of the storm.

But pan out and scan the room. What you’ll see are dozens of men and women in the nerve-center of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency working intently on desktops and laptops, talking on land lines and cell phones, and conferring with each other about how to get the most accurate information to a worried public.

MEMA’s headquarters at Camp Fretterd in Reisterstown becomes the touch point for all information in times of a disaster. In this case, the headquarters are in the middle of Hurricane Irene’s furious winds and rain.

The threat of Irene to much of Maryland, especially the coastal areas and the Eastern Shore, brought together employees from more than 40 state agencies, and outside agencies such as the National Weather Service, the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Gov. Martin O’Malley and between 15 and 20 members of his staff were at MEMA around the clock until the worst of the hurricane passed.

“This is where all the information is gathered and disseminated to the public and the governor,” said Raquel Guillory, the governor’s communications director.

All information about evacuations, emergency shelters, needs of agencies, the trajectory of the storm, the number of deaths or injuries, power outages and other details related to the storm passed through the command center and on to the governor and eventually the public, Guillory said.

Representatives from agencies such as the state police, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of the Environment, and all transportation agencies field calls and analyze information to make sure local counties and towns get what they need in an emergency, said MEMA spokesman Ed McDonough.

For example, the agency had arranged for swift-water rescue teams from Western Maryland to be ready on the Eastern Shore if teams there were overwhelmed during the storm, McDonough said.

McDonough oversees the public information officers from various agencies who work together to send out press releases, monitor television news broadcasts, update Facebook pages and Twitter feeds and keep websites current.

“We coordinate getting the message out to the public and making sure it’s the right message,” he said.

After the governor requested help from FEMA, the federal agency sent about 25 representatives, mostly from the Pacific Northwest, to give guidance as the threat of Hurricane Irene became more serious.

Once President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration for Maryland, FEMA was able to start supplementing state programs with federal programs, said Denise Everhart, a FEMA external affairs officer from Oregon.

“We are here at the governor’s request,” Everhart said. “After the storm, we can help do damage assessment.”

State Police spokesman Greg Shipley came in Saturday afternoon to field calls from the public as well as coordinate information from the state’s 22 police barracks.

“This process has been in place for many years now,” he said. “We work hard to coordinate and we rely on the extra bodies here.”

And for one of the callers, Shipley was able to reassure him that, yes, the line to MEMA was working.