Preeti Emrick on Preparing Communities for Emergencies During Challenging Times

The next emergency might not look like a hurricane at all. It could be a cyber incident, a long heat wave that knocks out air conditioning in a high rise, or a slow-moving flood problem that turns into an evacuation decision. On the latest episode of the Pittman and Friends Podcast, County Executive Steuart Pittman sits down with Preeti Emrick, the Director of Anne Arundel County’s Office of Emergency Management. They talk about what emergency management actually is and why the work is really about coordination, clear roles, and timely public information.

We walk through what happens when the Emergency Operations Center activates, how situational awareness gets built from weather forecasts, state and federal briefings, nonprofit partners, and even patterns in 911 calls. Preeti explains why training and tabletop exercises on blue sky days make the response feel like a symphony when it matters, and why modern preparedness has to include cyber incident planning alongside storms and public health emergencies.

COVID is a major turning point in the conversation. We dig into misinformation, mistrust, and the reality that disasters create trauma, not just damage. Preeti shares why psychological first aid and “meeting people where they are” can be as important as logistics, especially for vulnerable communities that lose the daily safety nets they rely on.

We also look ahead: what local and state leaders can do when FEMA funding is uncertain, why investing in resilience saves time and money later, and how residents can get involved through CERT and community outreach.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Pittman and Friends Podcasts. I am here today with my friend Pretty Emmerich, who is the director of the Office of Emergency Management of Anorono County. Yeah. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. Welcome. Thank you. Let's start out with this. We're going to talk about you some. We're going to talk about what emergency management is and the kinds of emergencies, the kinds of things you have to think about so that we don't have to and plan for. But first, just give us a sense of your office and who works there and what they do.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Sure. The Office of Emergency Management has 14 people. That has grown a lot since I started as director. I think we had six or seven. And we, you know, for the county, coordinate the preparedness, response, recovery to large-scale incidents. That could be natural weather, that could be cyber incidents, that could be pandemics, impacts of federal shutdown. The list keeps growing and growing as the times have changed.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

So you're a coordinating agency that coordinates all of the departments that are involved in the response. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

That could be public safety, health and human services, land use, nonprofits, coordinate with the state, with the federal government. So we bring together agencies in order to make sure that the residents of Anarodal County are safe.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Can you tell us what Okay, and then there's the EOC?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah, the Emergency Operation.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yes. Tell us where that is and what it looks like.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

That is in Glen Burney. And we activate that when we have a large-scale event that we need to coordinate with other agencies. And so that is a place we all meet, make sure that we have the situational awareness, we provide updates, and especially with fast-paced events, having that operation center up and running is key. During COVID, we went hybrid and virtual, so we had to pivot. But it's the same skills of coordinating and making sure that our agencies understand their roles and responsibilities and that we're sharing the same information.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

So as an outsider elected back in 2018, very soon after, like one of my first days in office, or might have even been a tour before I came in, I went to the emergency the EOC. And uh first time I'd ever been in there. And really kind of overwhelming just to look at. A room with huge screens in the front where you can keep up with all the local news. There's a podium off to the corner where somebody can give a presentation. And then there are these rows of seats with computer terminals and with these headphones from for people to talk on the phone, and each one had a label of an agency that that was their representative. And it was really the government. So it was basically a place where the government would be with a representative from each. And then they told me, okay, Mr. County Executive, this little room right here is for you. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Senior policy room. Well, and it all the but they told me I could sleep there too. So basically, in a certain in a kind of an emergency, I would get driven to the EOC. And you sleep there. And I guess my family, they didn't talk about what would happen with my family, but I would be in this room and and then I would somehow be involved in the coordination. Then I got into some briefings about what my role would be, which was mostly communicating to the outside world what was actually going on in the inside. But then by the time COVID came, which was the big one, and things were virtual, things did change. And I don't think I I certainly never slept there, even though we've had plenty of crises and I've been there during events, but uh I haven't really needed the room. So that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Things have changed. It's okay. We may have taken over that room, too.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

It doesn't exist anymore. Okay.

From Law To Homeland Security

SPEAKER_00 3:55

So you worked out uh I worked myself out of a job. Okay. So you came in as a deputy. I think your your boss was stepping down, was retiring at the time, and uh we interviewed you, and you had a lot of big ideas, and you told us that this industry has changed, that emergency operations across the country has changed because the threats have changed. Can you first tell me how well a little bit about your background, how you ended up there in Anorno County as a deputy director?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, that's interesting. So my parents immigrated. I'm starting way back. Okay. But this helps build up a little bit. Okay. Daughter of immigrants, grew up in Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Okay. Immigrants from where?

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I'm sorry? Immigrants from where? India.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

India. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

So, you know, I was expected to perhaps go a different way career-wise, but I really fell in love with policy. And so I came to D.C. for law school. Okay. And I went to law school and I got out and I practiced law and I said, yeah, this is not for me. I really want to go back to policy work. And so there was a job opening at the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Was there a kind of policy you were interested in, or was there International Policy. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. Okay. I spent a lot of time studying international policy. So I pivoted to Homeland Security policy. And a lot of Homeland Security is risk assessment is different than emergency management, but emergency management and homeland security work hand in hand in terms of disasters and intelligence and information gathering. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Wow, this is bringing back stories from my father. For those who don't know, my father, when I was actually when I was born, is when he was working in the Department of Defense, and he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Civil Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis and when there was a real thought that there might be a nuclear war. And his job was to go around and do really preparing for an emergency, which would be nuclear war. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Emergency management, right? Trevor Burrus, Jr. Bomb shelters and urban evacuation plans, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Right. So Homeland Security is where you get that intelligence.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Okay.

Hospital Lessons And Community Readiness

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Going around, preparing people, making sure they have those bomb shelters, that's emergency management. So again, working hand in hand. So I started in the DC office of Homeland Security. And it just opened up a whole new whole new world for me. I went in as a mass care planner. I worked on Obama's first inauguration. And I was like, this is cool. This is great. I want to continue in this field. So a lot of it is just experience, boots on the ground. Now there's, you know, you can get a degree in emergency management. You can there's masters or doctorates, you know, all sorts of academic programs now. I never went through that. It was just learning on the job and really paying attention to the changing times. I mean, you previous director was from a public safety background, which again, we work with our public safety partners very well. But the times have changed and the crisis has changed. And so we have to really be open to what could impact our communities and how we respond to that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

And you I I remember hearing that you you worked in hospital as an emergency. What was the job there?

SPEAKER_01 7:09

No, emergency manager. It's still the emergency manager for health care. And that was you know that was probably one of the most enjoyable jobs I had. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

What was the hospital?

SPEAKER_01 7:18

It was University of Maryland Capital Region Health.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Formerly Prince George's Hospital.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Okay.

unknown 7:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

And so when you talk about people who are impacted, operationally, if a facility fails, if power goes out, those are people's lives on the line. So it was really important to make sure you have the plans and people had an understanding of what they were supposed to do day-to-day.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

But that's when I realized that, you know, emergency management is really a framework. I need to meet people where they are. It's not that hospital personnel were experts in ICS and being an operations or a sections planning chief. But they knew how to do the day-to-day. So what I'm asking them to do is enhance it in order to meet this emergency. This emergency they don't encounter on an everyday basis. And that's where I go into everybody has a role in responding and recovery. You don't need to have a special degree. You don't need to have, you know, 20 years of experience in emergency management. You, as a community member, can take steps to be prepared. And I really love that educational and outreach part of my job because power is knowledge and in these uncertain times. Yeah. So uncertain. And I want people to feel equipped to respond. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yeah. And I know you go into communities and you do preparation work and you go into institutions, but you do a lot of it with county government employees. I remember you do these things called tabletop exercises, right?

unknown 8:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yes. I remember one, I think it might have been first or second year. Yeah. Where we were looking at an example of the bridge, the highway in Minneapolis, St. Paul collapsing.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Maybe collapsing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah. I think it might have been even before you got there.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

And just what they had learned and then sort of gaming out how we would handle a bridge collapse, which we ended up doing. But um Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Which, you know, it's again, the unexpected can happen. And so I'm very proud of Anarundel County because uh our agencies want to work together. They want to help the community. I can call up any director and always willing to say, let me take a look at that, or let me see how I can help.

COVID Misinformation And Psychological First Aid

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So one that we went through was COVID. Yes. I remember being up at the EOC when our first case uh was announced. And I remember Dr. Kalyana Rahman, our health officer, with a bandana making a video, showing people how to do it. Because we did we did um, I guess it was weekly videos together and and call-ins and a lot of a lot of trying to communicate with our residents. And you were you were in the thick of all of that. What did you learn from COVID? What was that like?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

COVID was complicated in the fact that there was a lot of mistrust and a lot of misinformation. And there was a lot of trauma. I don't think I quite appreciated before then how disasters can cause trauma in the community. And it it's tragic that a lot of people died. I think a lot of it could have been preventable. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

1130 or 50 or something in our county just and but the calls we received into our emergency operations center, yes, it was about what's the new law now, you know, what are the mandates, what businesses can open, what are the hours. There was a lot of people who called because they couldn't go to their favorite restaurant or they couldn't go to the library that they go to every day, and that was their social connection. And they were mad.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

And it wasn't that they were telling us to do something, but this was their only outlet to express their frustration and fear. And so, you know, that really left a lasting impression on me in terms of people react differently, people are upset, and it's our job to manage what we can manage for them. And so psychological first aid, which I know you know about, it's so important. Probably more important sometimes than the physical build-out or the economic recovery. Right? There's sometimes an end to those. But when you're talking about emotional trauma from disasters, I don't think we pay enough attention to that. So that left such a lasting impression on me in terms of when people are upset about what has happened. We need to meet them where they are and understand it's not you personally. Right? It's things that are out of their control. And what can we do to help them? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

And that's during and and you're very involved in the recovery aspect of after any kind of a disaster, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah. And that's I mean, we're still recovering from COVID. Or if you look at the key bridge collapse, there are still communities that even if a bridge is built, what they have gone through during the years of the response and the rebuild will stay with them. And so that's something that we definitely need to pay more attention to.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

So it's a pretty broad scope of disasters and crises that you that you plan for. And then when they start to happen, or when the weather report comes in, you activate the EOC, right? Right. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

So calling upon the different agencies to make sure that number one, they have the situational awareness of, hey, yes, let's use a storm as an example. There's a storm coming in, these are the possible impacts. So you department, I need you to get ready. Get your staff ready, your internal process ready, so that you could take care of the county. And then we have these coordination calls, which I think you've been part of. Yep. And that's just and by now they're kind of, you know, standard. Everybody knows the roles and responsibilities. I just want to make sure each one of you are ready. And if there's any resource needs or information, this is the time to bring it up.

unknown 13:20

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

And I'll I'll tell you, those are interesting. They they're they're sort of like a symphony of all of these all of these players working together. Yeah. And while there are the the people who are in the EOC sitting at those desks, they're also the people who are logging in online. And these are so sometimes they're happening every few hours during the night, even.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Oh yeah, but this is even happening before the EOC. By the time they set foot into the EOC, we have had so many calls about the situation, especially if we know it's coming. Hurricane season is coming up, right? We know days ahead that, hey, something is coming up. So those calls happen even before anybody sets foot into the emergency operations center. Okay. Even before those briefings that we have every couple of hours to just assess the situation, what has changed, what is needed.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

All that is.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

And your folks are getting information from State, Federal.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Federal, National Weather Service, American Red Cross. So at the same time we're doing that internally for county agencies, we are also meeting with the state. And we're meeting statewide to discuss the weather and what resources the state could offer us and what the federal government may be doing as well. So all that is happening at the same time. So that by the time this emergency operations center is running and open, we have so much wealth of information and an idea of what we need to do. And a lot of that is pre-staging materials, making sure that the personnel are ready, and so is just pressing the button to execute.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah. And you basically open up like a great big Zoom meeting and leave it open.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

And that's the hybrid. That's the hybrid, that's the beauty of technology, which we should embrace.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

So anybody can log in at any point, and there's somebody there you can talk to.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

And then there's somebody connected to every agency. And then during so during the reporting, you've got what on your list of some of the agencies that usually have something to say in a weather event.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Please fire DPW, especially with this recent winter storm, central services, because government needs to still run.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

DPW Public Works, by the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Most people know that one by now. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Central Services, inspections and permits, our health and human services agencies, aging and disabilities, crisis response, health, mental health agency, Department of Social Services. Everybody has a role. And everybody knows the roles and responsibilities because on Blue Sky Days, we exercise, we train in our plans.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yep. Yep. Yeah. And people are designated to be their agencies liaison.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yes, and there's training year-round for those designees.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Trevor Burrus, yeah. So we find out on those calls. I mean you can look online now and see where roads are closed, and you can look in power outages and things, but find out about what calls for service there have been, what kinds of emergencies are being handled in various locations around the county. Trevor Burrus, Exactly.

Vulnerable Communities And Human Needs

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And if we see a pattern. So, you know, the tornado that hit us in 2021, in Arundel County City of Annapolis, before the National Weather Service even did their survey of the area, we were able to map out the track the track of the tornado because we just looked at the 911 calls and were able to map it out even before they went and did a survey. So utilizing that kind of technology and the information we already have is key for us. I think one of the most important aspects of our emergency operations center is our call center, where we take calls from the public. And some of it is just, you know, hey, frustration about what's happened, and I just need somebody to talk to. But there are people in need. And I'll give you an example for winter storms.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

That's the part kind of where I think you are special, that instead of just being somebody who deals with all the agencies and all the mechanics of the response, it seems that you are very, very tuned into, and you were just talking about this, you know, with the psychological first aid, with the way the people of this county are are are thinking about it in Ori and they act differently depending on their level of fear or their knowledge or their comfort or discomfort or anger.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And you we have such a diverse county and we have many different communities, we have vulnerable populations within those communities, and it's my mission to understand all those communities and what their needs might be. So that before a disaster hits and we know something is coming up, I can pinpoint the communities that will need extra resources or what they might be calling in about. And you know, again, COVID taught us a lot in terms of yes, it was a pandemic, but the vulnerable community suffered a lot, you know, with food insecurity, unemployment.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

So people who didn't have a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

People who didn't have a doctor. When you take away the day-to-day net, the safety net that people have, and that's what disasters do, right? They take away that safety net.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

You really have to think about how vulnerable communities will be sustained, how they will survive.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

And that's one of the things that sometimes is missing from emergency management. Right? We're so focused on the response. We remove that tree, right? From that peninsula.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

But do we ever think about those who need to get home to pick up their kids or for child care or who have medical needs? And so let's focus on that. Because I know we know how to remove a tree.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yep. Right?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

But how do we deal with some of the human factors surrounding it?

CERT Volunteers And How To Join

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Trevor Burrus, Jr. In addition to all the agencies that work with you, you have some nonprofits and you have volunteers, too. Tell us about what that is. In CERT and CERT, fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Anaromo County has one of the best CERT teams in the state, and I'm not being biased when I say that.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

CERT the letter C E R T stand for what?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Community emergency response team. Right. Okay. So that is a way for the community to be involved. So they offer trainings on C First Aid, CPR, how to respond to some of the small emergencies that might impact your community or your household. You could also become a member of CERT. And that's volunteers who help us in the emergency operations. How do you do that? Go to tripleacert.org.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

C-E-R T.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

C-E-R-T. Yep. And you can sign up there for a training.

unknown 19:29

All right.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

And then from there, be involved in part of their roster and help out our county, help out their community.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

So you mentioned that you'll actually go into communities and meet with community groups and help them start thinking. You mentioned, you told me about one uh community meeting you went to in Shady Side recently, which is South County, close to the water or on the water, depending on where people live, been real vulnerable in sea level rise. What was that like and what were people's concerns?

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Oh, flooding. Everyday flooding. It rains, it floods. And what can we do for the community? And the community is well-versed in terms of what happens when there are big events and especially with some of the storms that have come in. But we really need to focus on the day-to-day sustainability and resiliency of that land. And so we met along with our Department of Public Works, the Resilience Authority to talk about projects. But sometimes projects take time, right, in order to make the land more resilient. So what can they do now to be prepared, right? How can they evacuate? What are some of the triggers you should see? What do you need to do to if you have to shelter in place? What do you need in order to do that? And so that's kind of the start. This is only the start of the conversation, right? Okay. And especially with the different communities that live in the peninsula, it's one way in, one way out.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

You know?

SPEAKER_00 20:54

So take lots of peninsulas in the county. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

A lot of peninsulas in the county, and to heed our warnings. When we say to get out, get out. It's for your safety. And so making sure that don't worry about the food in your freezer. You know, uh people want to stay to protect their houses, your lives are more important. And so talking about that a little bit, but again, the day-to-day flooding that occurs and what we can do about it. And that's something you know nationwide we really need to hone in on. Because fifty years from now, I can't tell you what's going to happen to some of these land areas. And so if we don't act now, it's only going to get worse.

A Camp Training Future Leaders

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah. So you that you have close coordination with the resilience authority as they're doing, they're planning for what projects are top priority. Absolutely. Okay. To to to protect the infrastructure and the people. Okay. And as you were telling as you were talking about that, I remembered I was thinking how cool your job is and how how exciting and diverse. I mean, how many different But you had a summer camp?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

For young women. Yes. Who might be interested in getting into the field? Tell us what that is.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Heroes on the horizon, a week-long free, a free week-long camp that focuses on emergency management, public safety, and leadership training. And we have expanded it in the last three years. We now have visits planned for D.C. Some of the federal agencies have opened the doors, please visit us. They want to make sure to empower young women. Did you start that?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Was that your idea?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

So I can't take all the credit for it. It was started by the Institute for Inclusion and Diversity in Emergency Management.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

It was called the Hurricane Camp.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Hurricane Camp.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Trevor Burrus, but we're one of the few in the county that actually runs it because.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Trevor Burrus As an H-E-R-A-C.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

But we're one of the few in the country that do it a week long. We're the only one in Maryland.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

And people are always the young women that are there, high school age mostly, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Trevor Burrus High school age that are so smart.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Trevor Burrus Yeah, so smart. And so you can see, you can look in their eyes and the questions that they ask why people get into this field. It's like if you want to help people, you want to be there in the most important moments and you want to be part of protecting people.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Protecting people and exposing them to the many different programs in the county: gun safety, 9-1-1 operations, search and rescue, canine demonstrations. And we're expanding it to go to other counties. We go to Prince George's County, and then expanding it to D.C. This year we're visiting D.C. Homeland Security. How does the Capitol do things? What special events do they have to do?

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Trevor Burrus Is the camp full for this summer?

SPEAKER_01 23:43

It is full.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

It is full already.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

But we're holding it next year.

Cyber Incidents And Planning Ahead

SPEAKER_00 23:47

All right. Next year. All right. Good. Good. So there's a whole other kind of a disaster, which is cyber threats and cyberattacks, and you've been involved even here in Anorino County, the best place for all.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah, it's it's not if it'll happen, it'll happen. It happens all day. I really shout out to our Office of Information Technology that deals with the everyday cyber threats that come through. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

They had a huge amount of work to do to deal with that.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Huge amount of work to do. But when a large-scale cyber incident happens, we had the forethought of having a cyber coordination plan, which we executed. And we even did that before the state mandated it. Because part of emergency management is responding to what you have now, but is also thinking ahead of what threats are coming down the line. And so cyber was a big one, and there's always a disconnect sometimes between emergency response and information technology, and I was determined to bridge that gap. And we did. And then something happened.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And we were able to respond effectively because we had that plan and we exercised on that plan.

When Safety Nets Become Emergencies

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Yeah. Yeah. So you've you've um I mean I remember during COVID we were having to do things like identify sites for people to go to be quarantined. Remember the images from China and New York and Italy. We were preparing for the worst, and you were very involved in in that, preparing for that. And you mentioned that when basic social safety nets are taken away, whether it's loss of power or whether it's loss of a program, that becomes an emergency. Yeah. And you all have to have to respond. So you were very involved in the recovery work for and still are, I guess, on COVID, and had an interagency group. So then as they started threatening to remove to cut people off Medicaid, the Federal Government, and to take SNAP benefits away, social safety net programs, we talked about needing an interagency response. We needed to plan for loss of grants, we needed to plan for loss of programs for our residents. I call it the Federal Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Work Group. We put money, we set aside money in a budget, unallocated money, and then we go to you and your and the team with proposals for spending that money to protect people from some of those impacts. Is that really emergency management?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Some people say no. That's something that social services can take care of. I think I tend to think that the skills that we use for coordination and preparedness will serve in any situation. I call it also maintaining social resiliency.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Social resiliency is just as important as, again, physical resiliency, environmental resiliency. Trevor Burrus, Jr. It's also saving lives. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: It's saving lives, yeah, in a way. It's a little different than what traditional public safety does. Emergency management is often lumped into public safety, which is fine.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: I mean, you've even gotten involved when large apartment buildings had no heat and it was 100 and whatever degrees and people Yeah. I mean, no, I'm sorry, no air conditioning. Yeah. You've activated for that. Yeah. To coordinate the agent interagency response.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Trevor Burrus To do wellness checks.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

And to open up overnight cooling centers because people needed a place to sleep and to cool down. It was very hot.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

We can't do this without our partners. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Right. Your 15 people aren't going to do all that work. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

No, you know, 14 to 15 people are not, right? I had to thank my team. They're incredible. We're small and mighty. But is the partners that also are invested in the safety of people and also are willing to help. Well, I like to, you know, for that situation at the apartments, Office of Transportation had a cooling bus there all day.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah. But you called them.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

I called them. But you know what? That takes personnel?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

That takes money. And it wasn't a no. It was a let me see what we can do.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Trevor Burrus, Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, and that is why we're lucky to have a strong emergency management team. And I know you were just at the council presenting your budget. We presented a budget requ uh proposal and the council reviews it and they hear from all the agencies. And you were literally just there right before we taped the we tape this. It's going to be next Tuesday. So it will have been last week by the time you all hear this. But and I and I trust that the council members support what you do. It's important to everybody.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

It is. And I'm lucky to have the support of the administration, of the council. The expansion of what we do wouldn't, you know, couldn't have been possible without your support. But we'd like to pay that forward.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Making sure that Annerundal County is kept safe in all situations.

Planning For Less Federal FEMA Support

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Yeah. Okay. This is a bit of a downer, but last thing. I shouldn't just end with a downer. I should end with a with a, you know, uplifting. But I do want to maybe we'll do something very at the very end uplifting. But the downer is that it's not news to anybody who reads any news that FEMA federally has been decimated and has been selectively responding only to disasters in areas that they thought politically were supportive, or I mean that's not even true. The whole states, like Western Maryland not, you know, being denied FEMA funding for the flooding and the state picking up the tab when West Virginia got it right across the border, same flood. But are State and local disaster preparedness people thinking about the loss of Federal support? I know FEMA has been the agency, I mean like the core of the pay for everything, right? Disasters generally in the past. So what's what do we do now when they won't pay?

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Well, I don't know if you remember, Stuart, the first time that we met in terms of vertical reports. You remember we had vertical reports?

SPEAKER_02 29:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

And I had highlighted bold red, here are staff members that are in grant funding. And the time is going to come when we're not going to have grant funding. Right. And it will really serve Anarundel County well if we have some merit positions so that we can maintain operation.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

People paid for out of the county budget as opposed to somebody else's budget.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

You took that advice seriously. And you made sure that there were positions that were funded by the operating budget. So now we're at a crisis where FEMA we don't know what's happening to FEMA.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

And so we have a lot of locals and state officials that are now scrambling. What do we do? It takes investment, and that's hard to do at this point because everything is impacted. You have healthcare that's impacted, you have SNAP that's impacted, safety nets that are falling apart left and right.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

But it's always important to remember when something does happen, having that investment behind it saves you so much time and money when recovery happens. Being resilient beforehand saves you in time in the response, saves you money in the recovery. And so what we're doing now is something I am the chair of the emergency management affiliate for MACO, the Maryland Association of Counties.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Okay. So that all the counties in Maryland, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

All the counties. And so we've been advocating legislative change, creating the State Disaster Recovery Fund so that we have a state fund when emergencies happen and the federal government can't come through, we have some money that would go to local emergencies. Got it. That was the fund that helped Western Maryland.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

That is the only fund that helped Western Maryland.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

When the federal disaster when the federal government said no twice to a disaster declaration. We need to keep building upon that. One of the bills that passed the session at the state was a climate change, homeowners insurance, and emergency management study bill. So there is going to be a work group that gathers over the next year and a half to study resiliency in the state, what the insurance industry looks like, what emergency management and the role it plays in there, but also the impact on climate change on all of that. And the pathways that the state can move forward and making sure that all of those industries work for people.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

So that's the downer. Here's what gives me hope is that human beings like you, like all the people you're working with, see a problem and they work on a solution. And so while we look at the disaster side of it and think, oh, the world is falling apart, we're going to all these terrible things are going to happen. There's always a group of people that is figuring out how to respond to that and make it better. And sometimes they rebuild even better than it was before. In fact, often. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

And that's my hope. And but that is continued advocacy.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

You're right. And it's a lot of my colleagues in emergency management are the same way, right? We see a problem and we want to fix it. It's not going to be a perfect solution. It may take time to get to that solution.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

But you know as well as I do. I continuously state the problem and find ways to think outside the box and to work around systems.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

Yeah. That's what we do. That's what we do as humans. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, thank you. For your service and the work that you do and making me and hopefully all of us feel a little bit better knowing that we have an amazing team at the EOC, at the Office of Emergency Management, led by you to protect us.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yes, you know what? I'm gonna also end on a note of hope. The community members, this not too late to learn how to be prepared and how to respond and how to recover. So if you email my office at OEM Outreach at aacounty.org, we're more than happy to come out to your community and do presentations, do exercises with you. That's a core component of my office. So please, please reach out to us. And your website for just general information about what's going on is Aacounty.org slash OEM, or you could call us at 410-222-0600.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

0600. Yep, that's a number to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Thank you. You get the final word.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

All right. You're listening to the Pittman and Friends podcast. If you like what you hear, please hit the subscribe button, share with a friend, and join us for the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Thank you.