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Accomplishments for Core Goal #7 Training and Exercises

Training & Exercise
Governor O’Malley placed a priority on coordinating training and exercises across State government and between local jurisdictions to ensure that first responders are prepared and capable of providing first-line and mutual aid response during large-scale or unusual emergencies, such as a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attack.  MEMA cooperates with State partners and local jurisdictions to provide targeted training on homeland security based on likely threat-scenarios and collects data to identify and fill potential training gaps across the state.  Following are key projects and accomplishments:

• Developed an Annual Cabinet-level exercise rotation to ensure that responses to common natural hazards and homeland security threats are exercised at the highest levels at least once per year.  Starting in 2011, MEMA will conduct four annual exercises for the cabinet and cover the following hazards: hurricane, continuity of operations (COOP), terrorism, and winter storms.  Included in this year’s rotation was the State’s first cyber COOP security exercise, held on August 4.  MEMA collaborated with the National Cyber Command, the Maryland National Guard 175th Network Warfare Unit, MS-ISAC, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop a tabletop exercise that tested the readiness of State agencies to continue operations following a cyber attack against the state’s networks.  The exercise leveraged all of Maryland’s cyber security resources and helped the state identify new guidelines for reporting suspicious emails or computer glitches that may signal an intruding virus or malware.

• Developed the statewide 2011 Multi-Year Exercise and Training Plan, provided more than 60 homeland security training sessions for local first responders, worked with state agencies and local jurisdictions to conduct 27 preparedness exercises in 2011, including cyber attacks, hurricane preparedness, and pandemic flu outbreak.  Last year,MEMA’s Exercise and Training Branch provide exercises and trainings focused on oil contamination in the Bay, hurricane preparedness, sheltering, transportation, communications, information, and planning resources in the past year.  MEMA’s Multi-Year Plan tracks all statewide, regional, local training and exercises planned between 2011 and 2013. The plan outlines training and exercise needs and establishes a multi-year strategic plan through which all hazards and each ESF will be exercised in the state each year.  A copy of the training plan is available on the MEMA website.

• Created a statewide database of exercises, after-action reports, and improvement plans that will allow locals to leverage existing exercise scenarios and scripts without expending funds or staff-time to develop them.  The database will also serve as a central location for improvement plans. MEMA also produces a Quarterly Exercise Report to synthesize lessons-learned and from all exercises conducted in the prior quarter and to assist in identifying areas for improvement and future investment.

• Achieved 100 percent National Incident Management System (NIMS) training compliance.  NIMS is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s standard to provide a systematic, proactive approach guiding departments and agencies at all levels of government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work seamlessly to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity. Maryland has met all federal requirements and MEMA is actively tracking NIMS compliance data and entering information into the federal NIMScast database.