Our Vision for a Prepared Baltimore
- Well-prepared households and businesses
- Disaster-resistant communities
- Integrated, efficient, and rapid response and recovery
MOEM’s Mission
The Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (MOEM) will maintain the highest level of preparedness to protect Baltimore’s citizens, workers, visitors, and environment from the impact of natural and man-made disasters. MOEM will prepare the City for emergencies, prepare the public for emergencies, and coordinate interagency response and recovery. To achieve this mission, MOEM will implement a comprehensive program of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Overview of Activities
On a day-to-day basis, MOEM’s primary function is to implement programs that prepare the City for major emergencies. MOEM is responsible for citywide, interagency preparedness. MOEM ensures that the City’s overall emergency plans integrate the procedures and resources of all City agencies and outside organizations. MOEM serves as the link between the City and other entities – regional, State, Federal, non-profit, and private sector partners – for emergency planning and operations.
Community Preparedness Programs include Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), which trains neighborhood teams to cope with disasters; Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) to recruit and organize a corps of amateur radio operators; and Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) [PAGE 8-0], which involves citizens in the planning process; and a variety of other programs to work with community and non-profit groups.
Citywide Preparedness Programs include managing the Homeland Security and Preparedness Coordinating Committee, which develops multi-agency homeland security initiatives; conducting training and exercises, implementing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and developing plans for evacuation, sheltering, continuity of operations, and other emergency support functions. The City also engages in robust regional planning through its leadership of the Baltimore Urban Area Homeland Security Work Group (UAWG).
Operations Programs include MOEM’s 24x7 incident response, coordination of incident action plans for major City events through the Emergency Planning and Operations Committee (EPOC), and management of the City’s primary and alternate emergency operations centers (EOCs).