Emergency Management

William Martin, a retired fire marshal and firefighter from Baltimore, started work yesterday as Carroll County's new emergency management coordinator, said Howard S. Redman, the county's director of public safety. Redman said that Martin was one of eight candidates interviewed by a committee of volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel from across the state. Martin is to work with Carroll fire companies to update an operations plan for natural disasters, hazardous material responses and other emergencies.

Courthouse East closed Monday following a water pipe burst. A half-inch pipe burst on the fourth floor of the building, and water trickled down to the lower floors, said Captain Roman Clark, a spokesman with the Baltimore City Fire Department. The break appeared to have occurred over the weekend, according to the Baltimore City Sheriff's Office. No one was injured in the burst, and it looked like damage was limited to carpeting, according to the sheriff's office. Connor Scott, a spokesman with the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, said everyone had been evacuated from the building as a precaution and that the water to the courthouse was turned off. He said the fire department was waiting on an electrician to determine which parts of the building were safe for electricity.

Even though he's not happy about the circumstances, or the fact thatno one ever bothered telling him he was retiring, Primus Richardson says he will go gently into that good night.After 14 years as thecounty's emergency management officer, Richardson learned he was retiring only after County Executive Robert R. Neall announced his departure at a news conference.And if that weren't insult enough, he soon found that everyone liked his work but that no one wanted to save his job."I have the utmost respect for Primus," said Councilman Dave Boschert, D-Crownsville.

The cafeteria at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex was shut down Tuesday after 18 people were sickened with an unknown condition and 600 evacuated from the building in North Baltimore. Fire and emergency management officials are still investigating what caused the illness that gave employees breathing problems, but one of the theories is possible food contamination. We are "trying to chase down what everybody ate," said Connor Scott, a spokesman with the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.

Five years ago, Frederick County police and firefighters couldn't use their radios to talk to their counterparts from Baltimore County if summoned to the same catastrophe. Their equipment was different and couldn't be linked. Once on the scene, there were no clear rules about who should be in charge. And no one had access to a computerized inventory of the crews and trucks and medical units around the state that might be available to assist Today, it's a different story. Since the Sept.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. appointed yesterday a former Frederick County public safety director to lead the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, replacing an ousted holdover from the Glendening administration. Ehrlich and other administration officials said the hiring of John W. Droneburg III, who led Frederick's emergency operations for 11 years, is part of a reorganization that will make MEMA a more responsive agency that is less centralized at its headquarters at Camp Fretterd in Reisterstown.

The cafeteria at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex was shut down Tuesday after 18 people were sickened with an unknown condition and 600 evacuated from the building in North Baltimore. Fire and emergency management officials are still investigating what caused the illness that gave employees breathing problems, but one of the theories is possible food contamination. We are "trying to chase down what everybody ate," said Connor Scott, a spokesman with the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.

The county Fire Department is looking for people who own four-wheel-drive vehicles to provide emergency transportation during snowstorms, a spokesman for the department said yesterday.The volunteers are needed to drive critical medical personnel and dialysis patients to county hospitals. Chief Gary Sheckells, a department spokesman, said the county already has a "cadre of loyal volunteers" who have been providing service for the past several years. Additional volunteers are needed to reduce the number of trips required of each volunteer during a storm, Chief Sheckells said.

With Maryland largely spared from the worst of superstorm Sandy's wrath, some Baltimore-area emergency personnel - including a specially trained urban search and rescue team and multiple medical units - are gearing up to be dispatched to more devastated areas to the north. Both New York and New Jersey saw widespread destruction on Monday night into Tuesday morning, with businesses and homes along the New Jersey shore destroyed and boroughs of New York City inundated with water. Maryland also saw flooding, particularly in shoreline communities like Crisfield, but the destruction was not as widespread as it was in the more northern states.

It was a big sound in its day - loud, off-key and impossible to dance to - and, with a push from the government, it captured the imagination of a generation. Then it all but disappeared. Faster than you can say "civil defense," the wail of the outdoor emergency siren, except in a few hyper-vigilant cities like Baltimore, went nearly silent. Now, a national comeback is under way. Like a has-been rocker, the warning siren - viewed by some as an ear-piercing relic, by others as a reassuring old friend - may be blaring again soon in a city near you. "They're coming back big time," said Ed Wise, a funeral-home director outside of Atlanta who sells, restores and repairs sirens as a sideline.

Carroll County's Department of Social Services, Health Department, and the Office of Public Safety Support Services, Emergency Management this week launched an effort to gather input on emergency shelter services. The departments want to gain a perspective on individual and family actions regarding sheltering during a significant or catastrophic event in the county. Officials said the information will help guide the county in the development of shelter and recovery plans. The plan asks residents for information such as how long they would stay in their home if power was lost; whether they would seek shelter with friends, at a hotel or in a county shelter; and what services they would seek from the county in an emergency.

With Maryland largely spared from the worst of superstorm Sandy's wrath, some Baltimore-area emergency personnel - including a specially trained urban search and rescue team and multiple medical units - are gearing up to be dispatched to more devastated areas to the north. Both New York and New Jersey saw widespread destruction on Monday night into Tuesday morning, with businesses and homes along the New Jersey shore destroyed and boroughs of New York City inundated with water. Maryland also saw flooding, particularly in shoreline communities like Crisfield, but the destruction was not as widespread as it was in the more northern states.

Hurricane Sandy has weakened with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as of 2 p.m., but it is still expected to be a massive and powerful system for the next several days that could strike the Delmarva peninsula at hurricane strength and cause hundreds of thousands of power outages in Maryland. The storm's center is expected to strike the Delmarva early Tuesday before moving to the northwest over Baltimore, according to the National Hurricane Center's 5 p.m. update. Gov. Martin O'Malley declared a state of emergency Friday morning launching statewide storm preparation efforts led by the Maryland Emergency Management agency.

One afternoon in early June, Ken Mallette was in Jacksonville driving from a funeral when he got a text message about severe storms striking Maryland. One of the storms' 11 tornadoes had just ravaged nearby Fallston. In his second week as executive director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Mallette arrived in Fallston in a matter of minutes rather than head back to the state's emergency command center in Reisterstown. He surveyed the damage and met with Harford County Executive David Craig.

Whether it's a hurricane, a flood, a tornado or an earthquake, Americans count on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be among the first responders. As the recent example of Hurricane Irene shows, only government can marshal the vast resources needed to quickly bring relief to victims of major disasters, then oversee cleanup and reconstruction efforts in the aftermath. That's why a looming partisan fight in Congress over whether to replenish FEMA's disaster relief account must not be allowed to cripple the agency's ability to carry out its life-saving mission.

Harford County has appointed Brian P. Feist of Johnstown, Pa., manager of its Division of Emergency Operations. Feist began the job Monday and replaces Ernie Crist, who retired last summer. Feist most recently served as director of Cambria County Department of Emergency Services, with responsibilities for emergency management, the 911 Center and Cambria Connected, local government's wireless broadband divisions. He worked daily with 47 fire departments, 33 police agencies, and 18 EMS agencies that served 62 municipalities.

The computer screens are blank, and the glass-walled strategy room is empty. The cavernous amphitheater is cold and silent.But in a few days, the tan masonry building on a country road in Reisterstown will hum to life as the year 2000 dawns, providing the first real test of the new Maryland Emergency Operations Center.Opened last month to replace a 50-year-old underground bunker in Pikesville, the $4.5 million facility features all the tools government officials need to handle a disaster: an array of computers tied to fiber-optic lines, backup power and enough food, water and fuel to maintain workers for two weeks.

Baltimore County's professional firefighters and paramedics ratified a new one-year agreement with the county, fire union officials said yesterday. The deal -- expected to cost the county $2.9 million -- provides a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment, improved safety equipment throughout the county and an upgrade of captains and lieutenants positions because of changes in duties and responsibilities, fire officials said. Michael K. Day Sr., president of the Baltimore County Professional Fire Fighters Association, said he was pleased with the deal.

Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen announced three top appointments to his administration last week, naming a city manager, a special assistant for development and a deputy fire chief. Michael D. Mallinoff, a veteran municipal government employee, was named acting city manager, a position previously known as city administrator. Mallinoff, director of Annapolis' Department of Neighborhood and Environmental Programs, served as city administrator in Annapolis for six years ending in 1995.

The call coming into Baltimore's storm center on Calvert Street sounded urgent: A city resident needed dialysis, but the clinic's bus couldn't get through her snow-covered street to pick her up for treatment. "This is a person who lives on a street with two hills," explained Meghan Butasek, with the city health department. She ran through the details with an official in the conference room. "So she needs her street cleared?" asked Scott Brillman, with the city's Office of Emergency Management.