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1. What is emergency management?

All disasters are local meaning that they begin or occur in a community and the response begins at the local level. For more information, view the About Us page.

2. What is the difference between an “emergency” and a “disaster”?

Emergencies are the routine events that local police, fire and emergency medical service personnel handle on a day to day basis. Disasters are events that require more resources than a local jurisdiction has and will therefore require outside assistance. Emergency Managers might logically be called “Disaster Managers” as their role is to coordinate resources for larger events.

3. When and how is FEMA called in to assist?

FEMA may activate in advance of a predicted disaster such as a hurricane when there is plenty of warning. This scenario may involve a federal “pre-disaster” presidential declaration. In these cases, FEMA moves and stages resources in advance of the event.

On no-warning events such as a tornado, local jurisdictions must exhaust their own resources, neighboring and regional resources and then request help from the state. The state will call on FEMA when the state’s resources are overwhelmed requesting a presidential disaster declaration after the governor declares a state of emergency.

4. How are volunteers coordinated?

People who wish to volunteer to help may be referred to these organizations (such as the American Red Cross or a faith-based organization) or they may go to a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) that may be opened for a specific disaster.

VRCs will take requests from organizations that need volunteer assistance and also sign up volunteers that are not affiliated with a disaster response organization and match them with the organization requests. It is the emergency management office that requests that the VRC open and the Anne Arundel Volunteer Center that will open one or more centers with volunteers that are already trained to manage a VRC.