Montgomery County, Maryland Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) shared experiences from its virtual activations where technology was the key component to success. Virtual activations ranged from local level situational reporting to international level social media monitoring and data analysis.

1. Steve Peterson, CEM
Montgomery County, Maryland CERT
May 4, 2019 POMS Conference – Washington, DC
Integrating Technology within Community
Emergency Response Team Operations

2. About Montgomery County CERT
• Formed in 2003
• Trained
• Safety education, emergency
preparedness projects, and assistance to
Fire & Rescue
Montgomery County Maryland Fire & Rescue Services manages CERT
600+ volunteer members registered within volunteer management system

3. 33 CERT Virtual Activations (2013-2019)
• 2013 (4): 3 snow storms, 1 tornado
• 2014 (5): 4 snow storms, 1 FEMA Disaster Reporter app data call
• 2015 (9): 5 snow storms, 1 severe thunderstorm, 1 earthquake*, 1 cyclone*, 1
tropical storm (on standby)*
• 2016 (5): 2 snow storms, 2 hurricanes**, 1 FEMA Disaster Reporter app data call
• 2017 (2): 1 snow storm, 1 flood
• 2018 (5): 1 severe high winds (including use of FEMA Disaster Reporter app), 1 snow
storm***, 1 Regional Wireless Emergency Alert Report, 2 hurricanes*
• 2019 (3): 2 snow storms***, 1 exercise
* Surge support assistance to Humanity Road
** One hurricane impacted DC region, the other was providing surge support assistance to Humanity Road
*** Incorporated the usage of Google forms into procedures

4. How It Began
• Retainment strategy
• Mobile computing surge
– Accessibility
– Advances
• Ease of use
• Photos
• March 6, 2013 Snow Storm
– 29 SITREPs
• ~40% photos
• Viewed at County EOC
– 9 zip codes
– Real-time deteriorating weather conditions captured and reported

5. SITREP Contributions
29
13
85
49
113
32
125
83
15
75
95
140
155
137
39 37
72
15
151
135
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
NumberofSITREPs
20172014 2015 2016 20182013
54 unique
contributors
75 unique
contributors

6. What is a Situation Report?
• Snapshot of current needs, response & gaps in an emergency
• Intended to support coordination of response
• Montgomery County CERT Situation Reports: Localized
reporting
What time did you generate this report?
What is your zip code?
What is the name of your street?
Have you LOST power? (Yes/No)
Do you see wind-related damage? (Yes/No)
If yes, what is the damage? (e.g., fallen tree)
What time did you generate this report?
What is your zip code?
What type of precipitation? (Snow, Sleet, Freezing Rain)
What is approximate accumulation? (e.g., .25”, 1”, 2-3”)
Do you have power? (Yes, No, Lost but restored now)
Have your roads been serviced? (Yes/No)
Contingent upon scope, magnitude, type of disaster

7. SITREP Example (High Winds – March 2018)
• Government closed in advance of high winds
• High number of SITREPS vs previous weekday
efforts
• Members provided updates to their SITREPs when
conditions changed
• Several volunteers reported off and on power
outages (dynamic reporting)
• Provided SITREPs to FEMA Disaster Reporter app
as suggested (i.e., unique MCCERT identifier)

8. SITREP Example (High Winds – March 2018)
(Images generated by MCCERT volunteers)

9. Virtual Activation Process

10. Began as a
manually-plotted
proof of concept

11. Enhancements
2016 2018
Matured into
an automated
real-time
resource

12. Volunteer Management System
– Blast notifications to 600+ email recipients
– Easy to use data entry
– Report generating capabilities
– Remote sign-in to record volunteer hours

13. Lessons Learned & Best Practices
• Lessons Learned
– Subjective comments
– Balancing act: Motivation vs
supervision
– Inundation of photos
– Delayed responses
• Best Practices
• Standard messaging (when applicable)
• Recognition
• Volunteer management system
• Pre-established relationships
• Member availability/quantity
• Standard “yes/no “ questions
• Retention
Interesting Observation: Fluctuation in number of SITREP contributions appears to be related to day of week &
severity of incident (Most volunteers work)

14. Next Steps
• Engage regional CERT organizations
– Future collaborative SITREP effort (e.g., snow storm)
• Seek partnerships and initiatives with disaster researchers
• Continue advocating for Citizens Corps to make CERT virtual
community assistance a core capability and establish a
training curriculum

15. Thank you