Emergency Management Careers in Prince George's County, Maryland

Emergency management coordinators working in the Prince George’s County Office of Emergency Management are in charge of collaborating with their counterparts at other local, state, and federal agencies to ensure the residents of their county get the best disaster protection possible. These coordinators specialize in the different aspects of disaster preparation and response, and possess a variety of types of emergency management certification, academic degrees, and training. Most importantly, those holding emergency management jobs in Prince George’s County are committed individuals who work tirelessly to provide public education and notification, conduct emergency management training between a multitude of agencies, and provide a quick and targeted response in the event of a disaster.


Planning Ahead for Jobs in Emergency Management

Candidates who are interested in pursuing emergency management careers in Prince George’s County have a number of education options depending on their area of specialization. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency offers some of the following certification courses in conjunction with federal emergency management, which in turn offers all of the following as online options for Prince George’s County residents:

  • National Incident Management System
  • Emergency Management: An Orientation
  • Introduction to Incident Command System
  • Guide to Points of Distribution
  • Preparing for Mass Casualty Incidents
  • Fundamentals of Emergency Management
  • Effective Communication

Local public, private, and online colleges and universities offer two-year AA and four-year BA and BS degree programs relevant for emergency management in subjects such as:

  • Psychology
  • Communication
  • Information Technology
  • Business
  • Engineering
  • Urban Planning
  • Public Health

Coordinators Respond to a Water Emergency

Emergency management coordinators in Prince George’s County must be prepared to respond to likely disasters such as severe storms, flooding, and even an occasional tornado. However, they must also be prepared for rarer disasters such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and a recent unexpected event: a defective water pipe. Although initially it does not appear to merit the severity of a disaster, this summer incident was on the verge of causing upwards of 200,000 residents to lose their water supply for potentially six days. To make matters worse, at this time the county was experiencing a heat wave.

With heat waves themselves being killers, Prince George’s County emergency management coordinators approached this challenge on two fronts: fighting the heat and distributing water. Extra attention was given to the county’s already existing cooling centers located in populated areas, especially those places with higher concentrations of senior citizens. Public information officers appeared in advertisements and handed out fliers door to door to make residents aware that they had the option of going to these air-conditioned locations and drinking fresh supplies of cold water. As utility crews were fixing the defective water pipe, city and county water trucks parked outside affected neighborhoods, providing dozens of water taps where residents could come and fill their water bottles. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of emergency managers and informed residents, property damage was averted from the potential of a water main explosion, while no one was killed from dehydration or overheating in the four days it took to make repairs.

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