Emergency Management Institute (EMI)

I’m spending the week at the Emergency Management Institute in Maryland. EMI is the national emergency training center for FEMA and the U.S. Fire Administration. It’s a beautiful campus located in Emitsburg, just a few miles from Gettysburg, PA. This is my first visit to Maryland since my old punk band played in Baltimore in July 2000.

My training is focused on using a GIS based program titled HAZUS-MH to analyze spatial data and use it to inform the development of a risk assessment in a hazard mitigation plan. HAZUS takes in the building inventory, including location data and building costs, runs a model depending on the type of hazard and its intensity/location, and provides an analysis of what damages may occur or people injured. It’s a powerful program with a variety of uses in emergency management.