MIDDLE RIVER, Md. — Rescue crews from across Maryland are sharpening their skills for a major flood response by simulating a major flood response.
The rescue crews descended on Gunpowder Falls State Park to simulate a flood caused by a dam break at the Loch Raven Reservoir. Crews coordinated responding to stranded people on land and in the water.
The training took 18 months to put together and is organized by the Maryland Department of Emergency Management. The goal is to build relationships across different agencies to be ready when a real disaster strikes.
Maryland's first responders prepare for major flood event
"We want to learn from this, put your mind, your heart, your training, your everything, your KSA's knowledge, skills and abilities into this exercise wholeheartedly because again when it comes time where it is, it is an actual event you wanna be able to perform," Joseph Dixon, the Baltimore County Fire Chief said.
"With this simulated disaster, it would go beyond the capabilities of Baltimore County, and you need to know who you're working with when, when that time comes," Dixon added.
Response Coordinator Kiona Black said the state has a lot of talent in special operations, but teams are mainly siloed within their jurisdictions running everyday calls.
"We have a lot of talent in Maryland when it comes to special operations, but they don't all get to play together all the time. We're mainly siloed within our jurisdictions, running the everyday calls, but we have seen more and more challenges over the past couple of years in Maryland, the Key Bridge incident, the aviation collision, the Western Maryland flooding and even back to 2018, Ellicott City too, where we need teams that don't typically know each other to play well together and execute their talent," Black said.
"Maryland's ready. We are ready, in the local jurisdictions and the state, the partnership and relationships that we are forming, when your bad day comes, and it will, whether it's natural hazard, man-made hazard, we are all at risk for emergencies. Maryland is ready because of these kind of exercises," Black said.
The training wraps up Thursday at 11.
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