City of Baltimore sends IMAT to help in NY

BALTIMORE - The City of Baltimore has sent a four-person incident management assistance team (IMAT) to the state of New York to assist with Hurricane Sandy recovery operations.

The team consists of personnel from the mayor’s office of Emergency Management and the Baltimore City Fire Department who are trained in complex incident management, catastrophic event planning, and supply chain management.

The deployment of the IMAT team is in addition to a team of personnel Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake deployed last week to Garrett County, Maryland and New Jersey.

“Those of us spared from Hurricane Sandy’s devastation have an obligation to assist our neighbors in need,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “The people of Baltimore continue to stand with the people of New Jersey, New York, and Maryland who have suffered great damage and tragedy as a result of this historic storm."

Currently, the team is assigned to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Westchester County, which borders New York City to the north. Westchester County experienced damaging winds and severe flooding, which left hundreds of thousands without power, killed three people, and left debris that blocked hundreds of roads, making many areas inaccessible. The area is also experiencing a fuel shortage, which has crippled the transportation of civilians and public safety assets as well as generator power at key sites.

The Baltimore City IMAT has integrated with the Westchester County command structure and has already begun to add to the operational capabilities of the county. The team arrived in New York on Sunday, November 4 and will return to Baltimore on November 10, at which point they will resume their normal responsibilities.

Four members of the Baltimore Regional Incident Management Team (BRIMT) are also being sent to Newark, New Jersey to help with hurricane recovery. The BRIMT includes highly trained members from the City of Annapolis, City of Baltimore, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, and Howard County public safety agencies. The four member team will focus on the coordination of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in the state, and will be deployed for seven days.