The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is the state agency responsible for coordinating federal, state, local, voluntary, and private resources during emergencies and disasters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MEMA provides leadership to: develop plans for effective response to all hazards, disasters or threats; train emergency personnel to protect the public; provide information to the citizenry; and assist individuals, families, businesses, and communities to mitigate, prepare for, and respond to and recover from emergencies, both natural and man made.
Operations Department
The Operations Division of MEMA maintains and operates the state Emergency Operations Center, monitoring emergencies statewide through the Communications Division 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The state EOC serves as the command and control center for the Commonwealth during an emergency. The Operations Division manages and coordinates emergency response efforts for the Commonwealth. Through MEMA regional offices, it coordinates the response to requests for aid from local authorities upon depletion of their local resources. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Team is prepared and trained by the Operations Division. MEMT's members are the many state, federal, local, volunteer, public, and private agencies and organizations which are represented at the State EOC during activation for an emergency for better coordination of the Commonwealth's assets. Operations Division is also responsible for updating and publishing the Governor's Emergency Notification Roster, preparing and maintaining MEMA's master calendar, and assuring that MEMA maintains a high degree of preparedness and readiness.
The Planning Department works with municipal, state, federal, and volunteer organizations on a variety of emergency management planning issues. The Planning Department assists communities in the development and maintenance of their Comprehensive Emergency Plans, addressing mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery from natural and technological emergencies. The Planning Department also maintains the State Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The State CEMP is utilized by MEMA to manage multi-agency state response to large-scale emergencies. The State CEMP provides linkage to the Federal Response Plan for requesting federal disaster assistance. Management of the State Emergency Response Commission activities; planning, training, grant management, and SERC sub-committees is the responsibility of the MEMA Hazardous Materials Coordinator within the Planning Department. Finally, the Planning Department supports planning for hazard-specific events such as major aircraft accidents, debris management, terrorism, donations management, and other topics.
