Georgia setting the standards for Mob
By Uyen Le Schneider
When it comes to mobile communications exercises, the federal government has dubbed the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency as setting the standards for the nation for its ability to put on an event of such a large scale and do so annually. During this event, GEMA / HS hosts dozens of counties, along with several state and federal partners for a mobile command center exercise to test and ensure all the different counties and agencies know how to work together in the event of a major incident.
“ Georgia has had this event for several years and we always use Georgia as a model for this type of exercise,” said Pam Montanari with the U. S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Communications, who works with states on their statewide interoperability plan and advancing mobile communications.
In a disaster or large scale incident, mobile command centers are deployed to the incident area, but their success in interoperable communications depends on how well they know the technology and work together with other MCVs to ensure their radio communications are either compatible or don’ t interfere with one another.
“ A lot of agencies in a lot of states don’ t have the capability to host an event like this, to bring all their counties together and actually test their equipment ' s functionality,” said Montanari.“ This is a great event in the fact that you’ ve got hundreds of people and 40-plus command posts from local to county to state to federal agencies participating.”
The event has become the largest MCV exercise in the nation. This year, the state hosted 32 mobile command centers, 20 aviation and 10 marine units from around the
Fulton, Cobb and Hall Counties along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department, participate in a Super Bowl scenario during the MCV exercise. state. These include federal, state and local assets. It was the first year the exercise included marine units.
Edwin Whitworth, GEMA / HS Statewide Interoperability Coordinator and director of the exercise, said the reason for including the marine units was
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Georgia Forestry Commission prepares a portable repeater for aircraft deployment for wide area communications.