Community preparedness — Maryland
UMD Extension in every county. CERT teams from Ocean City to Cumberland. 30+ ham radio clubs. And a geography that packs coastal, suburban, and mountain hazards into one of America's smallest states. Here's where to find your network.
Enter your ZIP to find volunteer groups, training programs, civic organizations, and mutual aid networks in your area.
Organizations and programs near you
Emergency response & training
Food & mutual aid
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Civic & service organizations
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Community calendar
CERT trainings, canning workshops, ham radio exams, garden workdays, first aid classes. Events from local organizations that build community resilience.
24
Extension offices
3
NWS forecast offices
30+
Amateur radio clubs
16
Community colleges
Where to plug in
Maryland packs extraordinary geographic diversity into a small state. The Eastern Shore faces hurricanes and coastal flooding. The Baltimore-DC corridor deals with urban flooding, extreme heat, and severe thunderstorms. Western Maryland's mountains bring blizzards and ice storms. Flash flooding is a statewide risk — as Ellicott City learned twice. The organizations below serve all 23 counties and Baltimore City.
University of Maryland Extension operates offices in all 23 Maryland counties and Baltimore City. Programming spans agriculture (poultry, dairy, grain, nursery), horticulture, food safety, nutrition, financial literacy, 4-H youth development, and community development. The University of Maryland Eastern Shore also operates 1890 Extension programs serving the Eastern Shore.
The Master Gardener program is one of the most active in the Mid-Atlantic, training volunteers across Maryland's diverse growing zones. Extension runs food preservation workshops, Bay-Wise landscaping education (protecting the Chesapeake), and urban agriculture programs in Baltimore. Whether you're on a Somerset County farm or in a Baltimore row house, your extension office connects you to practical skills.
The Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) coordinates the state's all-hazards emergency program through county and Baltimore City emergency management offices. Maryland's emergency planning covers hurricanes on the Eastern Shore, flash flooding across the Piedmont, severe thunderstorms, winter storms in western Maryland, and the urban-specific hazards of the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
CERT programs are active across Maryland. Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Howard County, Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and Frederick County run well-established programs. After Ellicott City's devastating flash floods in 2016 and 2018, Howard County's CERT program saw significantly increased enrollment. Training is free.
The American Red Cross serves Maryland through the National Capital and Greater Chesapeake Region. First aid, CPR, AED, water safety, and lifeguarding classes are offered in Baltimore, the DC suburbs, the Eastern Shore, and western Maryland year-round.
Maryland's Red Cross chapters respond to home fires daily in the Baltimore metro and deploy for flash flooding, coastal storms, and winter weather events statewide. During the Ellicott City floods, Red Cross provided shelter and disaster relief for displaced residents. Volunteer entry points include shelter operations, disaster assessment, feeding, and blood drives.
Maryland has over 30 amateur radio clubs in the ARRL Maryland-DC Section, part of the Atlantic Division. ARES teams are activated during severe weather, flooding events, and derechos. Maryland operators provided critical communications during the 2012 derecho that knocked out power across the DC-Baltimore corridor for days.
Getting licensed costs $15 for the exam and about $35 for a basic handheld radio. Study at hamstudy.org, then find an exam session. Clubs in Baltimore, the DC suburbs, Frederick, Annapolis, Salisbury, and throughout the state host exams regularly.
Multiple NWS offices serve Maryland: Sterling (central and western MD including the Baltimore-DC corridor), Mt Holly/Philadelphia (northeastern MD including Cecil and Harford counties), and Wakefield (the Eastern Shore and Delmarva). Each runs SKYWARN spotter training before severe weather season.
Maryland's weather hazards include severe thunderstorms with damaging hail, flash flooding (the Piedmont's terrain channels water into dangerous flash floods), tropical systems that push storm surge into Chesapeake Bay communities, winter storms and ice storms in western Maryland, and derechos. Training is free and runs about 2 hours.
Maryland has over 200 public library locations overseen by the Maryland State Library. The Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore), Montgomery County Public Libraries, Prince George's County Memorial Library System, and Howard County Library System run extensive community programming. Maryland consistently ranks among the top states for library service.
Maryland has 16 community colleges, including Montgomery College, Prince George's Community College, Community College of Baltimore County, Anne Arundel Community College, and Frederick Community College. They offer affordable continuing education in EMT certification, fire science, cybersecurity, welding, HVAC, electrical work, and nursing.
Why this matters
On July 30, 2016, over 6 inches of rain fell on Ellicott City's watershed in about two hours. The Tiber and Hudson Branch creeks turned into rivers. A wall of water roared through the historic Main Street, destroying businesses, sweeping cars away, and killing two people. Then on May 27, 2018, it happened again — even worse. Another 8+ inches of rain, another catastrophic flash flood through the same streets. One person died. Main Street was devastated for the second time in two years.
The 2018 flood hit a community that was still rebuilding from 2016. But the response was faster because Howard County had invested in community preparedness after the first flood. CERT volunteers deployed immediately. Emergency management had pre-positioned resources. Neighbors who had lived through 2016 knew what to do — and they organized rescue and relief before official channels could fully activate.
Red Cross opened shelters. Ham radio operators provided communications. The county implemented emergency alert systems and flood mitigation infrastructure. Community organizations coordinated volunteer cleanups that brought thousands of people to Main Street in the days after each flood.
Ellicott City proved that flash flooding can strike any community where terrain, impervious surfaces, and intense rainfall converge — and that the difference between the first flood and the second was the community preparedness infrastructure built in between. The organizations on this page build that infrastructure for every county in Maryland.
The foundation
Community resilience begins with a household that can take care of itself. Cover the first 72 hours, then extend outward to your street, your neighborhood, your town.
Start with the first 72 hours