It may seem surprising that representatives from a Chinese city of more than 4 million people would visit the University of Maryland and the City of College Park to learn about emergency responses. But that’s exactly what one group did.
A group of emergency management officials from Chengdu visited this university from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7 to learn about American emergency response teams, said Lei Bao, program manager of this university’s Office of China Affairs. The officials took part in the Chengdu City Community Emergency Response Team Development Training Program, which the affairs office runs, Bao said.
“There’s a need in China to establish the [Community Emergency Response Team] program, and [at the] University of Maryland, we have that expertise,” Bao said.
The national Community Emergency Response Team program — the Chengdu City program is an offshoot — is run by the Federal Management Agency and “educates residents about disaster preparation and trains them in disaster response skills such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations,” according to FEMA’s website. China selected Chengdu to run a pilot program similar to FEMA’s CERT program, Bao said, especially in wake of experiencing large earthquakes in the area in 2008 and 2013.
Chengdu officials met with city leaders and members of the University of Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute to learn about the program, Bao said. Though the group also initially had a meeting with FEMA, the organization canceled for Hurricane Matthew preparation, she said.
College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn met with the Chengdu officials Oct. 4 to welcome them to the city, and said the city’s emergency response tactics may be useful to the group because of its location.
“We have a number of unique circumstances, being in the D.C. Metro area, where there’s always the possibility of some sort of terrorist attack, or something along those lines,” Wojahn said.
Prince George’s County also offers CERT training, which includes basic disaster response skills, for local residents, said Bob Ryan, College Park’s Director of Public Services. He met with the delegation Oct. 4 to discuss emergency response.
“They had particular interest in how citizens and residents of municipalities in the United States can volunteer in [CERT],” Ryan said, “and so we discussed that and what the model is in the U.S.”
The China affairs office has offered training for Chinese government officials and university groups for nearly 20 years, Bao said, but emergency response is not the only topic they focus on.
The office is the only training facility at this university that China’s State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs approved to train Chinese officials, according to its website. The officials from Chengdu reached out to this university specifically to learn about emergency response, Bao said.
“We have the reputation in China,” Bao said. “That’s why they reach out to us directly.”
