Last Saturday I attended the first of four classes in Community Emergency Response Training. Even though it’s a FEMA funded program, it’s downright GOOD! (Poor FEMA. Its lack of leadership has given a bad name to many fine people)
Anyway, the course is well worth the time if offered in your community – the Police and Fire Departments supply most of the instruction and they have a great time doing it.
The course is free but we can buy a backpack filled with C.E.R.T. items for $30 – green hard hat, wrench to turn off a natural gas valve, bandages, flashlights etc. I had to laugh when we pulled out the hard hats though. It made me think of the guys in W.W.II who wore the Civil Defense hard hats and watched for enemy planes (maybe that was only in Europe, not sure)
Being prepared for an emergency is not a new concept for folks who grew up in the Midwest – blizzards and tornados made regular appearances. Having a box of survival gear (or just something to tide us over until the AF delivered house hold goods) is pretty much S.O.P. here. The C.E.R.T. class made me aware of some other things we need to add, though
CERT wants us to be prepared for floods, fires, tornadoes, chemical spills, hurricanes, complete loss of house, loss of the ability to buy food, access a bank, ,,,, you name it! They didn’t mention nuclear threats but I’m not sure what they could say about it anyway.
We USED to be very well prepared for nuclear attacks in Indiana, as I recall. In 1952 all we had to do was get under out desk. I think that might still be the best plan
5 comments:
PT
You are very kind to bring to light about being prepared. I thought I had learned it all being a girlscout from start to finish. Little did I know. Sitting here on this rock, every year, at the start of hurricane season, they encourage us to get our survival kits ready. So we pack up two large waterproof containers with supplies. I even had to buy my husband one of those new crank up flashlights, that he just loves.
Anyway, sitting way out here and the first stop for the North Koreans, you have to be ready for anything.
I don't know if you saw anything about it on Texas TV. but we just got into port one of the biggest contraptions that has ever been sent across the sea to us from Texas. It is on the base of a huge oil rig and it looks like a big white golf ball for detecting missiles the size of a baseball from thousands of miles away. It is an incredible sight to see. After it gets the rest of the work done, it is off to Alaska, where it will be stationed.
I haven't heard of the "golf ball" you write about. Must be really something!
North Korea and Iran certainly represent a host of scary scenarios.
I really miss the USSR! It was a predictable enemy; we held each other in check.
How many books and movies came from that death grip!
I'd be interested if anything jumps out at you in this training.
Should we all attend?
Training is good......even boring training can surprise you with a "nugget" every now and then.
I was Civil Defense Director for a large metropolitan County some years back.
I was hired to write the Emergency Operations Plan for all these contingencies you are covering now.
Katrina sure brought back a lot of memories of those plans!
(City, County, and State Governments sure dropped the ball there!)
Man, oh man! That sounds like a migraine-giving job, Greybeard! Good on ya for taking on such an important (and thankless) job!
I doubt C.E.R.T. will give us anything you haven't already written in an O-Plan. I've only had one of four classes but I will send you a hard copy of the lessons when it's over.
At this point, C.E.R.T. seems like CPR in that it gives the general public clear direction for preparedness and safe practices.
As the Fire Chief said, no matter how much we prepare there is always something that will blast big holes in the plan.
Still, having a large number of folks have a logical plan for disasters is a giant leap forward.
Our town has trained about 150 folks since the program began about a year ago. They also have a C.E.R.T. Council that works sort of like a Volunteer FD with areas of responsibility etc.
I’m really enjoying the heck out of this class but my husband says I just like to hang around people in uniforms. No harm in that, is there???
They gave us a couple of web sites that probably have more information than anyone would ever want.
The Cert-La site has the curriculum and all the information we are getting in class. It's a ton of stuff. The CERT class started in LA and in 1991 FEMA liked it so much they made it a national program.
http://www.cert-la.com/
The FEMA page has even more information. You can earn CEUs with some of the tests.
It has so much information, I think a person could spend days just looking around.
http://www.fema.gov/
Hope this helps
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