Tag: CERT

Do you have plans for your neighborhood?

Who will get there first? Neighbors!

Certainly, preparing yourself and your household for emergencies is important. But, as we’ve said many times, your single most important link to survival is your immediate neighbors.

Their proximity to you (and yours to them) means that they will be the first people on the scene in a real emergency. The more you and they know about surviving a disaster, the better the chances for everyone.

So, do you have plans underway to form a neighborhood Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)?  And making sure its members are trained, and ready? Encouraging you to do so – and providing help in this regard – is the real purpose of this website.

Organize the neighborhood team.

Here’s what our neighborhood Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) looks like. How does this description compare to yours? We have close to a hundred team members in various stages of training. About a third of our members have received city-sponsored CERT training. There are over 350 homes in our group, divided into six divisions, with six Block Captains under each Division Leader. We have six special teams: First Aid, Communications, Search and Rescue, Operations, Logistics, and Training.

Increasing the Effectiveness of the Team.

We are currently evaluating a number of options to provide our Team Members with advanced training and equipment that increases our capabilities. Among the areas we are focusing on . . .

• Communications – probably the most critical component in our emergency planning
• Standby/Emergency Power – High on all of our members’ lists
• Transportation – Related to communications; different communities have unique needs
• First Aid/Triage – Helping injured people has a protocol
• Temporary Shelter – Caring for neighbors who’ve lost their home in an emergency
• Search and Rescue – Here again, there is a protocol and Pets complicate matters
• Emergency Equipment – Water, food and medicines are individual responsibilities; the neighborhood can invest in more substantial items
• Security — Tricky, but necessary. Training is essential!

The series of posts that accompany this one will discuss each of these eight categories. We will cover the usefulness and the drawbacks of several pieces of equipment as well as the servicing requirements of each. And we’ll discuss ways to finance these purchases.

Our hope is that this information will give you a head start on your team planning.   We’ve chosen to start with the emergency power since that seems to be what most people think is their first consideration.

But first, consider the following Action item:  What constitutes YOUR neighborhood?  If you haven’t really begun neighborhood planning for emergencies, and need to decide on the boundaries for your neighborhood, check out this article:  Who Will Be There To Help?

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You’ve seen this again and again.  “The more prepared your neighbors are, the safer you will be!” If this makes sense to you, and you want to do something about it, consider putting on a Community Preparedness Fair.

The Home Depot – the place to start

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a Google Alert set for the words “Emergency Preparedness” and “Disaster Preparedness.” Every day I get notices of community programs – typically sponsored by city governments – aimed at raising awareness about emergency planning.

But every once in a while, I see something else tucked in the list. That is, an announcement of a “Community Fair” being supported by The Home Depot.

Sponsor or participant, or both

Sometimes the store takes the lead in putting on a sort of expo. Sometimes the store is one of several related organizations participating. For example, from today’s Google Alert:

“San Bernardino County (California) residents wanting to be better prepared for disasters may attend a community safety fair Saturday in Fontana. The fair, organized by Home Depot, San Bernardino County Disaster Corps and San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Services, will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Home Depot store. “

“The East 1488 Community Association and East 1488 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) (Houston, Texas) will hold its fourth annual Emergency Preparedness Fair on Saturday, May 4, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. in the Home Depot Parking lot. Booths will have information and displays by first responders and emergency related organizations.”

Earlier, I saw this reference to the Lake Arrowhead (Cherokee County, Georgia) Preparedness Fair: “Come see a huge collection of Emergency Responders, Law Enforcement, Emergency Management, Amateur Radio Communications, and community emergency response personnel and equipment (subject to availability) along with dozens of vendors specializing in emergency preparedness, disaster response, and household safety. Home Depot is sponsoring the Safe Kids Fun Zone.”

Could your neighborhood team plan and execute a community fair?

From a neighborhood safety standpoint, this is one of the most effective things you could do to raise awareness and stimulate preparedness in your community. If I were tasked with putting on another such fair, The Home Depot is where I’d start.

We put on such a fair about a year ago. And yes, The Home Depot was our major sponsor. They brought their own tables, set up samples of preparedness items, took orders for them, and a couple of weeks later actually made one big delivery to our clubhouse!  Our local CERT then sorted and distributed everything.

If you are part of a group, consider putting a preparedness expo on your calendar. It may take several months to plan, but the results will be far-reaching. Start by talking to the manager of your local Home Depot store. I can bet you’ll find good support there.

(If you are truly interested, I’d be happy to share some of the planning steps that we went through. Just drop me a line in the comment box below.)

Other resources for community organizing:

CERT training

Organize your Neighborhood

Building a CERT Group — Identifying Leaders

One of the basic premises of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training is to develop leadership.

In an emergency, the first qualified person on the scene takes the reins of leadership as the “Incident Commander,” following the CERT guidelines . . . but then turns over that leadership to a more qualified member of the team who may join the action later.

This is one of the reasons you want as many of your people fully-trained as possible.  It’s not unlike the cross-training that members of the military special forces receive.

Military training equals leadership for CERT.

(In fact, some of the best people to get involved in a company or neighborhood CERT are former military or people with actual first responder experience.)

Wanted:  Self-Starters

But that special experience aside, the best leaders are going to be those people who have the vision, foresight and commitment to play a key role in forming a team. These are the natural leaders in your business or community who are self-starters.  You will find them heading up the team sports programs like Little League Baseball or Soccer programs.  In business they are the people who take on additional tasks or make suggestions to improve products, etc.

Remember, this is a “voluntary” program.

You don’t want to “assign” people to positions on the team.  That can open you up to possible legal problems and could jeopardize the spirit (if not the letter) of the Good Samaritan legal protection for individuals.

In building an Emergency Plan, you define the roles to be played and the suggested activities within them and give team members the opportunity to step forward and do what they are comfortable with.

Suggested Team Positions

As you build an Emergency Response Plan, here are some suggested team positions and qualifications:

1. Incident Commander – Most qualified volunteer with additional training in the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS).  You ideally want to have at least 3 or 4 members of your team qualified to fill this position.

 2. Search & Rescue Team Leader – CERT qualified plus previous first responder experience or training if possible.

3. Triage & First Aid Team Leader – CERT qualified plus training in Red Cross First Aid and related courses.  Retired or former nurses, teachers, military with medic training, etc. are also desirable if they are available to you.

4. Logistics Team Leader – Someone who keeps track of various tools and other assets that are available in the neighborhood . . . or, in the case of a business or enterprise, on location.  This could include fire suppression equipment, tools, generators, etc.

5. Division Leaders – Depending on the size of your neighborhood or business enterprise, you may want to divide your community into manageable sections with Division Leaders acting as Local Incident Commanders.

In the case of a closely laid out community, a Division might encompass 50 or 60 homes with 3 – 6 Block Captains, each reporting on 8 – 15 homes and their occupants.  In a business with multiple buildings or locations with a number of employees each, you might want a Division Leader for each building, etc.

6. Block Captains – People who have at least some CERT training who keep track of a block of homes, between perhaps 6 and 20 depending on the makeup of the community.  In the case of apartments, they could be “Floor Captains” or in a business, “Group Captains,”  The titles aren’t really important, but the function is.  These are the people who will check on the well-being of their neighbors or co-workers immediately following an emergency.

How you structure your organization really depends on a number of factors.  We strongly recommend completing the Basic CERT training and the two Incident Command Structure on-line trainings.  Also helpful are the four “Shelter Management” trainings offered by the American Red Cross.

By-Products of the Training

Two of the by-products of any of these training courses – especially the hands-on CERT training – are the confidence and peace of mind that participants gain.  Knowing what to do in an emergency and being disciplined in responding removes a lot of the fear of the unknown. It also creates an awareness and a willingness to act without delay, when  action is called for.

We have been fortunate to witness these positive by-products in our own community under potentially dangerous situations.

It could have been so much worse.

We had an emergency in our neighborhood this last week. Didn’t fall into the category of widespread disaster, but we are all still shaking our heads about “what could have been” if it had been a windy day…

A total loss

One of our elderly neighbors called AAA because her car wouldn’t start. She hadn’t used it in months. Well, AAA came, started the car, and suggested that the owner let it run “for a while.”

An hour later, she had fallen asleep. And that car, parked right alongside the house, was beginning to smoke.

Quick action by observant neighbors.

When the mailman came by, the car and carport were engulfed in smoke, and flames were licking at the house itself. About that time neighbors saw the flames, too, and called the fire department. The mailman pounded on the door and pulled the shaky and confused resident right out into the street. She was safe.

Meanwhile, the house was burning.  Three different fire stations responded to the 911 calls, as did a number of police cars.

By the time First Responders arrived…

By the time they arrived, CERT members had taken in the homeowner and called her relatives, and were clearing the streets of gawkers in order to allow ready access to the First Responders.  CERT training made it easy for these neighbors to act promptly and with authority!  The CERT team members didn’t save the house — even the fire department couldn’t do that — but the neighborhood was definitely safer as a result of their actions.

Action Item: Make sure all your cars are properly maintained, exercised on a regular basis, and always have at least a half-tank full of fresh gas in case you need to evacuate. This simple discipline will save your investment, and may well save your life.