Next week I will start a local CERT course- six evenings and a Saturday exercise. Hopefully, I will be of greater use when our next disaster occurs and my efforts will be more coordinated and effective. A lot of my motivation for taking this course comes from the discussions on this board.

What are realistic expectations for this training? Any suggestions for preparation? Any insights? I realize training at this level does not transform anyone into Captain Rescue, but allows an informed citizenry to respond immediately and be on the same page with trained personnel on some dark and smoky night.

First off, good for you for signing up for the training!

Our city did not have (I just moved) a CERT team, although the training was essentially the same for our CEPA (Community Emergency Preparedness Academy) training. Although the curriculum is pretty much standardized, the details of the content can vary widely depending on who is teaching each segment. I had some interesting, informative sessions, and some were either way too basic or just delivered in a boring manner, so it's hard to say what you might expect.

I thought all the hands-on segments were interesting, from first aid and AED training, to practicing with fire extinguishers, to the mock drill at the end that tries to incorporate the various skills and knowledge you have learned.

Actually, I think the part I enjoyed the most was meeting some like-minded folks from the community and getting to know them over the weeks. They were all ages, from retired folks down to teenagers brought by their parents. Nothing in the training really required any advanced preparation or study. Wear comfortable clothes for days where you may be kneeling or doing any hands-on training, like first aid and AED.

Keep an open mind, soak up the info, and have some fun meeting other folks!

It is a good thing to take, I have taken the course myself and the thing you need to be prepaired for is what they are looking for from you may be different than what you believe they will be asking.

In my Cert Class there were doctors, nurses, EMT's and much more, but being a CERT member we do a lot of SAR type stuff but not much hard core stuff. The Medical is very simple as they are expecting you to not have much to work with and there is a limit to what you can and can't do in a disaster. You do learn how to use a Fire Extinguisher, and what the town or city you live in has as a response for emergencies.

But, as far as giving to the community and connecting to it,, it really is a great thing.. You will find out what the plans are and what to do when a serious emergency hits. You will also become one of the helpers and not part of the mass of people not knowing what to do or what is going to happen when a disaster knocks on your community’s door.

You will be amazed at how much your team’s presence in those vests will reassure a community that has had an emergency.

I'm active in the NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Teams) in San Francisco, CA, mainly focusing on emergency packet and voice communications on 2m and 70cm. One good thing about these volunteer programs is that you'll learn to work with all kinds of people, many that don't think at all like you do. Many people will have strengths that complement yours. Be prepared to be a bit frustrated at times. Problems and solutions that are obvious to anyone on this list can be unimportant to almost everyone else. The same works in reverse. Many people will be deeply involved in issues that you've never thought about.

I think it's a great program here on the Ring of Fire. Have fun and remember you're a volunteer. You don't have to do anything that doesn't feel right to you. Be safe so you don't become part of the problem.

Best,
Lynn, W6JAE

As a CERT Trainer I can tell you what our expectations are.

1 Prepare you to assist yourself during an event.
2 Prepare you to assist your family during an event.
3 Prepare you as a team member to assist your neighbors during an event.
4 Prepare you as a team member to assist your community during and event.

We do not pressure anyone to get more involved than they are comfortable with. So if you want to take the class for personal reasons that is OK with us.

Our town has a rather severe flooding problem and until the flood control project is done we (OEM / CERT) have many folks to assist. If for each 16 hour class we run 10 people do not need assistance during an event that would be an excellent return on our efforts. If that ends up helping the family that would be even better.

We can always use additional members in either OEM or CERT it just depends on what level and type of involvement people want and are comfortable with.

Enjoy, you will learn a few new things and a few new ways of thinking about different events and most of all...

Have a great time!

Jim

What others have said. You'll learn some good stuff and meet great people. It was reassuring to see so many people in my area enthusiastic about getting prepared. You're gonna love it. Well, at least I did.

I've also signed up for the CERT course, too. I found the downloadable documents and PowerPoints on the CERT website. How much is hands on, and how much is just going over what seems to me relatively simple stuff from the PowerPoints & the documents?

I'm particularly interested to find out, because CERT does ask for quite a bit of your time. I'd go nuts listening to people explain stuff that you can easily learn if you're a good self-learner. While the documents indicate some partner exercises, they really seem simple enough that I'm not sure how much I'd benefit from doing them with someone.

It's good to know that the degree of my community involvement is up to me. I'd like to help if I can, but I don't know what I'll be in for.

I anticipate that much of the material will indeed be fairly simplistic. I have a good background in mountain and technical SAR, including cave and swift water environments and I have decent experience in fractures and blunt force trauma injuries. But here we are looking primarily at urban situations, where I have a lot to learn (down power lines and the like). Also,I am kind of rusty...

I suspect (and hope) that there will be value in meeting people, interacting with them, and sharing priorities and procedures to be used in an emergency, so that when rescue professional arrive on scene , they will merely be dealing with chaos, instead of total chaos.

We must compare notes following the course. Thanks to all for your comments.

I am currently taking the CERT course through our county Emergency Management Organization and will be part of the community team in my development. The curriculum has the following titles for each week:

1. Course overview and disaster preparedness
2. Disaster fire suppression (we used a simulator to fire actual fires)
3. AHA Heartsaver CPR/AED (we went thru the AHA course and used the "dummies" and training AEDS) (This is my latest class)
4. Triage/Terrorism
5. Light search and rescue
6. Psychological aspects of disasters
7. Course summary
8. Practice skills/Graduation

According to my community leader, this course certifies me to be a team leader, or fill any other team position (including Comm, since I am a HAM). Hope this helps.

This looks like it's based on the curriculum on the website (http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/training_mat.shtm), with some stuff in a different order:



The website contains links for downloadable materials. Are these the materials you have been given? If so, how much more information/skill does the class add to the materials?

It looks like you can download instructor's guide, too.