I went through CERT training about 3 years ago. That team has essentially disbanded at this point and I haven't gotten around to contacting another one that's further away.

CERT is almost always oversold, at least in my experience. The team I got training through were just itching to deploy on a disaster and kick ass. Even the career firefighters and paramedics involved didn't seem to be helping reduce that. There was even talk of building a disaster vehicle or trailer. I mostly just let them talk, but I did suggest that they cross-train with the local Red Cross Disaster Assistance Team (DAT) so they could at least go out and help people out after house / apartment / trailer fires and stay busy, but that didn't go anywhere.

The initial CERT training is reasonable. You need to understand the real purpose of it. If a large-scale earthquake, tornado, hurricane, etc. strikes, first responders will be overwhelmed for some time. If every neighborhood had a couple CERT-trained people and they worked with their neighbors, they could handle a lot of the minor emergencies. Shutting off gas, checking on neighbors, applying first aid, identifying real emergency situations, etc. would help a lot. I somewhat disagree with CERT teaching cribbing and search and rescue techniques because I think it's encouraging members to go beyond their abilities and place themselves in danger. In a true emergency without first responders, it could be a real life-saver though. I've just seen too many over-eager inexperienced volunteers go exploring disaster scenes.

I still recommend that people get CERT trained. Even if you just go through the program and get a CERT bag then never touch CERT again, you'll be in a better spot to help out your neighbors in a real disaster.