Bingley, here is my experience so far. We have our final class and exercise next week.

The short answer to your questions:
1. So how closely did your CERT class adhere to the materials from the CERT link I provided? Pretty close. Much more detail in the manual, though.

2. How useful was the class? I found it useful. If a disaster strikes here, I feel I can be of more help and better team member, which was the reason I got involved.

3. Did you learn new skills? Yes, primarily in the triage and search and rescue ares. Resfresher in the CPR, First Aid and fire suppression.

4. Would you say it's worth the 15-20 hours they ask of you? Was to me, but I think that will be a personal assessment when you're done. And it will stir me to learn more and prepare better.

Long answer:

We did not receive a/the manual. Even receiving copies of the .ppt slides would have been helpful with taking notes. I believe not receiving the manual was a financial decision. On the whole, our instruction covered the areas in the manual. The manual contains more detailed information however, including diagrams, lists and checklists.

Some of the Disaster Prep. information was covered more extensively and geared toward disasters we can expect in our area (tornados, hurricanes, wild/forest fires). The CERT organization was covered more from a local perspective vs the what the manual covers in Unit 6 of the manual. It was emphasized to document, document, document. Seeing the forms listed in the manual would have helped our understanding significantly.

The Fire Safety section was taught by a local FD. It covered the types of fires (ABC etc) and an exercise of extinguishing fires using a training device (which was quite good). The hazardous material section was less extensive (didn't cover the DOT placards for example).

The CPR section was about what I have experienced in the past, although taught using the Amer. Heart Assoc. (AHA) curriculum. They use video to set up the training and then stop the video so you can practice.

The First Aid section was the most disappointing for me (and some other folks in the class). It also was presented using an AHA curriculum. Maybe my military training is not what it should be compared to, but we did not cover items like burns or pressure points. The use of pressure on the bleeding wound was a major point of emphasis. Minimal time was spent on splints. We were told the local medical community wanted our training to be minimal. It would interesting to see what the local Red Cross curriculum is (I may search for a local class to compare).
Triage was covered pretty well. The manual would have helped, but I think they did a good job here. To me this is a challenging area. Determining whether to move on from a seriously injured individual to one that may be "saved". Also, our local medical community will not allow CERT to determine that someone is dead. So we cannot use the "black" tag. If we come across someone who we believe is "dead" we tag them with a double "red" tag. The medical assessment info is more extensive in the manual. We did not cover the Medical Treatment Areas outlined in the manual.

Light search and rescue was covered pretty well. We did not cover leveraging and cribbing at all. We were basically told we would net be involved in those operations (at least not on our own).

The psychological section was presented by a retired psychologist who did a good job covering what I think we may encounter with victims and workers. CISD was addressed in that there is a group of Drs who are avaialble to help CERT members as necessary.

Our terrorism instruction basically covered the types that are out there, staying observant, etc. Our post event involvement would probably be minimal, but we could be called upon.

Our county is in central Florida and has alot of "senior" communities. There are 39 established teams in the county. Our involvement would probably be just in our own community vs being available countywide. My community seems to have one of the more involved teams and support from the community management.

Sorry this is so long winded. Hope it helps.