Forgot to mention -- one thing that bugged me about my CERT course was the small-town mentality that surfaced from time to time: "We've gotta be careful of outsiders coming to our town off the highway exit." No kidding -- one of the instructors said something to this effect. I wonder what makes the crimes committed by local residents more acceptable than those committed by these highway travelers. Not that any of this is a concern of CERT. On the other hand, I was impressed they included someone to play a lost foreign tourist during the disaster simulation.

I guess I'll do a the FEMA course to see how lame it is. The local CERT office wants us to go through them, probably partly for the legal reasons, but also partly to keep us occupied while providing us with some sort of continuing training. I really would prefer a lot more hands-on stuff or disaster simulations.

My location is trying to solve two problems, among others: (1) how to equip the teams (now that we're out of grant money, we don't have the CERT kit/bag to take home); (2) how to maintain communication after the lines go down (it looks like quite a few people want to get their HAM license). Also, I am getting the feeling CERT's role in disaster management may be somewhat undefined. There is a concern that other responders/agencies won't know what CERT is. This seems like an organizational problem that shouldn't be too hard to solve, so what's the hold up?

We do have a trailer, like Bill's team. But the trailer gear seems more oriented towards teaching. We are talking about getting team gear. I'm a bit miffed that the previous CERT teams have mostly disappeared, taking their govt-funded kits with them. They should really return this stuff if they want to leave.

I'm looking for further training opportunities. I'm finishing the Red Cross First Aid/CPR/AED course for professional rescuers. I'm going to do wilderness first aid. I can do an EMT course, but I don't know anything about it. Is the information generally applicable (like first aid), or do I pretty much need to be around an ambulance to make use of the knowledge taught in such a course?