Cert

I agree. My husband was also on the Katrina relief effort. He often went to local church groups for the stuff that needed to be done that FEMA couldn't provide. The local groups got in there and got in done before they could have gotten through the lines to fill out FEMA forms
 
Where was your husband? I was in Waveland, MS for 3 months running a tent-based medical clinic. Slept in the back of my car. Amazing what we can withstand and the odd situations we find ourselves in.
 
I'm sorry I'm joining this late.

CERT graduate Dec'04.
CERT's reflect the local culture and whoever starts them. Some are very participative, some are exclusive, some (I suspect many) are duds.
Here's the biggest website by and about them:

http://www.cert-la.com/index.shtml

The concept is that you will have survivors milling about in a disaster, why not try to do something to organize them and keep them out of trouble? The incentive is federal money. The flaw is that unless the local culture supports volunteerism and readiness, or the training offers social/cultural status or professional rewards, it will soon be sparkies, fire groupies, nerds and other disaster bugs.
 
two years later, im guessing the op has either gotten the training or lost interest in it.

nice shovel work though.....
 
Dang yes, I used the search before starting a thread.

I left a comment for CERTGUY but no response.

I was going to try to start a thread about disaster preparedness (an oxymoron), but this is probably enough I guess. I'm pretty turned off by the whole thing, which boils down to keep your car fueled, some ready cash at hand, know where to go afer you "get out of Dodge" and when to do it.
I torque off the preparedness people just like I do my boss about EMS...Quit trying to make rocket science out of it.
 
True Story

CERT in my area:
One county has an excellent CERT group. The county right next door: a few people decided to start a CERT group- They were going to "businesses" to raise money and tried to tell them they were part of the ambulance and fire squads (although no one had contacted either squad)
they had big plans: they would respond to all MVA and "save the patients" they would be "responding to 911 calls in which it sounded like CPR would be needed"
The couple going around tryiing to collect money are both on disability and had the department of human services involved in their home as they had a 9 year child.
Needless to say CERT was never started in that county.
 
I did the CERT thing years ago (before EMT), was interesting, especially when doing practical scenarios with MCI. That's pretty much all I have to say about that. :)
 
Sadly in my area, CERT has become nothing more then Human Traffic Cones who think they are Cops. :(
 
bstone said:
Where was your husband? I was in Waveland, MS for 3 months running a tent-based medical clinic. Slept in the back of my car. Amazing what we can withstand and the odd situations we find ourselves in.
Click to expand...

Camp Gautier, Biloxi, he managed a trailer crew and slept in a horse arena and a barracks.
 
Our OP for this thread advises she did NOT go for it.

Something about the uniform not being cool enough...;)
(Just kidding, thanks for the IM, babygirl).
 
I am a member of my local cert team. I love it the training has been fantastic. We just recently had our annual prepardness drill. People from all over california attended. It was two days long and amazing oppertunity. Being a part of cert has opend a lot of doors for me. I highly recommend it.
 
csly, how'd you like the American River?

http://www.sacramentoregioncitizencorpscouncil.org/photos_08_SRCCC_conference.htm

I attended the first two national readiness conferences in Sacto and passed on this one. My CERT is nearby.
 
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Here's a good example of people power. Before I was working in EMS there were those big fires in San Diego some years ago and thousands were evacuated with no where to go. Many came to Jack Murphy Stadium (hate calling it Qualcom) where the Chargers play football. The parking lot was full of cars containing the dispaced and local radio stations were putting out the call for volunteers. So I went over there.

The local FD, EMS, and PD had their hands full and the hundred or so of us who showed up was all the help that was available. Someone, a young girl named Nicky, stood up and took charge. Several people were sent to direct traffic, some where set up to receive supplies individuals were dropping off, others went from car to car checking on families and the elderly. Soon trucks full of water, food, and clothing started to arrive spontaneously. McDonalds even pitched in with thousands of Egg McMuffins and Big Macs. It was getting smokey so the call went out over the local Rock station for face masks and thousands of them miraculously appeared out of nowhere and I spent hours passing them out.

Later in the afternoon of the first day some of the older folks were having trouble with the smoke so I called several of the larger hotels in the area and each without a word said they could take a few hundred people, dogs, cats and all at no charge. And it brought tears to my eyes. It was a good thing too as many of these people had barley fled with their lives let alone their wallets.

We were there for two days and nights everyone working their tails off before the Red Cross finally opened a shelter in Balboa Park. I went to the shelter on the morning of the third day and it was the first time in 36 hours I saw paperwork, red tape, and volunteers sitting on their asses.

It really is amazing what ordinary people can do if given the chance.

I got one of those CERT flyers in the mail not long ago. It said, "Heroes Wanted!" And I threw it in the garbage . . .

NickD
 
Way to go! Wonder who "Nicky" was and what happened to her ..

..once the bigboys showed up?
I'm disillusioned with it right now because ours won't let us "vollies" get above the bottomost rung to help make it run better.
 
Nobody "official" ever showed up at the stadium. The "big boys" were pretty much overwhelmed by fires breaking out everywhere. And Nicky was just a college aged woman doing what needed to be done and everyone else just co-operated.

Since then I've come to realize we don't take advantage of all the resources available to us in times of crisis. Someone upboard mentioned during Katrina regular people in pick-up trucks could have began bringing in supplies faster than the "agencies" did. And sure, not being trained, some of these folks will get themselves into trouble, but overall the result would be positive. On the other hand if there is a failure of leadership, as in Katrina, the official agencies will just stand around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Regular people don't do that.

Americans have that built in capacity to do good things (your neighbor's barn is on fire) and it's a crime when officials don't take advantage of that, and worse when they actually prevent it. Of course I'm only talking about very large and rare events but officials need to begin figuring a way to incorporate the "people" into their overall plans because if something like the big earthquake hits Southern California it's going to be a real mess.

We'll always for sure need trained and and organized hands in these cases, but sometimes what you need most is just plain hands . . .

NickD
 
Then why did you throw out the CERT flier? That is what CERT is, trained citizen, that help out in big emergencies!

When you have a major disaster, if they let every Tom,**** and Harry do what they wanted, there would be chaos. Yes, you will help some, but others will slip through the cracks and suffer. Plus we would have twice the Pt's, from all the people getting hurt.

Yes, some times the Red Cross is a joke. But, the majority of the time, they are great. If you truly want to help, join the Red Cross or a CERT team.

I am glad that you were there to help during the fires, you did a good job. Now join a team and get the training you need, to help more people.
 
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