C.E.R.T - Community Emergency Response Team

[IndyPrepper]

Hi everyone,

Not sure if you all have seen this before or not so thought I would pass it along.

Our local division of Homeland Security has a free training course available to everyone... Not sure if it is limited to Marion county or not but I'm sure the sites will let you know.

This training is for 4 weeks, 1 day a week during the day. June/July trainings are on Thursdays/Fridays but the Aug. courses are during the day on Saturdays. Again this is free hands on training, might be worth checking out. If you sign up for Aug. let me know because I will see you there :-)

Link to general overview of the course - http://www.indy.gov/eGov/City/DPS/DHS/Preparedness/Pages/cert.aspx

Link to course training *detailed* -
http://www.indy.gov/eGov/City/DPS/DHS/Preparedness/Pages/CertParticipantsManual.aspx

Link to Registration Page -
https://ifdquartermaster.wufoo.com/forms/dhs-cert-training/

Cheers

IndyPrepper

 

[Westside]

Must live in Marion county to register.

 

[Glockshooter149]

This is a great organization. I took a series of homeland security classes while at Purdue and it was required for all students to become CERT certified. Since then, i have updated my address with the local CERT groups. There is typically 1 or 2 groups per county throughout the state. The training program is pretty good and really goes in depth with first aid, assessing injuries/death and handling dead bodies safely, structure searching, and keeping calm in stressful situations. They give you a response bag that is kind of a BOB with hardly any food and overly heavy on the medical supplies. I have taken the supplies from their bag and added to my own BOB in a much more heavy duty bag. I would recommend this program to anyone that is new to SHTF situations. You will learn a lot and is a good start to learning how to survive.

Here is a link to the Indiana CERT website.

http://indiana-cert.org/

 

[shibumiseeker]

CERT is a decent training program that is vastly underutilized by the EMA directors in most counties.

 

[Johnson]

Here is a link to the Indiana CERT website.

http://indiana-cert.org/

This website hasn't been updated since 2002

 

[Sailor]

I have a friend taking it now. He is not impressed at all. I think it stemmed from a disagreement that there are no commercial pressure dressings available to the public and that you should never use a TQ as it could result in the loss of a limb. Even Red Cross basic first aid was better.

 

[Westside]

I have a friend taking it now. He is not impressed at all. I think it stemmed from a disagreement that there are no commercial pressure dressings available to the public and that you should never use a TQ as it could result in the loss of a limb. Even Red Cross basic first aid was better.

hmmm, lose a limb or bleed to death. well at least I'll have all my limbs for the funeral.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

The site hasn't been updated since 2002 because the guy who put the first Marion County program together quit the agency at the same time I did and for the same reason. All that aside, the quality of the course depends upon the experience of the instructor. The teaching materials are pretty basic and designed to give a group the skills to help conduct initial aid response and assessment during the immediate aftermath of an emergency of such magnitude that regular emergency responders are delayed. For anyone who has had First Responder medical training, this is about the equivalent for learning to cut off utilities, safely search structures for trapped people, and conduct basic assessments for injuries and deliver first aid.

That the instructor in Ft. Wayne is teaching outdated medical advice is a typical drawback of the system, but really, any training is better than none.

 

[shibumiseeker]

The site hasn't been updated since 2002 because the guy who put the first Marion County program together quit the agency at the same time I did and for the same reason. All that aside, the quality of the course depends upon the experience of the instructor. The teaching materials are pretty basic and designed to give a group the skills to help conduct initial aid response and assessment during the immediate aftermath of an emergency of such magnitude that regular emergency responders are delayed. For anyone who has had First Responder medical training, this is about the equivalent for learning to cut off utilities, safely search structures for trapped people, and conduct basic assessments for injuries and deliver first aid.

That the instructor in Ft. Wayne is teaching outdated medical advice is a typical drawback of the system, but really, any training is better than none.

Doesn't it just chafe knowing that a civilian program for public safety is not only a cheap way of helping reduce the effects of disaster, but also helps folks on a daily basis, yet it's implementation is often screwed up by the public officials who put their own agendas ahead of the greater good they are supposedly paid for?

CERT was a great idea when it was developed, but it's really flopped in its execution

 

[Blackhawk2001]

The places where it has caught on tend to be the places where people have lived through a disaster without immediate aid coming from trained personnel; felt helpless; and jumped at the chance to be better prepared next time. EMAs with the resources to conduct this sort of training are generally the same areas where emergency response to disastrous events has been taken for granted and people haven't gotten 'burned' yet. Of three classes that we taught, only one community group attended the training, and even they didn't all attend consistently. For most folks, the motivation to give up an evening a week just isn't there.

 

[tooleman]

Maybe we as a group should do some training??????

 

[IndyPrepper]

Maybe we as a group should do some training??????

I'll be there in Augest :-) I have a few buddies who might be signing up as well. You can never be to prepared and never have to much training.

IndyPrepper

 

[Blackhawk2001]

My suggestion, as someone who was once intimately involved in disaster preparedness for the county, is to recruit some of your neighbors and sign up for a class as a group. Some things, such as shutting off utilities and rendering first aid assistance, can be done as individuals, but other things, such as conducting search operations and light rescue operations in collapsed and/or damaged structures, are better done in groups of at least 6 (and preferably more).

Just as an example, the standard FEMA US&R Task Force Rescue Team consists of 5 Rescue Specialists and a Team Leader. That is generally the minimum requirement for conducting rescue operations in concrete or steel collapsed structures (usually defined as "heavy rescue") and usually more than one Rescue Team is deployed at a site (there are 4 Rescue Teams on a US&R Task Force). Where more technical means of searching collapsed structures and/or rubble aren't available (such as listening devices, remote cameras or search robots), one technique for locating survivors in the rubble is for a group to arrange itself around the "pile" and to call for trapped survivors to shout or otherwise make known their presence. Searchers around the rubble pile listen and point in the direction they hear noise. This is a crude but effective way to narrow the location of possible survivors, but it doesn't work well with just a couple folks.

 

[Icarry2]

I mentioned the CERT program on another thread, I have tried numerous times to reach the coordinator for Vigo county and had no luck.

Check http://www.citizencorps.gov

I think here in Vigo county there has only been one training class in a few years..

I will let everyone know where my inquiries lead..

 

[Blackhawk2001]

One thing that just struck me. The "round the clock" search method I mentioned in my post upthread can really be enhanced by a device that many of us probably keep around: electronic "noise canceling" hearing protection. Amplified stereo hearing protectors strain out "impulse" noise, while amplifying background noises. They would probably be useful in pinpointing a person trapped in rubble, if that person could make any noise at all. Just something for you folks to think about.

 

[IndyPrepper]

One thing that just struck me. The "round the clock" search method I mentioned in my post upthread can really be enhanced by a device that many of us probably keep around: electronic "noise canceling" hearing protection. Amplified stereo hearing protectors strain out "impulse" noise, while amplifying background noises. They would probably be useful in pinpointing a person trapped in rubble, if that person could make any noise at all. Just something for you folks to think about.

Thats a really good idea, it's def worth the experiment

IndyPrepper

 

[Icarry2]

Here is the reply I received regarding CERT training here in Vigo County..

RE: CERT Training
From: [REDACTED]@VigoCounty.IN.Gov
To: [REDACTED]@aol.com>


Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 2:35 pm


TJ,

We hope to do another CERT training later this year. We are trying to get funding to put on more classes. We try to do a class of ~30 people. I will keep your contact information and notify you when we will do another class.

[REDACTED]
Vigo EMA
-------------------------------------------------------
From: [REDACTED]@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 12:00
To: ema <ema@vigocounty.in.gov>
Subject: Fwd: CERT Training



This is my second request for information on CERT Training. I will try and phone in a request as well.

--------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: [REDACTED]@aol.com
To: ema <ema@vigocounty.in.gov>
Sent: Sun, Jun 5, 2011 1:54 pm
Subject: CERT Training
I am interested in training. Are there any opportunities? If there are minimum class sizes please pass along all of that information.

Regards,

TJ

 

[IndyPrepper]

Bump. Free training starts in Aug. Marion county residents.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Google "Community Emergency Response Team" and you can download the instructional materials in html or pdf format from the FEMA web site. Some of that stuff may be suitable to download to a memory chip or your iPod/iPad/Android app so you have it with you when you need it.

 

[japartridge]

I just sent an email to the PoC for Monroe County... any other Monroe residents interested in doing this? As others have said, any training is good training!




PM me if interested and I'll try and co-ordinate something.