Posted: 12/24/2013 3:09:59 AM EDT
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I'm running some ideas through my head for neighborhood preps and mutual support.
1. How useful is the CERT training in a real emergency? 2. If there is an emergency, is the community team under the authority of FEMA? |
| Isn't one of the points of cert to give folks some basic training to help in their neighborhood without support until help arrives? Sure the card may say FEMA but its likely the training standards and funding just came from them. In an emergency your local emergency manager is in charge. |
Well, this is not cell extraction response team training. I do that every quarter.  Anyway, part of this training would be to see who is above and below you with this training and involvement in problem solving. If you are going to be involved, or even thinking about being involved, with trying to help out the community or just your neighbors then getting various training to see what you think of various people required to get the training is something to consider. I don't know my current area all that well outside of my specific job. But in the past I knew who I would speak to if there was an emergency and who I would try to turn into a pong ball and send away if they headed my way. My current job does help me with who to deal with and who to consider a pong ball. But I should probably look into outside training. |
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Backfilling:
I've been thinking about a community organization that would provide mutual support and self-sufficiency in times of emergency (for example, I live in a hurricane-prone area), taking some of the pressure off traditional First Responders. My main concern is to keep control at the community level, excluding the Feds. After we got hit by Hugo we were essentially on our own for a couple weeks, some folks longer. Obviously, sheriff's departments, fire companies, etc., are manned for normal day-to-day operations. An emergency puts a spike of demand on them. Examples of functional areas I'm looking at include: - Medical (first aid, sanitation/hygiene, etc.) - Search and Rescue (extracting people from damaged houses) - Utilities (securing broken water & gas lines, etc.) - Communications - Security (patrols, entry control) After developing this concept a bit I want to bounce it off my county sheriff for his thoughts. |
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Quoted:
Backfilling: I've been thinking about a community organization that would provide mutual support and self-sufficiency in times of emergency (for example, I live in a hurricane-prone area), taking some of the pressure off traditional First Responders. My main concern is to keep control at the community level, excluding the Feds. After we got hit by Hugo we were essentially on our own for a couple weeks, some folks longer. Obviously, sheriff's departments, fire companies, etc., are manned for normal day-to-day operations. An emergency puts a spike of demand on them. Examples of functional areas I'm looking at include: - Medical (first aid, sanitation/hygiene, etc.) - Search and Rescue (extracting people from damaged houses) - Utilities (securing broken water & gas lines, etc.) - Communications - Security (patrols, entry control) After developing this concept a bit I want to bounce it off my county sheriff for his thoughts. Do some searching on ARES/RACES/SAR groups in your locale. Some of these areas may already have an auxiliary structure in place. That would give you a better grasp of what still needs to be covered without duplicating/diluting the talent pool. |
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I tried to get involved in CERT but gave up. It was either really old people with nothing better to do and unable to physically move around or dropouts who wanted to put strobes on their pickup truck and boss people around. Tried to work through it, but it was so ridiculous I couldn't do it. One old guy showed up in head to toe black 5.11 gear with drop leg holster and a 9mm to do traffic control.
Around here, they only get called out to do traffic control for parades so the PD doesn't have to. |
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It sounds like you're talking about doing what is described in this book,
A Failure of Civility I did CERT training. Some useful info but pretty basic. I doubt they'd be attached by FEMA in a real emergency. But, I could be wrong. 112 |
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1. CERT is great to get neighbors to think about emergencies and contingencies.
2. By the time FEMA is involved with your community, you probably would have moved out. You can start your own CERT team. My memory is rusty but if you have a business or a group of people and no emergency manager locally, you can start one. Talk with your fire personnel and LEO's, they may sponsor you. You can become a trainer by going through the CERT class and then taking the 3 day Train the Trainer class. Or, once you become a trainer start your own OP's ERT. Then FEMA has nothing to do with it. It's basic, fun and can be quite a community resource if those involved put some energy into it. |
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Organizations all over the country form their own groups for supporting their interests in a disaster. Most of them are businesses I imagine. For instance, oil companies in the gulf expect negative impacts from storms, including spills, and come up with emergency response structures and plans within their structures for those disasters. Hospitals are similar too. No reason why any neighborhood couldn't do something similar. The main thing is that you'd have to assume that at some point, your organization is going to interface with the disaster response. It would be beneficial for most if not all members of your organization were familiar with how that response was going to work.
CERT would certainly help in that regard, in that you'd get a basic intro to ICS/NIMS, and more importantly you'd likely get face time with your local emergency management folks. (You mention talking to the local Sheriff, but you might really want to talk to whoever is in charge of Emergency Management in your area. It may be the sheriff, but it may not.) Beyond that, FEMA independent study courses would probably be your best bet. Still, if you want to go to more advanced ICS courses that are not independent study, which would be beneficial to the leader of any group, then you might want some sort of official affiliation with something like CERT. There are many other groups out there that participate in disaster response, but with any of them you get what you put in. CERT's real mission, as I understand it, is to provide an affiliation and organizational structure to people who would volunteer to help others in the event of a disaster, but who otherwise aren't affiliated. For instance, if you volunteer with the red cross already, then it's most likely in a disaster, you'd serve with them. Same with Salvation Army, or ARES/RACES, or any other private disaster relief organizations in your area. If you're part of one of those, or if you plan to form your own, then CERT may not be for you. FEMA is really about "support" rather than "authority." Frankly both of those translate to "money." The fact is, if your organization, whatever it may be, doesn't want anything from FEMA, they probably won't give you anything. I'm not saying the government won't ever knock on the door claiming to be there to help, but "FEMA" doesn't really do the knocking. They buy things and let you use them, or they pay people to do stuff, but you have to jump through their hoops. ETA: I should add that typically you can take a CERT class without joining the CERT. |
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The true answer, as for most local volunteer groups unfortunately, is "it varies." How a group (CERT, ARES, RACES, etc.) is used in a local crisis situation is directly proportional to how the local emergency manager(s) view the group(s) based on the current level (or absence) of partnership. Secondarily, it depends on the relationships between the local agencies. When I lived in CT, ARES was so dysfunctional and disrespected by local authorities, they were effectively useless. Independent emcomm groups were formed and were embraced by authorities to varying degrees, from lukewarm to full partners. CERT existed, but to my knowledge it got no love from emergency managers. Where the partnerships were strong, they were VERY strong. Where I am in Texas now, the county has formed its own volunteer umbrella program which currently includes a fairly new CERT team and an even newer ARES team. The CERT team, being a bit older, is very well regarded (and exceptionally well lead) and ARES is rapidly getting established. There is tight integration between the county and the volunteer program, but acceptance among fire and LE agencies is highly variable, so there's still some tension and disconnect. Unfortunately, all this revolves around personalities, cliques and territorialism. That's the only common thread I have seen around the country. What works for your area will almost certainly not work in most others. There will probably never be any uniformity unless a totalitarian government forces it. Oh yeah, we do have a lot of older volunteers, but that's a function of human nature. It's not endemic to any particular group. Younger adults don't tend to give of their time to the community or invest hours in volunteer functions. Most probably don't even know about these groups. Through recruiting, we are making progress with younger volunteers. |
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I am CERT coordinator for our city. I am a Fire Dept. Officer, FEMA shelter Coordinator/EMA guy.
I am the thorn in the mayors side about disaster preps and continuity of operations in case of x,y,z..... CERT for me is a trained force multiplier for the Fire Dept. If you have folks trained in the basics of first aid, triage, knowing if a house is safe to enter to search, turn off gas, mark house, communicate, that knows how NIMS/ICS structure works it is great. I can send a experienced fireman and a few CERT guys/gals and get a street/block sitrep pretty quick, instead of 4-6 Fire fighters doing it, when we are already short handed. As far as FEMA coming in and making CERT do x,y,z its not gonna happen. I am in the command and operations plan for our small town. The training is free and you can meet others that are like minded. |
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Quoted: I tried to get involved in CERT but gave up. It was either really old people with nothing better to do and unable to physically move around or dropouts who wanted to put strobes on their pickup truck and boss people around. Tried to work through it, but it was so ridiculous I couldn't do it. One old guy showed up in head to toe black 5.11 gear with drop leg holster and a 9mm to do traffic control. Around here, they only get called out to do traffic control for parades so the PD doesn't have to. And this is why I dislike CERT and ARES in our area. Our SAR/Emcomm group is much more respected by LAW/EMS/MIL and get called out way more often than CERT and ARES. I would love an active CERT group in my area, but the 350lbs arm chair wannabe cops that can't do anything physically intense is of ZERO use in an emergency. To the OP: In terms of CERT being under FEMA, while CERT is a "FEMA program", per the ICS/NIMS structure, the incident is "owned" by the local authority (ie: city, county, etc) -- the feds really don't want to be in charge of an incident. The CERT teams are just another resource in the ICS structure. Our Government is a mess, but trying to get everyone onto ICS is really a worthwhile goal and it saves lives.
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