My Community Your Community
By Mary Ann Eicke

My goal in writing this column is to inform you of activities in our community and invite you to get involved. During the Hurricane Preparedness program Erin Mohres of The Office Of Emergency Management mentioned that a course is being offered called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). CERT Training is for local communities to be prepared to assist families and neighbors during major disasters. Would you be interested in being part of a CERT team for our community? We will need 10 - 30 volunteers to participate to create a team for our community. The training consists of 3 Saturdays The CERT program includes instruction that will provide the teams with the skills and knowledge necessary to effect a rapid and effective rescue operation.
The components of the CERT course include:

Disaster Preparedness: Instructs team members how to prepare themselves and their neighborhoods for the various hazards that may occur.

Team Organization and Disaster Psychology: Addresses organization and management principles necessary for a CERT to operate successfully. Covers critical incident stress for victims as well as workers.

Medical Operations: Team members will learn how to conduct triage, establish medical treatment areas, and provide basic first aid for victims.


Damage Assessment: Team members will learn how to rapidly assess damage employing a standardized format used throughout the county.

Fire Suppression: Team members will learn how to use extinguishers and other equipment to suppress small fires.

Light Search and Rescue: Team members will learn light search and rescue planning, techniques, and rescuer safety.

Terrorism Awareness: Team members will learn the definition of terrorism and terrorist goals, the weapons that are used, and the indicators of a terrorist attack.

If you would be interested please contact me at Confianza Window Tinting at 305-470-9393, reference the CERT Program and I will return your call. If you would like more information you can visit the OEM web-site at www.miamidade.gov/oem then scroll down to CERT. You will find all the details. I encourage you to get involved, remember it's not just my community, but YOUR community.



 

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