Winter’s cold, wind and snow are becoming a memory. Spring brings renewal - the greening of grass and the color of flowers.  Spring also is a harbinger of hazards – flood, tornadoes, and thunderstorms.  Hurricane season approaches.  It is time to review the preventive and preparedness actions for these hazards.  Review the material that you learned during CERT training.  Look for additional information from others sources like the Internet.  Discuss the right things to do with your loved ones and co-workers.  Participate in a CERT exercise.  Enjoy spring but be ready.  

CERT continues to grow.  From 170 programs in 28 States and Territories in January of 2002, we have grown to nearly 1200 programs in 53 States and territories.  Local emergency responders and volunteers have delivered over 840,000 hours of training to educate community members about local hazards and to prepare them to work together in their neighborhood and workplace to help others. 

I received daily news alerts on CERT and it is rewarding to read about the groups of 15, 20, and 25 who complete the training.  There is the story form the Ipswich Chronicle in Walpole, Massachusetts:  “Twelve Boy Scouts and five adults have completed a nine-week course that qualifies them as members of a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the first of its kind on the North Shore”.   These community members have donated their time to help others following a disaster and are better prepared for life’s everyday emergencies.  There time was well spent.

If you are reading this article and the “Connection”, you also are concerned about preparedness.  Continue to seek education and training opportunities through CERT and other Citizen Corps programs.  You will learn skills that in many ways, you hope that you never have to use.  But you never know.  “Be prepared” like those scouts in Walpole, Massachusetts. 

If you want to learn about CERT training, look at the Introduction to Community Emergency Response Team Independent Study 317 located at http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/IS/is317.asp   If you have completed CERT training, test your CERT knowledge and take the exam.  

Return to   THE CONNECTION

  Click on the mail box to e-mail The Connection Editor