Winter 2005                                             Volume 7    Issue 1

The 2004 hurricane season made September, designated nationally as “Preparedness Month”, a real test for the Florida Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program.  CERT started in Florida in 1993, with major expansion from 2002-2004 and 129 CERT Programs active during the summer of 2004.

These programs were well tested by Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.  Four strong hurricanes hit Florida in a period of six weeks, causing over $20 Billion in damages.  They left 37,000 homes destroyed or uninhabitable with many more damaged, over 5 million residents without power for up to two weeks, over 370 official shelters opened and over 20 Million tons of debris.  The result caused the largest deployment of mass care assets ever, with approximately 2/3rds of all national civilian mass care agency assets (American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, South Baptist Kitchens, Adventist Kitchens and Church of Latter Day Saints assets) being deployed to Florida at some point.  Over 8M meals and snacks were served, 25 million pounds of ice and over 5 million gallons of water distributed in relief efforts.

Reporting is not complete, as much of Florida is still actively trying to recovery and get back to some normality.   However, it is clear CERT played a significant role in support of their neighborhoods, communities, local emergency services and in some cases assisted other communities away from their normal assignment areas. Many CERT teams were active in as many as three major hurricanes with CERT proving it’s worth to their communities and local emergency services.

CERT Teams and personnel were utilized in a wide variety of roles. Initial residential and neighborhood checks were done by over half the 129 programs. CERT personnel were used to assist local EOCs (Emergency Operation Centers) often manning Citizen Information Line phone banks and in communications roles.  Evacuations, traffic control, initial damage assessment and sandbagging were performed by CERT personnel with advanced training. Helping at water/ice/food distribution areas was a big function for many CERT Teams, often for days at a time. CERT Teams were used to help man shelters of last resort and to assist at regular shelters.  During recovery, CERT Teams helped clear street debris to make some roads passable, performed basic search activities and assisted with Special Needs Patients. A number of CERT personnel assisted FEMA with Community Relations (CR) functions after the storms.

Edgewater and Hacienda CERT Teams, Spruce Creek Fly-In CERT, Hunters Creek CERT, City of Debary CERT and Whisperwood CERT all of Volusia County, performed initial damage assessment, helped clean-up, checked special needs patients and performed other functions. Typical also was the North Naples Fire/Rescue CERT Program (Lee County) which activated 113 members to distribute food on Pine Island, assist with community initial damage assessment and helped set up cooling stations in the post storm heat. They also assisted several churches to cover their roofs and unload supply trailers.

Palm Bay CERT (Brevard County) members, who were licensed amateur radio operators, assisted the hard hit Charlotte County EOC with communications and will appear in a FEMA video about the hurricanes.  Other CERT radio operators helped at EOCs in Boynton Beach, Ormond Beach, Marion County and other areas.  Some Day Ranch CERT (Volusia County) set

up a radio net to communicate and gain information during and post storm that could then be communicated to local officials.    The South Trails Fire/Rescue CERT (Lee County) used golf carts to help evacuated older residents and identify residents with medical problems needing evacuation assistance plus review post storm damage.  The North Forth Myers Fire/Rescue CERT (Lee County) helped distributed food/water/ice to over 3,000 people and the Tice Fire/Rescue CERT (Lee County) cleared non-public roads freeing up local emergency crews to concentrate on important public roads.

A major effort to support the incoming out-of-state mass care assistance units occurred in Tallahassee.  The Capital Area-Central Panhandle CERT Team and Citizen Corps Program (Leon County) assisted the Capital Area American Red Cross with staging area functions for over 100 vehicles.  An almost endless amount of bottled water, food, snacks and other support items had to be placed on these in-bound vehicles.  Meanwhile in Sarasota County, the North Port High School CERT Team performed admirable at Windmill Village Mobile Home Park just over the county line in Charlotte County, where they performed search functions, debris removal and dry-in functions for this decimated mobile home park.

A significant function performed by many CERT Teams was helping to man Citizen Information Line phone banks.  In Marion County 38 CERT members perform in that role.  Additionally, another 300 members assisted their local neighborhoods securing lawn furniture and mitigating other potential debris problems prior to their three bouts with hurricanes. In all, over 650 members of the Marion County CERT Program were active in hurricane preparations, response and recovery.

Deerfield Beach CERT personnel walked the streets personally handling out ice to residents and checking residents. CERT trained person, from Clearwater (Pinellas County) and other areas, served with many church and community groups that went to assist in damaged areas, not in an official CERT role but in their church or community group roles.  Individual CERT Team members performed admirable in their own neighborhoods.  One older CERT member personally took care of his hard hit manufactured home park in Palm Bay.  He spent numerous hours insuring people knew of evacuation orders, then rode out the storm himself as some people refused to leave, including a 90 year old woman.  He worked with the park management to repeatedly check on those residents who remained behind, getting food and water for them when he could.  He personally stayed in touch with the local EOC regarding damage, looting and needs of the park, which enable the city to provide services rapidly in an efficient manner to the residents.

CERT Teams in South Daytona Beach (Volusia County), Treasure Island (Pinellas County), Estero  (Lee County) and Clay County all performed  various functions in support of their local emergency responders. A unique function of the Hallandale Beach (Brevard County) CERT Team was to assist residents in putting on their storm shutters.  All the Seminole County school bus transportation personnel providing transportation to and from shelters were CERT Trained personnel, as well as, many of those working in their Special Needs Shelters.

Port Orange CERT Personnel (Volusia County) assisted finding residents when numerous highly concerned relatives from out-of-state called the fire department to try to find out if their relatives were ok, assisted with phone bank operations plus manned a debris removal and information booth at City Hall.  In some cases such as in Spring Hill, one CERT member enlisted several neighbors to form mini-work crews to evaluate damage plus cleared debris and trees in their neighborhood, illustrating the use of CERT principles to lead a neighborhood effort. Deltona CERT (Volusia County) team members helped the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) and the fire department with filling oxygen bottles and other functions.

While much of the Florida peninsula was hit by three major or significant hurricanes, the Florida Western Panhandle was pulverized by hurricane Ivan.  The Jackson County CERT Team activated 74 of its members including 60 members of the Jackson County School Board CERT Team, which is part of Jackson County CERT.  This proved to be a good move as three Shelters of Last Resort had to be opened to house over 350 evacuees.  Additionally, several tornados touched down during the hurricane including one near the county seat and damage assessment had to be accomplished.  They also assisted the EOC with phone calls, and assisted sheltered evacuees find housing or counseling following the tornados. 

Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties in the Western Florida Panhandle were heavily hit with much of Pensacola, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach and other areas experiencing catastrophic damage.  Forty Okaloosa County CERT Team personnel assisted with the massive effort of food/water/ice distribution and post storm Community Relations. Lealman Fire/Rescue CERT, from St. Petersburg, which uniquely serves a lower income area of St. Petersburg, came to the Panhandle and assisted with several functions for almost a week.

These four hurricanes saw for the first time in Florida, the use of some CERT Teams out of their normal jurisdictions. Often this was in other areas of their counties or just over nearby county lines. However, we also saw mutual aid as with the Lealman Team  and the Palm Bay CERT communication group mentioned previously..  The Greater Tampa CERT Team was a big help to a county South of Tampa.   Fifty-Four members of the Statewide Jaycees CERT Team, arrived in Punta Gorda (Charlotte County) along with the Florida National Guard immediately after hurricane Charley passed through.  For 10 days they manned a Victim Relief Center at the old Ranger Stadium in Port Charlotte.  They even made food/water runs to nearby catastrophically damaged neighborhoods while assisting with clean-up and dry-in functions.  Other personnel from their program also assisted in Desoto and Hardee County.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the millions of Floridians who were impacted by these four hurricanes.  But most especially when we lose one of our own, all Floridian CERT personnel express our sincere appreciation. While not on official CERT duty at the time, Dwight Durham of the Hernando CERT Team, fell to his death while working with the Christian Contractors Association putting temporary tarps and temporary roofs on damaged  homes in Polk County

Indeed the “Proof was in the Pudding”, near total destruction in many areas, that CERT made a difference in the catastrophic four hurricanes which hit Florida in 2004.  Not all the team reports are in yet, as significant damage was done in many areas.  Valuable lessons were learned and local neighborhoods were better prepared.  CERT members performed admirably in their own neighborhoods, communities and with local emergency responders in many varied preparation, response and recovery functions with several thousand CERT Team members participating. CERT made a positive difference and truly lived up to its goals!

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