There is always a concern about how those who train will perform during an actual event.  We do, after all, hope never to be put to the test. How does that hope measure up to the reality of a call-out? quite well if the recent Simi Valley Fire is any indication.

The Simi Valley CERT program had recently undergone significant fundamental changes.  (See article "The Life of the Program, this issue).  There was some concern about how well things would work in the wake of those changes but they were put to rest almost immediately.

At 8:00 p.m., Saturday, October 25, 2003, an activation order for CERT was made due to a fast-approaching wildland fire north of the city.  Key staffers were summoned to the Simi Valley police department (where the city's Emergency Services office and Emergency Operations Center are located).  As the coordinator for the CERT program I identified four key persons early in the program's formation whom I could depend upon to assist with administrative duties.  It turns out to have been a good policy decision.

The staffers responded within a half-hour and began to make notification phone calls to the DSW (Disaster Service Worker) platoon and the other CERT members, (classified here as Disaster Trained Citizens DTCs).  By 10:00 p.m. fifty + CERT volunteers were at the EOC for assignment as the fire rapidly approached the north border of the city.

The teams operated approximately 4 hours ahead of the fire and were dispatched sub-division by sub-division as the progress of the fire was predicted.  The message on the flyers advised that evacuation preparation was necessary so that IF an evacuation was called citizens would be ready to remove themselves in an orderly manner to the Red Cross evacuation center indicated on the flyer.  The Unified Incident Command policy was 'shelter-in-place', with no planned evacuations. Some voluntary evacuations did occur.  (Most evacuees went to the homes of friends or relatives rather than to the center).

Most of the CERT members adamantly refused to go home while the city was still threatened so the teams continued to operate throughout the night.  Many stayed for 24 + hours without a rest. Teams were bivouacked inside the police station because there was so much smoke and ash in the air they could not sleep outside, despite the unseasonably warm weather. They slept on cots provided by the Emergency Services office and were fed from the same stores and sources used to feed those on the police and fire lines.

There were some unintended consequences that resulted from this CERT mission. First, there was no public panic, second, face-to-face contact with a government representative, even though it was with a volunteer, was VERY well received by the public, third, the number of calls to Police/Fire dispatch, seeking information, was greatly reduced because the flyer answered most of the questions and CERT answered the remainder.

Police, Fire, government officials and the public were all effusive in their praise for these CERT teams performing this mission, under great pressure. As the event wore on CERT was mobilized into A watch, 0600 - 1800 and B watch, 1800-0600. Many had to be ORDERED to go home and rest.

Two other missions were detailed to CERT teams during this event, delivering drinks to the front lines of police and fire, and, at the behest of the Ventura County Operational Area EOC, using digital cameras supplied by the police department to conduct damage assessment of identified areas in the city.  Both missions went well.

As a matter of policy and event administration, even though they were previously trained, all CERT members were sworn in as Disaster Service Workers, pursuant to California Government Code section 3101, for this event only. The section allows for medical coverage, etc., in the event of injury.

The event also was helpful in identifying personalities that were detrimental to successful disaster service work.  Several 'know-it-all-superhero-search-and-rescue wannabe" types were identified and administratively dealt with.

The biggest lesson learned was that this stuff is not a hobby.  It is disaster service work.  It is exhausting, dangerous and VERY necessary when the chips are down.  Emphasize to your government and your members that this is not a 'club' of some kind.  Emphasize the need to screen detrimental personalities out of the program in order to ensure that the well-adjusted members will function well under pressure and team cohesion will not be adversely affected.

Keep teams in ready reserve.  Deploy some and keep some in your hip pocket in case things turn bad.  You don't want to have to tell the Incident Commander that 'there aren't any more teams available'.  When you have teams in reserve, keep them busy.  Hold training classes with them; review the CERT manual, CPR, anything pertinent that can keep them occupied.

Keep good records.  Who came at what time, when they left, what their mission was, whether they had medical complaints, etc.

Keep your contact list up to date.  Our people only got one call.  If they had a message machine we left one, if they had call-blocking they were skipped over.  We needed to work fast so they got one shot before we went down the list looking for someone else.  Our deal was to produce bodies and we did that.  Some of our best did not participate in the event because we could not contact them.  Cell phones were a particular problem.  People change cell-phone numbers like they change light bulbs.  If your number wasn't current you lost out.

From an administrative point of view, not including the fact that the reputation of Simi Valley CERT is made for a long time to come, there were a couple really good points.  First, team cohesion.  The make-up of Simi Valley CERT / DSW, is, on an intellectual level, pretty high, a lot of highly educated, highly specialized, very bright, alpha personalities.  I intentionally assigned young kids with a future in the fire or police service, as team leaders.  The alphas fell right in line and followed the directions given them by the youngsters.  There were NO conflicts on any of the teams.  That is a truly extraordinary occurrence.  Second, many of the volunteers were allowed by their employers to miss work in order to continue their disaster service work. Wow!

All-in all, this was a real-life A+ for Simi Valley CERT.  The fall-out from this is going to continue for a long time, and rightly so.  The level of commitment and sacrifice almost needs a new adjective to do justice to how these people measured up when most needed.  Man, they were good!

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