Editor of The Connection

	The Connection The Editor The Connection newsletter is comprised of articles from around the Country and written by the people who are involved in community preparedness on a daily basis. This first edition is a sampling of the programs that are currently taking place. There are community programs in other location across the Country, and around the world. We hope to adding more in the near future. While
the training programs take many names, we will refer to them all as CERTs (Community Emergency Response Teams), the name accepted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Some states have many programs currently taking place. There are hundreds of programs throughout California and almost as many in Florida. This is not surprising after examining the history of disasters in those states. But there are many other areas of the Country where, after apprising there disaster potential, have aggressively developed community disaster response programs. In Utah, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, Kansas and all across the Southern States communities are embracing these types of programs.
	The basis of all these programs is the concept of training community people in basic disaster skills, something that most of us have forgotten since the pioneer days. Then building on these skills to develop a disaster response system within the community. The skills taught in programs across the country don't differ much. They are basic skills that are commonly used following most types of disasters. The response system does differ because of the type of disaster the community faces, the commitment of the local government to support the program, and the vision and creativity of the person overseeing the CERT program.
The intent of The Connection is to give a voice to community preparedness. We anticipate a semi-annual editions of this newsletter and all old editions will be archived at the site. We are currently working on a printable version that can be downloaded, printed and disseminated to all who wish to read it but don't have access to the internet. The Connection depends on input from those creative people out there who are involved in community preparedness. We encourage you, if you are involved in this type of program, to write an article for the next edition and send some pictures along. Thank you for your support.

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