Ask the Chief
Consider the possibility of another windstorm similar to the one 2002 windstorm that toppled trees, left neighborhoods isolated and caused major power outages. If that happened again, would you be ready?
For most people, the answer is probably not. If the calamity were massive, it could easily overwhelm our first responders.
What's new is that the city of Roseburg, working with Diversified Safety Management, as a result of an Office of Homeland Security-Domestic Security grant, has been training and recruiting for emergency response team candidates and Citizen Corp. members.
Veneta, Creswell, Florence and Eugene already have at least one emergency response team. Portland has 87 teams - called NETS, for Neighborhood Emergency Teams - and they already have been activated during a number of calamities.
The original CERT program was developed by the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985 when officials realized there weren't enough professionals to respond to earthquakes and fires. After the Northridge earthquake, fire departments across the country started such programs.
In 2003, when President Bush had asked all Americans to do volunteer service for their country, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency selected the Citizen Corps to spearhead this program. Currently, there are hundreds of teams across the country; Florida alone has 50,000 volunteers.
Studies have shown that many lives can be saved within the first few minutes of a calamity. These lives are saved at the scene, rarely at the hospital. Studies have also shown that many well-meaning bystanders often rush in, only to become victims themselves and make a bad situation worse.
CERT teams are trained in disaster preparedness (including home, school and neighborhood safety precautions), fire safety techniques (how to extinguish or contain small fires before they get out of control), light search and rescue (how to do it right and safely), disaster medical operations (how to perform triage on those who can be saved and treat as many victims as possible at the scene), team organization (how to tackle a crisis as an organized team) and homeland defense (how to recognize and respond in a terrorism event).
CERTs eventually will be organized into neighborhood teams. Not only might they respond to major catastrophes much faster than professional responders, but they might also be the only help you get for that critical period of time.