Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

CERT ?

RT

Thursday we attended a CERT informational meeting at the City Hall here in Newport. LVH had 3 folks come. Larry Henson, Park Manager, Ed Simon, and myself.

CERT = Community Emergency Response Team

Newport has received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security and The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help create, equip and teach volunteer community groups to assist their neighbors during a disastorous event... Such as may have happened with last month's Tsunami Alert had it become a reality. Or in the case of a wild fire... Two of Newport's biggest concerns.

Realizing that our professional law enforcement and firemen will most likely be overwhelmed if such an event were to ocurr the two agencies have created training modules to show citizens how they can be involved and organized to provide help within their communities such as LVH. Thereby bridging the gap from the time of the disaster until professional help can arrive.

The training will take from 5 to 7 modules to complete. Each module being about 3 hours long. Another informational meeting is scheduled for mid September with training to start about 2 weeks after that. At the conclusion of the modules attendees will be certifed by FEMA.

The police officer in charge of Newport CERT is Sgt. Dean Sawyer and he can be reached via email at:
d.sawyer@newportpolice.net

or phone 574-0633.

The informational meeting shows how to do things that we as seniors can do. No one is asked to do more than they want to. What things you say? Do you really know how to use a fire extinguisher with a partner to keep from getting burnt? Do you know how to safely pry a load off a victim trapped by it? Do you know veeeerrrry basic first aid? Do you know real ez carries to help remove victims from danger? Know how to communicate necessary facts to the professionals? know how to direct traffic?

Well you will ...Keeping in mind that you will not do anything that jepodizes your own health or well being.

Think about it. This subject will come up again here on the site. Meanwhile we hope after you have considered what a help this can be to our community ... You will roll up your sleeves and take a seat next to mine at the next CERT meeting...