CERT Meeting Informs

Newport CERT Meeting Informs citizens and asks for help..

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Last night the informational phase of the Cert (Civilian Emergency Response Team) was carried out at City Hall. There were about 30 interested people from through out Newport and adjoining communities present. Of those present about 9 were from Longview Hills.

The meeting was not a specific presentation but informational about what CERT is and what it will look like after volunteers are trained. What it will become is largely going to be dependent on what the volunteers make it.

It was pointed out that during a catastrophic emergency such as Hurricane Katrina the professional emergency agencies such as the Fire Department, Police and Coast Guard will be swamped due to the small number of such professionals in our community. Of course we are not subject to hurricanes but we have our own unique set of possible disasters. They could include seismic activity, tsunami or wildfire and there is now the chance of terrorist born activity in all of our country.

Because, in a disaster the local professionals will be much in demand. They will be forced to prioritize their services to do the most good for the most people. Our little community may find itself on its own for a period of time. What happens here under those conditions is going to fall to our neighbors that volunteer for CERT training and those that are already involved as Neighborhood Watch Block Captains and their assistants. One of our neighbors feels that since we already have a Neighborhood Watch infrastructure in place we could integrate our CERT volunteers into it and therefore be a step forward in community disaster planning. With such integration we would need some meetings to delineate who does what to get the most benefit. After watching Katrina unfold we now more than ever need to recognize that we at LVH need to get ready to insure our survival and safety..

After training, those volunteers will have an infrastructure and a plan that will help us through the most immediate part of such a disaster. They can develop the plan as little or as much as they deem necessary. For instance we heard ideas that those with frozen food could bring it to the clubhouse for cooking for everyone before it spoils. Electricity and communications could be provided with those that would share their motor home generators (of which there is already one volunteer). Cert volunteers could call upon Neighborhood Watch Block Captains to collect information before hand of those residents that need special medications such as insulin and oxygen. Cert volunteers will have radios capable of staying in contact with the professional agencies.

CERT volunteers will not be asked to perform any duty they do not want to do. They may help in traffic control within Newport or in other temporary conditions that threaten to overwhelm local agencies. They will only be trained to do basic helpful functions and instructed to provide the most help they can for the most people that need it.

Because we feel this is really important to our community we really would like to see what you think in the comments below. Everybody remain cordial and respectful of one another during this discussion. We would like to know what you think and personally we think there are no dumb questions.