Sent via email from

Sent via email from John Spangler

LVH CERT NEWS

LVH Community Emergency Response Team. What do they do and how do they relate to my well being as a LVH resident ?? In an attempt to answer those legitimate questions, let’s imagine that the Newport Area has a 7 plus magnitude Earthquake or we are struck by a Tsunami. We don’t even want to contemplate a Bird Flu Pandemic.
Now visualize the graphic images we have all seen which resulted from the Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and the Tsunami’s that have occurred around the world. You do not need me to interpret what the repercussions could potentially be for us in LVH. We could get lucky and it’s entirely possible the damages we sustain might not be on the scale seen in the Gulf Coast. I think it is fair to say that we will be impacted in some way. Fear of the unknown can be mitigated somewhat by each of us taking some relatively easy preparation steps. You will see more on this in future articles.
What the professional First Responders, that have been conducting our CERT Training, tell us is that for at least 7 days (it could be 2 weeks) they will be overwhelmed by the demands placed on their service capabilities. If we accept their professional assessment, that mean our village of LVH will have to be prepared to stand on it’s own for at least 7 days. That’s where we (CERT) come into the picture. It’s scary to think that, at the moment only 10 of your neighbors in LVH are CERT Trained. We have been trained in a broad spectrum of Emergency/Disaster Skills plus limited Medical First Aid. As you can see our numbers are small. In order, to make this work we will need to work closely with the Neighborhood Watch Program and seek out many of you who have special and unique skills that will be invaluable to our villages well being, until the Professional Responders can get their legs under them and be available to help us.
As your neighbors and CERT members we will do all we can to use our skills wisely. We will desperately need each of you to assist us when/if disaster should strike. Please watch this column for more specific CERT information as we go down the road.