Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

RESCUE RANDY GIVES WORK-OUT TO SENIORS

The CERT team ..

Met today to try and develop ways to move injured people that are Senior friendly. Recognizing that age brings physical limitations, the CERT team spent the morning revising what they had been taught in class to be user friendly in the field. Their goal was to find ways to move injured people without becoming injured themselves.

We found that the severely injured can be moved safely by a team of 5 to 7 people depending on the patients weight. The Fire Department's rescue dummy weighs in at 175 lbs of dead weight. More importantly the team got practical experience working together and now 5 of us know what works and what doesn't. In an emergency we won't waste time trying to find that out. We can adjust the size of our rescue teams to include 2 CERT members and 5 volunteers from the community. That will give us 3 to 4 teams with our present manning.

The most effective way of lifting was a blanket stretcher. 4 people lifting and one holding the head immobile was very easy. With heavier people we will use 6 lifting team members. Combining the blanket with an underlayment of a plastic tarp made dragging the patient across the floor really easy. We tried a piano dolly with plywood underneath the tarp then only one person was needed to move the patient.

This lead us to beleive that if we build a 6X3 piece of plywood with handholds and mount it on wheels we will have an excellent extraction tool. We further found it is easier to use an open bed ambulance rather than a van. We used the electric Rascal scooter and found it very easy to move patients on and off it and into and out of buildings.

One person came by and was making exscuses about why she couldn't help and we quickly pressed her into service holding Randy's head while we loaded him into the back of the truck.
You can be of help at some level.. everyone of you.

One of the most important issues is working together so that we have geled into a team. Some have left our team because of various issues that were important to them. We are sorry to have lost them but look forward to you folks that will be taking the CERT classes in September. Helping after the disaster is as valuable as silver but learning team work now in preparation for what is coming is gold. That is what is going to help our community more than anything else. We meet once a week at eleven AM on Wednesday. You need not be certified to come and train with us. We can show you what has to be done and we want to hear what you think.