Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

Today the CERT team held a proficiency drill at Longview Hills. The drill had many goals all of which were met or exceeded. One of those goals was to have an involvement of Neighborhood Watch Block Captains. We only had two but they were shown how to report an assessment of the people they watch over to CERT operations. It was all done on the Park emergency frequency FRS CH 5. Were this a real event Block Captains would have saved dozens of lives by making such reports. This allowed the CERT team to concentrate on rescue operations. We hope those of you that heard Block Captains, Ruthanne Carson and Jacky Thomas make the reports to Liz Hill, CERT OPs Communications heard what is needed and take it to heart. Had CERT had to do what these two ladies did just for their people they would have been delayed at least 20 minutes before they could rescue the people that were hurt. It is likely one of the victims would have died. Neighborhood Watch Block Captains.. we salute you and look forward to more participation in our next drill.

Regardless of what may seem like play acting to some it was not. You can call this a drama in which the people involved become totally invested mentally and physically. It becomes very real indeed. We were pleased to see that CERT training showed every step of the way. Your team is becoming very good. Today, allowed us to see things we can improve on and things we never thought of before as only a drill can show.

We had Police Officers and the Assistant Fire Chief present and they left us suggestions that we will be using to hone our skills. In addition we had medical advice from Ben Davi who is a RN and a former trauma room nurse. We also received observations from Jim Rose, LVH's own volunteer fireman.

Following is a partial list of folks that helped today:
Marlene Crites CERT Triage, I/C
Bill Furgason CERT I/C
Ed Simon CERT Safety Officer & Chairman Newport CERT's
Kay Simon CERT Triage
Wayne Hill CERT Rescue team
Coach McCready CERT 1st on scene Rescue team
Greg Pfalmer CERT Rescue team
Ron Thomas CERT instigator
John Wilson, Standby Area HAM Radio Station Operator and Lincoln County Emergency Communications RAT

Liz Hill CERT Communications
Kristy Graff CERT Communications
Jacky Thomas CERT Communications & Reporting Block Captain
Ben Davi Medical RN
RuthAnne Carson Reporting Block Captain
Jacky Memoli Neighborhood Watch Gate observer

Charlie Curry Victim broken arm
Barb Dudley Victim voice for our rescue dummy (175lbs of dead weight) 2 broken legs
Wayde Dudley good Samaritan
Bob Brakefield good Samaritan
Marylin Brakefield good Samaritan
David Guhier... ATV ambulance driver

Police Sgt. Tom Simpson
Police Sgt. Dave Teem
Ass't Fire Chief Toby Cole
Volunteer Fireman Jim Rose


We probably forgot someone here so let me know in the comments.