Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

Talking to you about CERT

Wayne Hill is a man of vision on the Longview Hills CERT team. For a long time Wayne has been after me to talk to you, our neighbors, about what you can do to help yourselves and the CERT team.

Newport CERT now has 80 members trained. That means there are 80 helpers for the first responders ranging from Glenn Eden Beach to Lost Creek in the South. Of those, 2 groups stand out. The Lost Creek group which trains and has drills and in many ways resembles our community in size. However, they have families of all ages and dwellings of different sizes located in heavily wooded and brushy areas.

The only team that trains week after week is the LVH CERT team. It is uniquely different and very well may be the only one of its kind in Oregon. We have very different parameters to work with than most others . The community is all elderly. Like it or not we are a bit more fragile than young people. We have medical needs throughout the community that may be rare in others. There are 265 of us with about 65 living a single life. CERT's mandate for handling disaster situations tells us we are to do the most good for the most people until help from primary first responders comes. Trouble is that the first responders have advised us that in case of a major disaster they likely will be overwhelmed for days... That translates into what we can do for ourselves will likely determine how our community survives.

What is predicted from say an earthquake of a high magnitude is that every creek, every gully, every depression north and south of LVH will crumple on 101. This will eliminate the use of automobiles as the roads will look very much like that section of road north of here alongside 101. Totally impassable for vehicles of any kind. Then there is the slides that go along with that.

The CERT team took the disaster training from the police, fire, Coast Guard and Red Cross. Our CERT team (LVH) has gone the extra mile in certifying our members in First Aid, CPR, and AED. Still we know we need more training and that is why we meet every week to practice and evolve disaster plans that are unique to LVH.

We have been two years in evolving a plan for our community that will work... We are becoming more and more proficient but we need your help now to complete this for our well being. The plan involves 3 components to be in place.

First, is a trained CERT team that is never going to be done.. They will only get better and more proficient.

Second, is a Neighborhood Watch Block Captain on every street and that is about 40% done. The Block Captains will call into CERT operations on their FRS radios with the number and locations in their areas of injured and trapped people.

Lastly, the LVH CERT team has about 14 people now.. We will not be able to continue over an extended time with so few (people get tired and need rest). There are 265 of you plus visitors and people from homes adjacent to the park and those trapped on 101. We are counting on people coming to the clubhouse to help and to take some of the load... We are pretty sure you will be there for us. Now here is the problem...

We think you can see that if you had some basic training in what we need it will make things go a lot smoother and the greatest good will be served... Wayne says, "Ron, why don't you tell the community that they don't have to go through the CERT school ...Just come up to the clubhouse and learn the jobs that we will need help with?". "They could come to our drills and just learn what we are going to need help with.". "They don't have to go to school or anything."

Let's give you an example. During a drill we use 2 CERT people to put pins in a map indicating where teams and injured are. That's 2 CERT people doing a job that anybody can do with 15 minutes training. Those 2 CERT people could be out in the field helping people but we have to use them to put pins in the map. You could do that for us. We have to use 2 to4 CERT members to act as ambulance crews to transport injured to the clubhouse. If you could do that you would free up enoughCERTs for two rescue teams. And so it goes... Wayne says you don't have to take the course to help and you don't have to show up at every meeting to learn some simple tasks.

Come to our Wednesday meetings at 11:00am to noon every week except the last Wednesday of the month. Give us a hand.