The Borough’s Office of Emergency Management is again offering Community Emergency Response Training courses, this time in the Anchor Point area beginning February 1.
Program Manager Dan Nelson says the course is designed to prepare residents with basic skills to keep themselves, their families or their neighbors safe during disasters such as floods or fires.
Nelson: “We tend to offer them every year, as much as we can and soon after big events. So the key on that is if folks that maybe didn’t have an idea of what to do or want more information on if a fire or earthquake or power outage or whatever it is that affects them, we can help provide that real soon after. So same curriculum but we update it, modify it or kind of tweak it a little as we move forward.”
The week-long course sessions will cover skills like fire and utility control, disaster medical skills, team organization and disaster preparedness.
Nelson says CERT teams have been essential in local events like the Card Street and Funny River Fires the past couple years.
Nelson: “They did a lot of the evacuations, the door to door notifications, and road blocks, those types of things assisting Troopers, Forestry, and other agencies. So you’ll often see CERT members in their green vests out there helping us, they did the same thing in the Funny River Fire and a few other things before that.”
The course is open to anyone 13 or older, with parental consent for those under 18, and participants should be ready for hands-on experiences taught by emergency professionals.
Click here for more information about the courses or to register.
Course Schedule:
Monday February 1 6p – 9p: Welcome, Administration, Disaster Preparedness
Tuesday February 2 6p – 9p: Fire/Utility Control
Friday February 5 6p – 9p: Disaster Medical Part 1
Saturday February 6 9a-5p: Disaster Medical Part 2, Light Search & Rescue
Monday February 8 6p – 9p: Team Organization
Tuesday February 9 6p – 9p: Disaster Psychology
Friday February 12 6p – 9p: Terrorism and CERT, Review
Saturday February 13 8am – 1pm: Disaster Exercise
