An upcoming series of classes can ensure volunteers will be put to work in an organized way for emergencies such as the Card Street Fire.
Program Manager Dan Nelson with the Office of Emergency Management said Community Emergency Response Training team members are essential in the Kenai Peninsula’s times of need.
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 free upcoming 30-hour CERT training courses begin July 13 and cover skills such as fire and utility control, disaster medical skills, light search and rescue, and disaster preparation.
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 classes are open to anyone 13 and older and can hold up to 25 participants.
Register by clicking here.
Course Schedule:
Monday July 13 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Welcome, Administration, Disaster Preparedness
Tuesday July 14 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Fire/Utility Control
Friday July 17 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Disaster Medical Part 1
Saturday July 18 9:00 am – 5:00 pm: Disaster Medical Part 2, Light Search & Rescue
Monday July 20 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Team Organization
Tuesday July 21 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Disaster Psychology
Friday July 24 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Terrorism Awareness/Exercises
Saturday July 25 9:00 am – 1:00 pm: Disaster Simulation
