CERT Meeting Notes for January 14th, 2003

Note: Thank you to the 24 people who attended this month’s meeting.

Meeting

The CERT training class for January had to be cancelled because we were unable to get a minimum of 10 people required by the county.

Our float won Second Place for the Peoples Choice at the Toy Parade (thanks again Mike). Mike Keemar purchased two vinyl banners for CERT. They can be used for community events and our mock drills.

A group of volunteers are meeting Friday (1/17/03) morning to assemble the three cases that Geri Hudak purchased for us and stock them with the medical supplies we received from Fire & Rescue Services. One will be at the Front gate, one at the back gate and one in the POA Hangar for now.

Richard brought up the topic of our roll in the community. The pros and cons of CERT participating in community activities as an extension of Security was discussed:

- Some felt it was good that we had a presence at these activities so the community would get used to seeing us and if something did happen and we had to put our training to work, we would be recognized.

- Others felt that our roll could discourage others from joining because we do get involved in so many community activities and while they may like to help their neighbors in the event of a disaster, they don’t want to feel obligated to sign up for all the community activities.

- The Team agreed that we should continue to "volunteer" but with well-defined jobs as was done at Wings and Wheels last year. That is, Security deals with the public and resolves any conflicts and CERT can do safety patrol, direct guests after they had gone through Security, etc. Richard Becker said if we are recruited to assist with Toy Parade again, he wants want to meet with the Chairperson to discuss before hand.

- It was also suggested that for such things like Young Eagles / EAA/ W&W / Toy Parade, that the members of those organizations who are also CERT members be the ones who volunteer first to help with crowd control and safety. Those groups (EAA, Toy Parade, W&W) who need this type of assistance should consider buying extra vests so volunteers who are not CERT members could also be identified with a bright colored vest.

911 Radio Response – It was raised that several CERT members had tried to do radio checks with Security and got no response. Ed Hickox said that the back gate radio was tuned to the wrong channel; however, the front gate should have responded. He will follow up.

Jose Fernandez set a date and time, Thursday, January 30th from 1 pm to 4 pm, for our next Spruce Creek Mock Disaster. In general, the exercise will include the following:

Purpose: To test the ability of the CERT team to deal with a community-wide event involving two major disaster sites.

Functions: Alert and Notification; Communications: Coordination and Control; Damage Assessment; Extrication/First Aid.

Areas: The intent is to set up two disaster sites. One site will have several minor simulated injuries. The second site will have a greater number of victims and some structural damage requiring some extrication.

Disaster Scenario: A tornado has touched down in Spruce Creek there are two reported areas of major damage. The CERT team is alerted and requested to do a quick community-wide assessment. As team check in with Command Post, team members will be asked to send some zone members to the major disaster areas while the rest continue with their zone assessments.

This scenario will test our ability to alert the CERT and assign assets as priorities dictate. The need to obtain/transport our supplies will also be tested. This is a fairly ambitious scenario requiring major coordination/communication.

Jose is still looking for volunteers to help him set up, and execute the exercise. Geri Hudak and other volunteers have already assembled "fake supplies" and they are set up in the POA hangar, and Charlie Clark with be assisting at the command center. Charlie is also working on magnets for the command center.

Since our meeting on the 14th, John Stratton and Ed Hickox did a radio check with the new tower in place at the back gate. All went very well and Ed was able to hear from all corners of our community.

We are still looking for a secretary to replace Susan in January. She has the secretary job very well organized with rosters and mailing lists computerized. The main duties include taking notes at the meetings, sending out meeting reminders, and sending out special announcements. Many of the organizing and coordinating duties have been taken over by Richard Becker, our Director, and Security Officer Walter Melton, our Community Relations Representative. If you would like to know more about being CERT secretary, please give Susan a call at 304-6128.