Category: Blog

Santa Clara CERT Continuing Education Series:

CERT Severe Storm Operations

Winter is coming! CERTs have an important role to play in the wake of many types of emergencies.  Nationwide, probably the most frequent type of disaster response for CERTs is in the wake of a severe storm. As you read this, there are almost certainly CERTs doing operations in relation to Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas.  Working in this type of environment has some significant challenges and safety considerations.  This class will help to make your operations more safe and efficient.

Topics will include:

• General storm safety awareness
• Do’s and Don’ts before, during, and after your response
• CERT’s role in a disaster
• Austere medicine in this type of environment

This class is part of a series of continuing education training for CERT Members.  These classes are designed to be a refresher for basic CERT knowledge, allow us to get further in depth on important subjects, and also to provide training on pertinent subjects which are not covered in the basic CERT class.  This class is offered free to CERT members.

The same class is offered on two different dates to accommodate different schedules.  When registering just select one of the two dates.

Dates:

• Wednesday, October 3^th, 2018, 6pm-9pm
• Saturday October 6^th 2018, 9am-12pm

The same 3hr class will be offered on both days so either date can be attended.

Location:

Santa Clara Fire Department Training Center

1900 Walsh Ave

Santa Clara, CA, 95050

Cost:

Did I mention it is free? Who can resist free?

Registration:

The class is free but seating is limited so we ask that you register in advance.  Registration is through Eventbrite at the following link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cert-continuing-education-storm-response-operations-tickets-50249944938

Contact:

Jon Boucher

Engineer/Paramedic
Santa Clara Fire Department
777 Benton Street | Santa Clara, CA 95050

jboucher@santaclaraca.gov  |  www.santaclaraca.gov

All Mid-level Management Federal/State/Local/Tribal/Private Sector & Nongovernmental personnel to include should take ICS-300, including:  Persons serving as command staff, section chiefs, strike team leaders, task force leaders, unit leaders, division/group supervisors, branch directors, and multi-agency coordination system/emergency operations center staff.*

Course available at https://www.bauasitep.org/?p=courselist&q=available

(10/16/2018-10/18/2018) Incident Command System 300 (MGT-904)
781 Neeson Road, Marina, CA 93933

ICS 300 Fact sheet: https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/ics_300_fs.pdf

Attendees:  Peter Commandeur, Jessica Fullmer, Zach North, Bill Church, and Maggie Church.

Blossom Festival –

Table items. Give list to Michael Taylor.

Car show –

June 22, 2018. Shifts available, contact Jessica.

Quito/West Valley Member Roles

Raji Lukkoor and Jessica Fullmer – Co-Leaders

Zach North – Logistics Coordinator

Campbell Program –

Orientation is given to new CERT’s. We like this idea. Bring up

to big CERT group. They also have medical bags for

neighborhoods and have a Commercial Radio license so each

CERT person has a radio. We should look at their program.

New Budget –

Any ideas get them to Michael Taylor. We would like to see

some more foldable stretchers, maybe some medical bags like

Campbell program. Need more colored Triage labels.

Medical items –

Jessica will obtain Excel spreadsheet from Campbell for items

that are in their bags. Maggie will review.

Activation –

All members to sign up for SCC Alert. Also obtain DSW card.

Communicaton –

How do people want to receive information?

1. Email, 2^ndText, 3^rdPhone

Would like to develop our process.

Do we use FRS or GMS , Use Channel 11

Future Meeting Topics –

• Go Bags
• Map of Neighborhood – familiarize ourselves with neighborhood
• Radio practice
• Neighborhood drill – street check-ups.

How often shall our division meet?

Every 2 months

Time 6:00 – 7:30pm

Thursdays

Next Meeting September 20, 2018

Topic:  Go Bags

Everyone bring what you have and we’ll compare to CERT list of recommended items.

Respectfully,

Maggie Church

City of Saratoga Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

Cox CERT Division

Meeting Minutes

Meeting held: Wednesday, 15 August 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. at the home

of Lori Stafford

Saratoga CERT meeting attendees:

1. Tom Baker
2. Uma Challa
3. Peter Melhus
4. Peter Pranys
5. Chuck Rader
6. Brad Silveria
7. Lori Stafford
8. Lyle Topham

Discussion items:

• Michael Taylor, the City of Saratoga Risk/Emergency Preparedness Manager, is currently working on two documents of interest to Saratoga CERT members. These are the City of Saratoga Emergency Response Plan (ERP) plus annexes, and a CERT Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document for Saratoga CERT volunteers. Due dates for these documents are as follows:
• Draft #1: due 15 September 2018
• Draft #2: due 01 November 2018
• Final draft: due 21 December 2018
• Brad Silveria and Chuck Rader, at a 26 July 2018 meeting with Michael Taylor, requested that they be part of the review process for these documents. It was agreed in the 26 July meeting that a Cox CERT Division-specific Emergency Response Plan, which would be tailored and targeted for the Cox Division’s area of responsibility, should wait until completion and approval of these two City of Saratoga documents.

• The Cox CERT Division currently has 13 active members to cover an area that comprises approximately 700 residences. Neighborhoods of particular concern, due to a lack of representation, are the northwestern portion of Blue Hills/Blossom View, the southern portion of Brookview, and all of Saratoga Woods. It was agreed that recruiting initiatives for volunteers who live within the boundaries of the Cox CERT Division are crucial to have adequate manpower within the area to address a major disaster/community emergency.

Ideas proposed and discussed for attempting to recruit additional members included:

• Leverage the Neighborhood Watch teams in the area. Discuss CERT at Neighborhood Watch meetings…these are people in the community who have displayed a level of civic involvement that may be persuaded to take the step of participating in the CERT program.
• Conduct community emergency preparedness sessions for residents who live within the Cox CERT Division area of responsibility. These could include a PG&E community affairs presentation on utilities status during a major earthquake (i.e., downed power lines, gas line ruptures, how to turn off the gas line at your residence, etc.), and a disaster first aid training presentation conducted by the American Red Cross. At these sessions, home emergency preparedness checklists could be distributed and volunteers for the Saratoga CERT program could be solicited. Sessions to be potentially conducted at the City of Saratoga Prospect Center auditorium, pending approval for use of this facility for community CERT activities.
• Address local PTA meetings or open house gatherings at Blue Hills and Christa McAuliffe Elementary Schools, to engender interest in the CERT program and solicit potential volunteers.
• Investigate how other local cities (i.e., Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno, etc.) solicit volunteers for their community CERT programs.

• An inventory of the City of Saratoga CERT emergency supplies/materials, positioned at the three cache locations within the city boundaries, is being conducted by Saratoga Argonaut CERT Division member Craig Pietrow. The goal is to have an equal distribution of the different classes of emergency supplies spread between the various cache locations. There was discussion on having additional caches (i.e., potential “mini-caches”) set up at additional sites to the main Cox CERT Division site at the City of Saratoga Prospect Center. Based upon the completed inventory and redistribution of supplies, our division should investigate what other items we would desire to have included in the cache(s), as a city budget exists to support some additional materials acquisition.

ACTION ITEMS TO COMPLETE BEFORE NEXT DIVISIONAL MEETING:

• Chuck Rader to investigate no-fee community usage of the City of Saratoga Prospect Center for community disaster preparedness training sessions.

• Chuck Rader to investigate the possibility of scheduling Mr. Frank Fraone, Senior Public Safety Specialist at PG&E, to provide a community presentation on gas and electric utilities during a major disaster.

• Brad Silveria to investigate the best contact with the City of Campbell CERT organization, in regard to attending one of their CERT meetings and coordinating a discussion of “best practices” with a city recognized as having a very strong CERT program.

NEXT COX CERT DIVISIONAL MEETING:

Wednesday, 26 September 2018, from 6:00 p.m. to approximately 7:15 p.m.

Called to order at 5:40 PM by Michael Taylor

Introductions – including announcement that Craig Pietrow will assume position of Chief of Logistics – thanks Craig! He has already started inventorying our various supply caches and balancing out equipment among them. He has backpack materials for those who did not receive all their supplies after graduation. The divisions have been feeding Michael supply needs – those request should now go to Craig.

Michael reminded everyone to get their DSW cards, if they dont have them, by making an appointment with Lori McKenna at 408-868-1240 – details at http://saratogacert.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSWcard.pdf . If your card has expired, you can contact Lori and ask for a new one without going in for a new picture.

Michael is ordering FRS radios for each CERT member. They should be available in September or October to all Saratoga CERT members with valid DSW cards.

Division updates
Cox – new borders for division
Quito/West Valley – completed logistics inventory
Argonaut – had FRS radio traiing

We will be creating a 4th division: the Vineyard with Jim Foley as lead

Save the date – our annual disaster drill will be October 27th as party of the Santa Clara County CERT drill at Moffat Field – details to follow

Watch for the September CERT newsletter with a summary of training opportunities – remember, most of our refresher training will be from the county (and other cities), with the exception of October 25th, when we will have a 90 minute training class on Traffic Control by Kerry Harris – plan on attending! Details will be in the newsletter and in our calendar (http://saratogacert.org/events/)

Rshma Hyder has agreed to take over our IT (roster, website, calendar, communications) over the next month or so…thanks!

The next Ham Cram class is November 17th – http://saratogacert.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/LG-Amateur-Radio-License-Flyer-v2.4-November-17-2018.pdf

Adjourned 7:10 pm

See

http://saratogacert.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Go-Bag-Recommendations.xlsx.pdf

Sign-ups Open for October Drill
From: Tim Howard KE6TIM
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 09:26:29 PDT

Sign-ups for the October 27th annual Countywide Communications Exercise and Simulated Emergency Test (SET) are now open. There are two shifts offering Net Control, Field Operations, Shadowing, and Packet positions. You can sign-up for one or two shifts. If you are also a CERT member, you have the option to work one shift as RACES and one shift as CERT (register with CERT for the CERT assignments). There are also some event staff positions that you can select from.

MACs and MITs can receive an optional evaluation for MAC program qualifications if desired.

Additional details can be found at: https://www.scc-ares-races.org/drills/drill_2018-10-27.html

Tim Howard
ADEC, Training Coordinator
SCCo ARES/RACES

Check out the new way for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) programs and Citizen Corps Councils to register and manage their programs!

Log on now to the new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Citizen Responder Registration site. If you were registered on the old website, you can use your same login email to create a new password.

While it may look different, the new site keeps many of the same features of the old site. The new design makes registering and updating programs even easier. In fact, you can start the process to register your program in just one click after logging in.

Visit the site today to to view the new design. For questions on the site, contact us at FEMA-Prepare@fema.dhs.gov.

The City of Santa Clara is conducting a class on Lifting & Cribbing at the Santa Clara Fire Department Training Center later this month and would like to invite your CERTs to attend.  The 3 hr class will include a brief classroom refresher and extensive manipulative practice.  Our resident lifting & cribbing expert Firefighters Phil Kleinheinz, Steve Kastner, and Ryan Deschamps will be the primary instructors and they have some great exercises planned.  Here is the information:

Lifting and Cribbing is a valuable but hazardous skill for CERT members.  The safe and efficient lifting of a heavy object requires a great amount of teamwork, analysis of risks, and knowledge of techniques.  This class is designed to reinforce and expand on the basic skills which were presented in the initial CERT class.  It will consist of a brief classroom based review as well as extensive manipulative practice lifting and stabilizing heavy objects.  Safety of the CERT members as well as trapped victims will be stressed.  This class will go a long way to improving your confidence and abilities in lifting and cribbing.

Due to the nature of this exercise, CERT Personal Protective Equipment (helmet, gloves, vest, and close toed shoes) will be required to be used.  Please bring your issued CERT equipment to class.

This class is part of a series of continuing education training for CERT Members.  These classes are designed to be a refresher for basic CERT knowledge, allow us to get further in depth on important subjects, and also to provide training on pertinent subjects which are not covered in the basic CERT class.  This class is offered free to CERT members.  The same class is offered on two different dates to accommodate different schedules.  When registering just select one of the two dates.

Dates:                   Wednesday August 22, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Saturday August 25, 09:00am – 12:00 noon

The same 3hr class will be offered on both days so either date can be attended.

Location:              Santa Clara Fire Department Training Center

1900 Walsh Ave

Santa Clara, CA, 95050

Cost:                      Did I mention it is free? Who can resist free?

Registration:

The class is free but seating is limited so we ask that you register in advance.  Registration is through Eventbrite at the following link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/santa-clara-cert-7931650605

Thanks,

Jon Boucher

Engineer/Paramedic
Santa Clara Fire Department
777 Benton Street | Santa Clara, CA 95050
831-588-0291(Cell)    408-615-4905 (Fire Station 5)