State Emergency Management

National Weather Service, Springfield

SMESO

C.E.R.T.

    Community Emergency Response Team

                          "Training For Local Community Preparedness"

C.E.R.T. is a joint effort between Christian County Emergency Management,

Nixa Fire Department, Cox Paramedics Christian County, Clever Fire Department and the Ozark Fire Department.

What is CERT and Why Is There a Need?

     Each year, many Missouri communities are rocked by severe weather, such as tornadoes, floods or flash floods, winter storms, or by “man made” disasters.  The damage caused by such disasters effect everyone. 

Disasters:

·           Can severely restrict and overwhelm emergency response resources, communications, transportation and utilities; and

·           Can leave individuals and neighborhoods cut off from outside emergency support.

 What If This Happened to You?

     Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are trained to take care of themselves and then help others in their communities for the first three days following a disaster.  This is when debris-clogged or damaged roads, disrupted communications, or high volume of calls may prevent access by emergency response personnel.  The purpose of CERT training is to provide citizens with the basic skills required to handle virtually all their own needs and then to be able to respond to their communities’ needs in the aftermath of a disaster.

Target Audience

What Does the Course Involve?

     The CERT course consists of 21 hours of training, and is taught by emergency responders, including firefighters, emergency medical and law enforcement personnel, from your community.

 The course agenda includes:

Week 1  DISASTER PREPAREDNESS:  Introduction to disasters, impact of disasters on infrastructures, the role of CERT’s in disaster response.

Week 2  DISASTER FIRE SUPPRESSION     Identifying and reducing potential fire hazards, basic fire suppression strategy, resources, and techniques.

Week 3  DISASTER MEDICAL OPERATIONS, PART 1  Treatment strategies for life-threatening conditions and principles of triage.

Week 4  DISASTER MEDICAL OPERATIONS, PART 2  Head-to-toe assessments, treatment for various injuries

Week 5  LIGHT SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS  Techniques for size-up and search, lifting, cribbing and removing victims, rescuer safety

Week 6  DISASTER PSYCHOLOGY AND TEAM ORGANIZATION.  Post disaster emotional environment, CERT equipment, organizing your team, decision making

Week 7  TERRORISM AWARENESS FOR CERT MEMBERS. Also course review and shelter in place information

Week 8 Disaster simulation exercise.