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What If This Happened to You?
Each year numerous communities fall victim to some disaster. This may be in the form of an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, blizzard, flood or "man made" disasters.
When we hear about this or see it on the news, it always seems to be happening to someone else but . . . What if this did happen to you?
Following a major disaster, first responders who provide fire and medical services will not be able to meet the demand for these services. Factors as number of victims, communication failures, and road blockages will prevent people from accessing emergency services they have come to expect at a moments notice through 911. People will have to rely on each other for help in order to meet their immediate life saving and life sustaining needs.
Volunteers Can Make a Difference!
It is likely that under these kinds of conditions, family members, fellow employees, and neighbors will spontaneously try to help each other. This was the case following the Mexico City earthquake where untrained, spontaneous volunteers saved 800 people. However, 100 people lost their lives while attempting to save others. This is a high price to pay and is preventable through training.
If we can predict that emergency services will not meet immediate needs following a major disaster, especially if there is no warning as in an earthquake, and people will spontaneously volunteer, what can citizens do to prepare for this eventuality?
What Is CERT and Why Is There a Need?
Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are trained to help neighborhoods and communities mitigate disasters during the first 72 hours following a disaster when access by Professional Emergency Response Teams might be restricted.
The purpose of CERT training is to provide private citizens with the basic skills that they will need to handle virtually all of their own needs and then to respond to their neighborhoods and communities needs in the aftermath of a disaster.
CERT is sponsored by the Citizen Corps and
Division of Emergency Services & Homeland Security (DESHS) of the Department of Public Safety of the State of Utah.
Additional Information About CERT
Additional information about CERT and other like programs can be found at Citizen Corps' website at www.citizencorps.gov.
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