Hi So Cal,
I'm a Sheriff Volunteer and the Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept CERT program. I'm always so busy with CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) that I can never go on runs so I thought I would combine the two.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with CERT, it's a 24 hour program that teaches the community how to take care of yourself, your family and neighbors in the event of a large disaster. We teach fire suppression, search & rescue, triage, cribbing, terrorism, disaster psychology and more. I want to combine that with what skills a 4x4 has.

What do you think?
Tips? Advice? Pros? Cons?

thanks so much for your input.

www.antelopevalleycert.com

 

Personally, I think it would be a great idea no matter where we live, being as we do get earthquakes and other disasters.
And it could help no matter where you happen to be when disaster strikes.
Iv heard about it also what the amateur radio community can do in an emergency.
Iv just never done anything about looking into the classes,which is my own fault.

 

Donnie,
I've had quite a bit of interest from my existing 250 CERT members. All members of the 4x4 team are either ham, GMRS or CB. My next step is meeting with Search & Rescue.

 

Once the class is completed, is the individual certified and is it good anywhere?

 

I think This is a great idea. last week i was looking to get into some type of search and rescue program.

 

I am not in Cali, but a great idea for us to do in my area. I am a CERT member also!

 

I like the idea as well. After the Northridge earthquake I wished I had been part of a organization to help out. I know few basic things but getting trained will be great

 

I am in! This sounds great. Perhaps you could organize something a week or 2 after everybody gets back from Moab. I am sure there would be a lot of interested people.

Any details would be great, cost, how it works, etc.

 

CERT is a nationwide program. It is taught free to the community. Usually the Fire Department teaches CERT but in some areas, so does Sheriff. In the Antelope Valley we used to teach CERT. My husband is the only Sheriff instructor in our area, but his job went 24/7 in January so it's just me running the entire program. LA City and Los Angeles County Fire teach CERT classes.
We just had a major CERT refresher in Palmdale last Saturday. We had 83 CERT members evacuate a 3 story building and triage 75 victims in less than an hour. I have set up the program here a little different than most CERT groups. Here, every community has a CERT Team Captain. Under each Team Captain is a Squad Leader, and Squad Leaders have CERT members. All our Captains and Squad Leaders must be ham or GMRS trained, have taken FEMA ICS 100 and 200 classes (which are free online) plus other qualifications. Each community has monthly meetings and exercises. Sheriff/LACoFD have 4 large Refreshers per year for CERT trained people. Last year our Refresher was sandbagging class, swift water preparedness and awareness and traffic direction. We want our CERT members to be able to direct traffic if needed. I'm trying to get another traffic class going in a few months.
My thought for a CERT 4x4 group was to get to those hard to reach people back on dirt roads and canyons. In a disaster Fire/Sheriff will be concentrating on larger populated areas. A lot of our communities, Acton, Aqua Dulce, Lake Hughes, Three Points etc., are dirt roads, mountains, streams, rocks and whatever else. They will be the absolutely last people tended to.

This is strictly a volunteer program. We don't charge for anything because I believe volunteering is priceless itself. I have 12 people so far from our AV CERT group. I friend of mine, who's on this forum, Glen, said he'd teach us beginning and advanced winching techniques. I'm looking for others who'd be able to teach something.

I'm open to ALL suggestions. I am strictly a volunteer myself. I put in 120+ hours a month to run the CERT program because I believe in it so strongly. That's how I met my husband actually.

If you want to be a part of the group, please email me at the station. My email is culrich@lasd.org

If you're not CERT trained yet, we'd still like to have you. A willingness to help your fellow man is enough to get you started.
Here is a site to help you get started with CERT https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

 

It sounds like CERT quals may vary slightly by location. Here in Escondido,
there are 24 hours of classroom training in addition to obtaining your CRP and First Aid certifications on your own time. Most of the CERT members I know are also HAM radio operators, and while not a requirement, a good deal of
the communications are done on HAM radios. I started CERT training twice but had to drop out due to family sickness. Hopefully I will "get 'er done" in the next few months.