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Baytown offers CERT training
By Diana North, Chronicle Correspondent
18-Jan-2010
Sooner or later disasters strike and the city of Baytown's Emergency Management Coordinator, Bill Vola, said he believes in the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared.”
“We don't know when a disaster is going to strike,” said Vola. “Watching it on TV it means one thing, but huddled in the wreckage of your home it means another thing entirely.”
For Vola, an important part of community preparation is training residents to respond to emergencies through Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training.
Toward that end, the city and the Baytown/Chambers County Local Emergency Planning Committee, along with the Harris County Office of Emergency Management are teaming up to offer residents CERT training every Tuesday starting Feb. 2, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Baytown Emergency Operations Center, located behind the Police Department at 205 E. Wye Drive.
To kick off the eight week basic training, interested participants should attend the information meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the emergency operations center.
CERT training is free for residents. Class size is limited to 35 people per session.
“The basic principle behind CERT training goes back to the 1950s and the Eisenhower self-help era,” Vola said. “One of the things this nation was founded on was that we help ourselves and we help our neighbors.”
Vola says the program establishes the baseline for everyone across the nation who takes CERT training.
Trainees will learn about disaster preparedness, fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, first aid, search and rescue, disaster psychology, team organization, and terrorism.
About the training
CERT training prepares citizens to manage utilities and put out small fires, treat common medical emergencies, provide basic medical aid, search and rescue victims, organize themselves and other volunteers and collect disaster information that supports first responder efforts.
Participants must agree to attend all sessions and submit to a urine drug screening and criminal background check, prior to being accepted into the program.
Training will conclude March 23 with a disaster simulation that gives participants a chance to practice their newly acquired skills.
Vola says 35 Baytown residents completed basic CERT course last November. They, along with new participants, will be offered additional advanced training is specialized skills like traffic control and the use of Ham radios.
Vola says communities shouldn't rely on help at the state level.
“In first five to seven days after a disaster we are going to be on our own,” said Vola.
“Hurricane Ike proved that. A disaster is local and the response is local, so we have to be able to take care of ourselves.”
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