By Gene Maloney

Now the most important thing!

Community Emergency Response Team / C.E.R.T. http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

National Emergency Response Team / N.E.R.T. http://www.nert-usa.org/

America, these teams are some of the heroes of our country. They volunteer their time to go through training programs, work events, buy equipment and attend meetings provided by local fire departments and others.  Fire Department EMS and other first responders will be busy during a natural or man-made disaster.  In most cases, C.E.R.T. / N.E.R.T. team members will be coming around to rescue you and take care of basic life support needs. 

Now here is the down side.  The Federal Government fund’s the training programs.   They do NOT PROVIDE FUNDS FOR THE EQUIPMENT OR SUPPLIES THE TEAMS WILL NEED IN A DISASTER.....  We need to get Congress to fund not only the training but the equipment that will be needed.

CERT was founded many years ago by Chief Borden with the Los Angeles City Fire Department.  Since then they have trained through the C.E.R.T. program well over 50,000 citizens.  This will be their salvation when the big one hits. It is interesting what they have done with the program.  A number of their trainees have formed teams within their homeowner or apartment associations or got their company to sponsor teams.

Here is what we are proposing.  First, we need our represents to approve the funds required to purchase the supplies and equipment needed in a disaster.  Second, we need as many C.E.R.T. and N.E.R.T. programs started as possible. Third, we suggest using a decentralized MCI and CCP plan. This plan uses smaller trailers or caches placed in numerous locations throughout the community.  One possibility is to partner with various malls, shopping centers, churches etc… and place a small container in the parking lot labeled as “Disaster Medical Aid Station”.  The container could house a small trailer or rolling racks and serve as a Triage and Treatment center or Casualty Collection Point.  Because of the high visibility these containers would provide everyone would know where to go in the event of an incident. In addition, these locations can also serve as command centers for various agencies and C.E.R.T. and N.E.R.T. teams.

For any questions, you can contact us at

Disaster Preparedness Consultants

480-285-7555