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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2018)
November 23, 2018 T he C olumbia P ress 5 Camp Kiwanilong is home base for emergency-focused training b y d.b. l eWis The Columbia Press Take care of yourself and your family first. Next, do the greatest amount of good for your neighbors while using the fewest resources. Such are the standing or- ders for responding to a lo- cal disaster, according to last weekend’s training by CERT, the Community Emergency Response Team, a federally funded Citizen Corps pro- gram. Residents from through- out Clatsop County gained community survival skills at Camp Kiwanilong in Warren- ton. CERT, a FEMA program, is offered throughout the Unit- ed States without charge to participants. Trainers Kimber Townsend, Wendy Hackman, and broth- ers David and Dell Weston are themselves volunteer CERT leaders in Polk and Yamhill counties. The four have held sessions throughout the state about once a month over the last year, adding onto their re- cord of more than 70 sessions in their time working as a training team. By design, CERT’s main Getting involved To volunteer or learn more, contact the coordina- tor in your area. Warrenton: Sylvia Stephens, 503-791-5547, kg7dpn@gmail.com Astoria: Ed Hauer, 503-325-8788 or hauer@ thehauers.com Gearhart: Dan Jesse, 503-717-3694 or jndjes- se@gmail.com Cannon Beach: Mary Beth Cottle, 503-880- 4425 or mbcottle58@yahoo.com Photos by D.B. Lewis Above: Trainees Ken Olney and Stephanie Stahmer look through a simulated town with downed power lines and injured people to make decisions about how to help. Left: Trainee Ellen Norris of Astoria uses a fulcrum to move a large heavy log while trainers David Weston and Dell Weston coach. purpose is to prepare citizens to survive natural and man- made disasters. Attendees are taught how to prepare for the worst and are schooled in sound response procedures. Training includes learning how to deal with the “three killers” (bleeding, breathing and shock) and how to use ordinary junk to splint bro- ken bones. The point of the training is to help people help them- selves and reduce the over- whelming load on profes- sional responders after a big disaster, according to free CERT material online. FEMA has gone even fur- ther with the CERT program by teaching attenders how to form local teams to comple- ment professional respond- ers in the early aftermath of a disaster. The basic training Hams donate emergency radio Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Club donated and helped install an amateur radio at Gearhart City Hall last week. The radio allows city CERT teams to practice with a more powerful radio and coordi- nate exercises with Community Emergency Response Teams in other areas. In an emergency, licensed amateur radio opera- tors on city staff, including local Courtesy Dana Gandy CERT volunteers, can use the Gearhart Councilor Dan Jesse, City Administrator Chad Sweet system to obtain assistance from and Dana Gandy, president of Sunset Empire ARC. outside the immediate area. book – free online - describes CERT as “a bridge to profes- sional responders until they are able to arrive,” which could be up to several hours or even days. Four CERT teams are ac- tive in Clatsop County: Asto- ria, Cannon Beach, Gearhart and Warrenton-Hammond, all comprised of volunteers willing to learn and prepare together, first for their own areas, but also in cooperation with each other when an area needs extra help. Pam Ackley, Broker While the CERT movement is growing slowly in Clatsop County, signs of progress are encouraging. Vince Aarts, Clatsop County Emergency Management co- ordinator, has expanded his monthly Citizen Corps meet- ing from CERT leaders only to all area CERT members, all Medical Reserve Corps mem- bers, all Disaster Animal Re- sponse Team members and even local Red Cross volun- teers. Hopes are high that mo- mentum will pick up in 2019 as the separate programs cooperate for the common good, Aarts said. Leading the way in local CERT development, the city of Warrenton unanimously passed Resolution 2527 in September to formally rec- ognize its CERT team. More than just an “atta boy,” the resolution “supports the mission of Warrenton-Ham- mond CERT to educate com- munity members on natural disaster preparedness and re- sponse, and to work with and supplement existing emer- gency responders in the event of a major disaster.” D.B. Lewis is information officer for Warrenton-Ham- mond CERT. He can be reached by leaving a mes- sage on 503-741-5977 or by emailing cert@dblcy.net.
