ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Planning for emergency situations is of utmost importance, and soon, people will have the opportunity to learn about just that.
Seward County Emergency Management will be offering a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) basic training weekend at Seward County Community College Oct. 18 through 20 in the Business and Industry Building. The Oct. 18 training session will be from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., the Oct. 19 session will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Oct. 20 session will be a final exercise that will start at 1 p.m. anyone wanting to register can call the Business & Industry office at (620) 417-1170 or Seward County Emergency Management Deputy Director Tim Newman at (620) 482-0375.
“We've already gotten some sign-ups, but we will certainly take more,” Newman said. “These CERT classes are instructed by leaders from local emergency managers, police, fire and EMS. We'll start by talking about some general disaster preparedness and how people can prepare their homes and families for emergency situations. We also talk about disaster psychology and some of the feelings/emotions people have while dealing with a disaster situation either as a helper or a victim. We'll also talk briefly about terrorism, mostly active shooter situations and things like that – CERT doesn't necessarily respond to terrorism situations, but you never know when or where such an event might occur. We'll also do some basic fire suppression and show how to use a fire extinguisher, and we'll do some disaster medical preparation and talk about basic first aid and triage. We'll also talk about some light search and rescue as far as searching a room and extricate someone who can't get themselves out. There'll definitely be a lot covered that weekend.”
Especially with recent weather events happening throughout the southern part of the U.S, Newman said he hopes to see a lot of people at the training.
“The class is open to all over the age of 18 (younger with a parent on a case-by-case basis), and we encourage as many residents as possible to sign up. With the current severe weather happening in the southeast part of the U.S., we might not experience that type of weather in this part of the country, but that doesn't mean there's not a chance you won't be caught up in such a situation while on vacation or something like that,” Newman said. “A lot of people think 'That will never happen to me,' and those people have it happen to them regularly. The point I always try to make in my classes is just because you don't think something could happen where you live, that doesn't mean it can't happen at some point if you're in what ultimately becomes a disaster zone in the future – you might be visiting the mountains in the Carolinas on vacation when a hurricane barrels through, or on the beach in Florida, or in California when a sudden earthquake hits. We experience tornadoes in this area of the U.S. on a regular basis, and Greensburg, which is only about 100 miles away from Liberal, was basically wiped off the map back in 2007, so it's something that could easily happen here, and we want people to be as prepared as possible. If you have the mindset of being prepared and being calm, you'll have an easier time navigating through a severe weather situation. We want people to be as aware as possible and as prepared as possible.”
The overall goal, Newman said, is preparedness.
“The more prepared you are, the less likely you will be a victim. If you have some basic knowledge of first aid and search and rescue and fire suppression, you can keep small situations from becoming bigger disasters,” Newman said. “And if you have that knowledge, emergency personnel can then use their resources toward the bigger disasters that really need to be looked after. After the training, the participants can apply for Seward County's advanced team, which meets once a month. Advanced CERT Team members also receive additional training to fill specific emergency roles within a response to a disaster, such as traffic control and emergency communications, etc. When I was the CERT coordinator in Reno County, there was a tornado that hit the town of Chapman, and I took 16 of my CERT members there, and there were several other CERT teams from around that area and other parts of Kansas that sent people to assist. What they did during that time was help manage the spontaneous and unaffiliated volunteers who were coming in to help clean up around town. 200 CERT volunteers managed and kept safe more than 1,000 volunteers who had come to assist with cleanup, and after all was said and done, there was only one minor injury, and that was due to the CERT teams' leadership skills, because they knew how to help keep people in the safer zones.”
And next weekend will not be the only opportunity for these trainings, Newman said.
“We are definitely planning to have more of these trainings in the future, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for those dates when we officially get them decided and sorted out,” Newman said. “If there's a session you're unable to attend, there will be others, so again, just keep an eye out for those dates. And in the meantime, there is an online training people can take and get familiar with, and we're thinking of using that as a probationary step for if people want to join the team. People can find that online training at https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-317.a&lang=en”
Newman said he is looking forward to next weekend’s training sessions and hopes people learn a lot from the information given.
“We always like meeting new people and people interested in learning more about first response and those roles. This can actually be a stepping stone for some people, because a lot of people who get involved in CERT wind up becoming firefighters or law enforcement personnel or EMTs, etc., and they use this CERT training as a springboard to get involved,” Newman said. “We're also just looking forward to growing the team – we've got a small team at the moment, and we can use more people. I've only been here for three months, and I inherited a team of eight people, so I'm hoping I can replicate my success from Reno County, where I worked for five years and trained more than 200 people in CERT, with around 140 joining the advanced teams. I'd love to see more people join the advanced team here, so I'm looking forward to meeting the people and getting them trained and more interested in emergency response and management. People who are unprepared are more likely to be victims of a disaster or emergency situation, and like I said earlier, the more people we can train, the more resources can be shifted to the bigger disaster areas. If we've got a trained group that's able to handle some of the less dire situations, emergency personnel can go to where they'd be more needed and handle all of that.”
