Citizen Emergency Response Teams

Like the flooding and landslides of 1996, disasters and other emergency situations in Clearwater County often isolate sections of the population.

Remember the time it took to provide emergency access to Wixson Heights after a slide on their primary access road? Remember other areas that had little or no road access? People in areas like Peck had to rely on their own resources and ingenuity in the initial stages of the disaster because U.S. Highway 12 was blocked on both sides of town by slides. Other roads into the community were questionable.

What would you do if you found your neighborhood in this situation?

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are being formed and instructed as a joint effort of Clearwater County Emergency Management and Clearwater County Sheriffs Department. The next training is scheduled to begin Feb. 10. Training will be held each Tuesday evening for seven weeks from 6-9 p.m. at the Twin Ridge Rural Fire District station. Citizens from the Eureka Ridge, Wells Bench, Wixson Heights and Grangemont neighborhoods are particularly invited to participate.

Clearwater County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Gene Fish and Search and Rescue Secretary Joyce Nobles are co-instructors for the course. CERT members receive 20 hours of initial training over seven weeks. A full day of annual refresher drills follows the initial course. In addition to course materials, each member will receive a hard hat, goggles, gloves and vest. There is also a small charge for a personal 72-hour disaster kit.

The class size is limited to 25. To register, contact Nobles at 476-9448 or email jsnobles@lewiston.com or Michael Caughran, Emergency Management Coordinator at 476-4815 or email mailto:mcaughran@clearwatercounty.org.

An initial 10-member CERT with three search dogs has been especially trained in urban search and rescue. Members of that team are also members of the CCSO Search and Rescue team.

While the CERT training is not intended to replace of professional emergency responders, it does teach citizens how to help themselves, their families and neighbors until emergency responders can gain access to isolated areas. Nobles describes the training like insurance, people may never need it, but if the need arises people are prepared. While people do respond to emergencies without the training, one of the goals of CERT is to help people respond more effectively and efficiently without placing themselves in unnecessary danger.

CERT members learn to:

• Manage utilities and put out small fires
• Provide basic first aid
• Search for and rescue victims safely
• Organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective
• Collect disaster information to support first responder efforts when they arrive

Photos: Top-The first picture is the CERT members practicing doing the blanket rescue drag with Joyce Nobles as a victim. CERT members from left are Lynn Summers, Jeff Houck, Bill Walker, George Wells, Dave Bowser. Bottom-CERT members assessing a victim are from left Janet Stonebridge and Bill Walker. The victim is Rescue Randy.