By Khalida Sarwari
How far will $35 get you? If you’re celebrating a special occasion, that’s the price of a decent steak. But at the Community Emergency Response Team Academy, or CERT, that $35 can get you a hard hat, vest and 20 hours of training to adequately handle a natural or major disaster and play a vital role in a city’s recovery efforts.
The best testament to the importance of CERT may be superstorm Sandy, a hurricane that devastated portions of the Caribbean and the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern parts of the country last October. Although the frequency of natural disasters is low, it’s very possible that a disaster of a similar magnitude could strike the South Bay, which is particularly prone to earthquakes, wildfires and floods, said Jim Yoke, an emergency planner for the West Valley cities.
“It’s extremely important that Saratogans don’t get complacent,” he said. “Because when is a major disaster going to happen in Saratoga? For all we know, it could be next week.”
The Saratoga CERT program started about six years ago and has thus far yielded about 100 CERT-trained residents who could be activated in the event of an emergency. These residents are invaluable, said Yoke, because their skills will come in handy when a disaster strikes and professional first responders are overwhelmed and stretched thin.
In the event of a disaster, they have the basic disaster response skills to work as a team and provide essential services to their neighborhood and workplace. Those skills include fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.
“They can help provide a certain level of skill and a certain quantity of resources at the neighborhood level that will be of great value to the overall response effort,” Yoke said.
After a year when membership numbers were static and there was not much growth, the goal of the academy in 2013 is to raise those numbers, said Yoke.
“We are very highly motivated to see the program grow,” he said.
In an ideal scenario, anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of Saratoga residents would be involved in CERT or another emergency preparedness group, according to Yoke. The best part is there are no prerequisites to join CERT; just about anyone who signs up will be admitted, Yoke said.
CERT training is offered four times a year in the West Valley cities of Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga. The sessions are led by firefighters from the Santa Clara County Fire Department and use classroom and simulation-based education, culminating with a final disaster simulation exercise where participants apply the skills they’ve learned.
While trainings are regional, general topics the academy cov- ers include emergen- cy preparedness, CERT organization, disaster psychology, fire safety and small fire suppression, light search and rescue, emergency medical operations, terrorism and disaster simulation exercise.
To register for the winter session, which will run from Jan. 29 through Feb. 9 at the Campbell Community Center, email the county fire department at info@sccfd.net.
The spring session is scheduled to be held in Saratoga May 7-18.
