Community Emergency Response Team

How To Join A Community Emergency Response Team

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It’s all about how to join a community emergency response team today. I want you to picture a disaster right now. The lights just went out, the TV just went off, and your neighborhood is dark, very dark. If we should have a major power outage and lose contact with the outside world, we may not have access to our local doctors, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. Forget about the ATMs, they won’t work because the power is out. I hope you have gas in your vehicle in case you need to evacuate. Here’s the deal, I am not a doomsday prepper, but I do believe we need to be prepared for the unexpected. Hopefully, you have met most of your neighbors and have had meetings to trade contact information, etc. in case you need to contact their relatives after a disaster.

I decided to pull out the stuff I have accumulated in my own C.E.R.T. bag/backpack to show you. My husband and I took a class to be C.E.R.T. certified in our community a few years ago. The term C.E.R.T. stands for Community Emergency Response Team. We called a few neighbors to do it with us. We could only talk 3 people into doing it with us. Here’s the deal, I have no medical training, but I can organize just about anything. I thought to myself if we could get twenty people to join us, our neighborhood would be in better shape than it was before the classes. Well, we have 5 people that I know of right now. This will not be enough people because we could have total chaos after an unforeseen disaster or emergency.

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Community Emergency Response Team Kit:

The C.E.R.T. backpack on the left above is actually my bag. The one on the right is my C.E.R.T. emergency bag with supplies. My husband has his own community emergency response team bags which I will show another day. He carries the medical supplies. We both have several duplicate items because we might not be in the same area all the time. We have slowly added to the bags as our budget could afford the items.

Community Emergency Response Team

Here are the contents I have in my backpack: C.E.R.T. book to log the homes and people in the neighborhood, different colors of tape to mark the assessment of the injured people (red=needs immediate help, yellow=delay/not immediate, green means they are ok to wait for assistance), hardhat, Berkey Sports Bottle for filtering water, goggles, headlamp, work gloves, and a 4 in 1 tool (shown below), C.E.R.T. vest, light sticks, and scissors, N-95 masks. We all need to be aware of where to shut off our water, electricity, and gas lines. We also need to know where to shut off the water inside our homes. Of course, we would never shut off gas unless we can smell gas or a fire may be headed towards us, common sense needs to be used. If you don’t have any N-95 masks get some as soon as your budget allows, you will want them, trust me. 3M 8000 Particle Respirator N95, 30-Pack You need one of these as well: 4 in 1 Emergency Tool

Community Emergency Response Team

Mark’s C.E.R.T. bag has all the medical supplies we’ll need until help comes, if it comes at all. I am aware of 2 nurses and 2 doctors in our neighborhood. Of course, I do not know everyone that lives in the subdivision. The items I have below are in my bag:

Community Emergency Response Team

Nitrile gloves, N-95 masks (you can never have enough of them), BandAids, yellow chalk, yellow caution tape, and paint sticks for makeshift splints.

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We NEED to be able to take care of ourselves. We can’t always depend on our government or local authorities. They can only do so much. Let me give you some statistics for OUR area in Southern Utah. These statistics are a few years old, but nonetheless, please check out these numbers in my St. George, Utah (Washington County) area. We have on average 140,000 people living here. Washington County has 17 ambulances, 46 fire trucks, and 204 police cars. We have two hospitals with 145 beds available. These numbers are scary….we cannot depend on anyone but ourselves. Please check out your local numbers. You might just be surprised…..or maybe not! You might want to Google “The Volunteer Protection Act of 1997”. Check it out for yourselves. C.E.R.T. classes.  Let’s all plan to be better prepared than we are right now. When the need arises it is too late.

Food Storage Ideas

My  favorite things:

Berkey GSPRT Generic 22-Ounce Water Filter Sports Bottle

CERT Emergency Deluxe Action Response Unit Gear Bag (Community Emergency Response Teams)

Blue Can – Premium Emergency Drinking Water

Lodge L12DCO3 Deep Camp Dutch Oven, 8-Quart

Goal Zero Torch 250 Flashlight with Integrated Solar Panel

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4 Comments

  1. Linda,
    Thank you again for your attempt to get the public ready. I am prepared, however, I have been thinking of some sort of EMT training for the last few weeks. Maybe I will look up CERT training in my area and become involved. I wanted to know exactly what to do in case of emergency and someone got hurt, or had a heart attack, or was shot. Anything, can happen and we all must be able to do SOMETHING to help before help arrives, if it ever does. I am hoping people will begin to wake up soon. I feel like we are the only ones that are awake and running as the town criers.
    You know the funny thing is my daughter is a nurse and her husband is an ex firefighter. However, they are both refusing to believe that anything will happen and if it does they plan to head out to Kentucky to his family on the farm. I may or may not be with them as I do not give in easy. (it is the old school stubborn behavior in the Baby Boomers, I suppose. LOL)

    At any rate, I will go on line now and check out the CERT training here in Cincinnati, Ohio.
    May God bless you and your family and keep your all safe from harm.
    Vivian M.
    Cincinnati, Ohio

    1. Hi Vivian, I’m so proud to hear you are looking into CERT or being an EMT. I too feel very strongly that I need the knowledge to help others because there will be very few with the skills to control the chaos, the bleeding, and the mental health issues that will arise. I’m also concerned about how people will react after a major disaster and they are not prepared whatsoever. You and I cannot feed the entire neighborhood we live in. I wish I had a farm, but being a baby boomer (I love that you are too!) I don’t have the strength to run a farm like I could have when I was younger. May God bless you and your family, we must all be prepared. Hugs! Linda

  2. Thanks for the reply Linda. I feel as if I am not at my best seeing that you have a great web site and all. LOL…You are out there GF doing what must be done. If things change in my life environment I may be up and running as well. That will be a good thing and a bad thing though. I may have told you about my husband that is crippled with Parkinson’s. So at this time, I can only do a lot of thinking and wondering about what else I can do. I even try to figure out what the hell is coming that I am so concerned about. Is it the earth’s polar shift? an EMP attack from the sun or from something even closer to home? a major flood from the polar shift? an attack from another country? or is it the martial law that will send us all in a panic. Then I have to sit back and realize that I have no crystal ball and I can not fix everything like Superwoman did. And so I do.
    Again it is such a delight to hear from you and I appreciate that you take the time to respond to your precious readers. You are such a dynamic personality with such a beautiful spirit. Thank you.
    God bless you and keep you and your family safe as well.
    Vivian
    Cincinnati, Ohio

    1. Hi Vivian, I too am concerned about a lot of things concerning our government, major floods, an EMP attack, and martial law will come I feel strongly about and not happy about either. Not because I want it but because our country is out of control and we have government workers that are untruthful. Here’s my take on what’s going on. I have a God I believe in and I have faith that I will be okay because I am trying to do what is right for the world and people around me. I can’t dwell on the disaster doomsday prepper crap that’s going on. I will be 67 in January and I have been prepared for the unexpected since I was very little. I’m sad to hear that your sweet husband has Parkinson’s disease. I have a daughter with MS. I know that God has a special place in his heart to take care of people who try to do good for others around them just like you. I refuse to be scared because that just wastes my energy. God helps those who help themselves. You rock Vivian and do not worry God will take care of you and you hubby because you are good people and doing what you can do today. Hugs! Linda

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