As the Deputy Director of the El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services, Sheriff John D’Agostini is pleased to announce the schedule of the 2014 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Academy.
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.
The CERT Academy is offered to prospective CERT Volunteers through the El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services (OES) in cooperation with Georgetown Fire District. The CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people that they serve. The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of neighborhoods, community organizations, or workplaces in basic response skills. CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area. If a disastrous event overwhelms or delays the community’s professional response, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills that they learned during training. These skills can help save and sustain lives following a disaster until help arrives. CERT skills also apply to daily emergencies.
The Academy consists of a total of 24 hours and will be conducted over a period of four (4) days with topics, dates and hours as listed below:
Thursday May 08, 2014 6:30pm to 8:30pm 2hrs
Friday May 09, 2014 6:30pm to 8:30pm 2hrs
Saturday May 10, 2014 8:30am to 4:30pm 8hrs
Thursday May 15, 2014 6:30pm to 8:30pm 2hrs
Friday May 16, 2014 6:30pm to 8:30pm 2hrs
Saturday May 17, 2014 8:30am to 4:30pm 8hrs
Although the training is being held in Georgetown it is open to all county residents. This training is good for all county CERT organizations. There currently are two other community emergency response teams in El Dorado County. Besides the Georgetown CERT there is one in Rescue and one in Pollock Pines. For more information about this Community Emergency Response Team training or to sign up for the academy, contact Georgetown CERT volunteers Laura Webster (530) 333-0214 or Bob Maherly (530) 823-6680
For more information on how to establish an El Dorado County Community Emergency Response Team in your community, contact Sheriff’s Deputy Jordan Thomson. Deputy Thomson is assigned to the Office of Emergency Services and can be reached at (530) 621-7660 or via email at thomsonj@edso.org