Community Emergency Response Team Program

The CERT Program

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program designed to prepare individuals to help themselves, their family and their neighbors in the event of a disaster with a focus on the first 72 hours. This is done by educating them on the hazards they face in their community and by training them in lifesaving skills they may need to use in the event of a catastrophic event. CERTs may also give critical support to first responders in emergencies by providing immediate assistance to victims, managing utilities and small fires, organizing spontaneous volunteers and by collecting disaster intelligence. This all hazards training prepares members of the community, neighborhoods and workplaces to take a more active role in emergency planning for their area and to prepare themselves and others for disasters and emergencies.

CERT is about readiness, people helping people, rescuer safety, and doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. CERT is a positive and realistic approach to emergency and disaster situations where citizens will be initially on their own and their actions can make a difference. CERT involves learning basic skills that are critical in a disaster situation when emergency services are not readily available.

 

Why have a CERT Program

Reason #1: During the first 72 hours following a major disaster emergency services personnel may be overwhelmed and unable to meet the demands of the community. The size of the affected area, number of victims, loss of communications and road blockages may leave you and your family, neighbors or co-workers to rely on each other for immediate assistance.

Reason #2: In 95% of all emergencies bystanders or victims themselves are the first to provide emergency assistance or to perform a rescue!

The CERT training ensures that individuals have the tools to respond safely by saving lives and protecting property without putting themselves in unnecessary danger. It is human nature for people to respond to others in need with or without training. This was evident following the Mexico City earthquake in 1985 where untrained, spontaneous volunteers saved over 800 people. Unfortunately, over 100 of these untrained volunteers lost their lives while saving others' lives. Through training and practice events such as this can be prevented.

CERT training teaches personal responsibility for mitigation and preparedness and teaches life saving skills.

Here are a few more reasons to have a CERT program in disaster prone Missouri:

• Kansas City Ice Storms
• May 2003 Tornados
• Approximately 2000 structures located in Missouri floodplains
• Over 90% of Missouri disaster declarations involve flooding
• 25-40% probability of an earthquake 6.0 or greater within the next 50 years
• 47 Counties required (MO State Statute) to have Earthquake Safety Programs
• Highways 70, 55, 44, 71, 63 & 36 (other highly traveled roads)
• House Fires
• Household and work-related hazards
• Everyday Emergencies

History of the CERT Program

This timeline is from the website of those who created the CERT Program: The City of Los Angeles Fire Department:

1985: The idea to train volunteers from the community to assist emergency service personnel during large natural disasters began. In February of 1985, a group of Los Angeles City officials went to Japan to study its extensive earthquake preparedness plans. The group encountered an extremely homogenous society that had taken extensive steps to train entire neighborhoods in one aspect of alleviating the potential devastation that would follow a major earthquake. These single-function neighborhood teams were trained in either fire suppression, light search and rescue operations, first aid, or evacuation.

In September of 1985, a Los Angeles City investigation team was sent to Mexico City following an earthquake there that registered a magnitude 8.1 on the Richter scale and killed more than 10,000 people and injured more than 30,000. Mexico City had no training program for citizens prior to the disaster. However, large groups of volunteers organized themselves and performed light search and rescue operations. Volunteers are credited with more than 800 successful rescues; unfortunately, more than 100 of these untrained volunteers died during the 15-day rescue operation.

The lessons learned in Mexico City strongly indicated that a plan to train volunteers to help themselves and others, and become an adjunct to government response, was needed as an essential part of overall preparedness, survival, and recovery.

1986: The City of Los Angeles Fire Department developed a pilot program to train a group of leaders in a neighborhood watch organization. A concept developed involving multi-functional volunteer response teams with the ability to perform basic fire suppression, light search and rescue, and first aid. This first team of 30 people completed training in early 1986 and proved that the concept was viable through various drills, demonstrations, and exercises. Expansion of the program, however, was not feasible due to limited City resources, until an event occurred in 1987 that impacted the entire area.

1987: On October 1, 1987, the Whittier Narrows earthquake vividly underscored the threat of an area-wide major disaster, and demonstrated the need to expedite the training of civilians to prepare for earthquakes and other emergencies.

Following the Whittier Narrows earthquake, the City of Los Angeles took an aggressive role in protecting the citizens of Los Angeles by creating the Disaster Preparedness Division (now the Disaster Preparedness Unit) within the Los Angeles City Fire Department. Their objectives included:

Educate and train the public and government sectors in disaster preparedness
Research, evaluate, and disseminate disaster information
Develop, train, and maintain a network of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).

1993: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decided to make the concept and program available to communities nationwide. The Emergency Management Institute (EMI), in cooperation with the LAFD, expanded the CERT materials to make them applicable to all hazards.

2002: In January 2002, CERT became part of the Citizen Corps, a unifying structure to link a variety of related volunteer activities to expand a community's resources for crime prevention and emergency response.

            Additionally:

1995: CERT Training begins in Missouri.

2002: The Terrorism Unit was added to the CERT Training Materials and Course.

2005: Over 1550 CERT Programs registered! So far there are 90 Missouri Programs listed!

State Support

The Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) can support your CERT program in a variety of ways:

• Program Start-up
• Networking
• Information share via email group list and website
• Use of State CERT Training Trailer
• Participant Handbooks
• Course completion certificates
• Funding (when available - see Grant Programs)
• CERT Train-the-Trainer Courses

Federal Support

The Emergency Management Institute and Federal Emergency Management Agency CERT Website can be found at: https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/index.shtm. This website has a plethora of information to support your CERT Program including an online CERT course, CERT training materials, Maintaining CERT Program Job Aid and much more!

Other CERT Links

• Los Angeles CERT

• Florida CERT

• The Connection (NAEM CERT Newsletter)

• Association of Volunteer Emergency Response Teams (AVERT)

There are additional resources listed throughout this website

Last Updated: January 19, 2005