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Ed Yeates reporting In a major earthquake, the help you expect to arrive right away may not come at all. That's why the government is again encouraging neighborhoods to form their own Community Emergency Response Teams or CERTs.
When the big earthquake hits this valley, you may hear a lot of sirens in the distance, but not in your own neighborhood. That's because professional emergency first responders will be taking care of public buildings--areas that must be secured first to preserve public safety.
In your backyard, you may be taking care of your family while you wait for help to arrive, which conceivably may not show up for several days.
While Wells, Nev., has a small population, cities lining the Wasatch Front are huge. Neighborhoods wanting help will have to get it from core groups like these. They're your own next door neighbors trained to mobilize quickly.
A California group showed Eyewitness News how it's done. The units set up command centers in garages. They have street maps and inventories of families.
They tie specially colored ribbons on doorknobs to note moderate or severe damage and who needs help first.
They survey for other hazards. Rachel Jacky is the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) national director for the CERT Program. She came to Salt Lake for a conference; coincidentally, at the same time the Nevada earthquake broke loose. "One of the features that community response teams bring to disaster response that nobody else has, and that is they know their own neighborhoods." And they know them well.
If a household has someone with special occupational expertise, or tools and equipment that might prove useful in rescue, they're on these lists. They know where frail elders live and others who have special needs.
Jacky says though training CERT units cost money, they're critically needed. She says, "I want a CERT Program in every single city or town and possibly run by the county. And I would like to have a team in every neighborhood."
CERT training takes about 20 hours to complete. It's part of this country's grass-roots movement under what is called the Citizen Corps.
For more information on the CERT Program, go to the related link.
