April 2023

The CERT National Conference is Coming to Burlingame!

The National CERT Association (NCA) will hold its 2023 conference in San Francisco from June 29 to July 1, with preconference training available from June 26 to June 29. This year, the NCA is partnering with the California Office of Emergency Services, the Fire Services Training Institute and the Bay Area Urban Areas Securities Initiative, which will allow for enhanced training opportunities for conference attendees. More than 35 training opportunities will be offered during pre-conference this year.

The conference theme is CERT 360°, highlighting CERT’s ability to be flexible as a community resource, as well as being inclusive of all community members. The conference will feature trainings and presentations for all levels of CERT, including emergency managers, program managers, instructors, volunteers and CERT partners.

This year, the conference will include the first-ever National CERT skills competition. CERTs from across the U.S. will compete as teams.

The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency SFO hotel near the San Francisco Airport. For more information about the conference, visit the National CERT Association website to sign up for the 2023 National CERT Conference email list.

Conference Flyer

Conference Updates

Pre-conference Trainings

Pre-conference Agenda

Main Conference Agenda

County-Wide Communication Exercise

When: Saturday, April 29 AM

Where: Throughout the County

CERT teams are invited and encouraged to participate in a county-wide communications exercise. This exercise will involve CERTs, many of the neighborhood MURS user groups, ARES, other neighborhood emergency groups, and OR3.

The basic exercise will have team leaders or communication officers doing a welfare roll call (each member called by name) with MURS users at 10 am from their home location.

How to Assure You are Getting Activation Texts

All DSW CERTs received a text a few weeks ago, the day after the big wind storm, requesting CERTs to perform safe neighborhood windshield surveys and to send info to the County. You should also be receiving a text during our County-Wide Communication Drill.

These texts will come from the number 831 204-9583. Put it into your contacts, perhaps labeled CERT Text-em-all. If you want to receive future activation or drill notifications, please do NOT opt out of these texts.

If not receiving the texts, and your DSW badge is current, then please reach out to your team leader, and we can look into it.

Active Shooter Training

Once again this year CERTs are needed to assist with County Law/Fire active shooter training. Using MURS radios to communicate, CERTs are assigned positions outside the training zone to ensure that people do not stray into the area. Great situational awareness and radio practice!

When: July 10 - 15

Who: County First Responders and CERT

Where: San Lorenzo Valley school campus

SAVE THE DATE!

During the winter storms we all should have been receiving alerts in various ways. Please ensure you are ready to stay in touch when needed.

CODE RED - All cell phones and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) need to be registered to receive Reverse 911 calls. If you did not receive alerts from the County, Sheriff, or other emergency responders, please register at SCR911.org. Note: Over the next year or so the County may be moving to another, more robust, platform.

Battery operated radios operate even when you have lost power. SAME (Specific Area Message Encoder) NOAA weather radios, were also used to get urgent updates out, such as the severe weather alert with the big wind event. Stay informed and stay safe.

Upcoming Classes for CERTs and Non-CERTs!

CERT Basic Training - The Time to Prepare is Now

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Basic Training Course prepares you to help yourself and others at home and in your community in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a wildland fire or an earthquake. Because first responders will not be able to help everyone immediately, CERT training can help you stay safe, save lives, and protect property. You will learn what to do on your own, in your neighborhood, and how to help others as part of a CERT team. During the class, through lectures and hands-on practice, you learn about topics such as:

Disaster Preparedness
How CERT Operates
Disaster Medicine and Triage
Disaster Psychology
Fire and Utility Safety
Simple Search and Rescue
Terrorism and CERT. (No, we do NOT respond to Terrorism)

Our next class will run Wednesdays, May 17, 24, 31 & June 7 from 6–9:30pm

and Sunday, June 11th 9am–3:30pm in Live Oak.

For more information and to sign up, CLICK HERE. Then choose the tab for the In-person May/June class. Don't forget to click on Submit after you have entered your information.

Stop the Bleed

Saturday, May 20, 10 am–noon (April class full)

Central Fire Admin Building

Live Oak

What stops bleeding? In this STOP THE BLEED course, you’ll learn three quick techniques to help save a life before someone bleeds out:

How to use your hands to apply pressure to a wound;
How to pack a wound to control bleeding;
How to correctly apply a tourniquet.

These three techniques will empower you to assist in an emergency and potentially save a life. Class limited to 16 participants

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Continuing Education for CERTS

IS 100 & 200 Training

Struggling to complete the Santa Cruz County CERT-required FEMA IS-100 and IS-200 courses?

We are trying an experiment with a different way of completing these required courses. The FEMA course slides will be projected on a large screen and as a group we will complete the required course. This offers students a chance to ask questions and get additional information to have a clearer understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS).

Students bring their personal computers and will then take the required test independently.

Class will be at Central Fire, Live Oak

Saturday, April 22,10am-1pm IS 100

Saturday, May 6, 10am-1pm IS 200

Portable Solar Batteries: Pros and Cons

Portable solar batteries are useful in emergencies when conventional power is lost. These convenient power sources may be re-charged using portable solar panels, a wall outlet, or an automobile lighter socket. The presenter will share experiences with 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 Watt-hour batteries from a typical manufacturer. These setups will be available for attendees to inspect while their features and limitations are discussed. Sunday, May 21st in Seacliff.

For more information and to Register for CERT Continuing Education classes:

CLICK HERE

Kudos to Central Fire for offering free CPR training for folks in their fire district area. This includes residents of Aptos, Soquel, La Selva Beach, Capitola, and Live Oak. These free monthly classes begin May 22nd. Space is limited, Call 831 479-6842 to register.

Shout-out to the 66 people who have supported the CERT Auxiliary over the years through Amazon Smile. Their support brought in over $1800 PLUS a parting gift from Amazon who has ended the program.

Shout-out to LizAnne Jensen. Effective February 14, 2023, the CERT Auxiliary of Santa Cruz County Board of Directors elected LizAnne, a long-time member of CERT, to serve as the next President of the CERT Auxiliary Board. She will serve a two-year term.

LizAnne has been active with various volunteer emergency preparedness organizations for the past ten years, including serving on the CERT Auxiliary’s Board of Directors and the Fire Safe Council's Board as Treasurer and Vice-President from 2018 to 2022. She is also a member of Bonny Doon CERT and participates as an active community member with the Bonny Doon Fire Safe Council.

Over the past 16 years, LizAnne has evacuated four times for periods ranging from five days to a full month due to both wildfires and extreme weather events. She knows the importance of emergency preparation and community engagement around disasters. She is looking forward to helping to expand the mission of the CERT Auxiliary to educate volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that occur where they live.

Congratulations to Laurel Neil, one of our newer CERTs who is interested in becoming a CERT Trainer. Lucky for us, Laurel, a Wilderness First Responder, and small business owner, also has Spanish as her first language. Laurel has received a full scholarship for the National CERT Conference including the opportunity to become a FEMA-certified CERT Basic Trainer for our Spanish-speaking community!

Welcome to the newest class of CERTs!

Help Wanted!

Wanted: a CERT with interest in non-profit management.

Particular attention to:

—bookkeeping,

—program development,

—meeting management, and

—grant writing.

Send contact information to certauxiliary@gmail.com

Wanted: Can you help with the Auxiliary website? Our webmaster Ken Braly seeks an assistant to help maintain the site, santacruzcountycert.org. Familiarity with WordPress and HTML desirable. If you’d like to consider this, contact Ken at ken@kenb.com.

Please note: these positions are unpaid, as are all of us.

The CERT Auxiliary of Santa Cruz County is dependent on grants and donations to keep the program running. Please consider a gift to help us fund these classes. We thank you in advance.