We made it through Hurricane Season 2020! While the official hurricane season ended on November 30, NOAA reminds us that tropical storms may still form in December. It seems like anything can happen in 2020. This year brought a record-breaking 30 named storms to the Atlantic. Twelve of the storms made landfall in the continental United States. This was the 5^th consecutive year with above-normal activity in the Atlantic.

LWR CERT completed a successful Activation for Tropical Storm Eta. Sixteen teams activated and provided damage assessment information for their neighborhoods. While Eta turned out to be a minor storm for us, the Activation was a good exercise. We will make some refinements for next year, which should position us to better assist our neighbors in 2021. Thank you to the 114 members who responded!

Holiday season decorations can increase fire risk in our homes. Please stay prepared and stay safe.

Our team is planning many activities for 2021; we are hoping that the pandemic will subside enough to let us complete training and public events safely. Until then, enjoy the holiday season!

The first virtual Annual Member Meeting and Election went off without a hitch just days after LWR CERT's first ever full activation.

Due to Tropical Storm Eta, the scheduled speaker from the National Weather Service postponed his presentation.

Pat Knowles was elected as a member of the Board during a virtual vote. Attendees voted via Slido and tracked the election results live during the meeting. Pat will continue to serve on the Board; his new term runs through 2023. Congratulations, Pat!

Members who activated for Tropical Storm Eta enabled LWR CERT to provide damage assessment reports to Manatee County Emergency Management, East Manatee Fire & Rescue and IDA Operations.

The Executive Committee held 5 meetings assessing Eta before deciding to activate.

Eta took an unexpected turn east. The optimal 72-hour activation process was completed in just 21 hours. This resulted in emails arriving late in the evening for all members.

Thank you to the 141 members who responded to either the text message or email from their TC. Even if the response was "No," your response was still valuable to a successful activation..

Overall, the processes worked. Some newer technologies failed in the midst of activation. Communication and training issues raised are being worked on to better streamline future activations.

If you would like to take an active role in helping improve the LWR CERT activation process, email cert@lwrcert.org.

Activating for Tropical Storm Eta showed just how many LWR CERT members are truly Active Responders. Two new qualifying activities were added to the Active Responder program:

Based on this new criteria, after counting Activation for Eta and attendance at the Annual Member Meeting, 36 members reached Tier 1 and 76 reached Tier 2 (some who also just earned Tier 1). The total of Tier 1 2020 Active Responders is now 137 and Tier 2 2020 Active Responders is 122.

Congratulations to the newest 2020 Active Responder members listed below. Team Captains have been provided with car sticker awards for Tier 1 qualifiers and cooling towel awards for Tier 2 qualifiers.

Paul Jackowski

Happy December birthday to members Becky Bertram, Donna Donato, Patsy Gasaway, Roger Grossel, Larry Hansen, Karen Lilly, Gerald Miller, and Christine Zieg.

Team Kit Return - Team Captains should plan to return their Team Kits to the new storage facility (off SR 70 just east of 75) on Saturday, Dec. 5 between 9 - 10:30 AM. TCs not available during the scheduled time are encouraged to make arrangements with a fellow team member to return the Kits or contact Pat Knowles.

Remove your batteries - Now that Hurricane Season is officially over, now is the time to find your backpack and make sure the batteries are removed from your radio. Batteries left in may leak, resulting in an unusable radio.

Alert Manatee - Manatee County has changed their emergency alert system. CodeRED is no longer in operation. Click here to sign up for Alert Manatee to learn more and to receive notifications from government and public safety officials.