West Orange County CERT (Community Emergency Response Team for Western Orange County California)

West Orange County CERT serves the Western Orange County CA communities of Seal Beach, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, La Palma, Buena Park, and Westminster,

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WOC CERT February Team Training & Pot Luck

WOC CERT February Team Training & Pot Luck

West Orange County CERT - February Team Training & Potluck
Los Alamitos Captain O’Connell welcomes the CERT Team

Our February Team Training & Potluck was full of fun and fellowship. Hosted in Los Alamitos at the Community Center, we were treated to some very tasty Pot Luck dishes ranging from home baked ham and onion rings to a number of salad offerings, fried chicken, and bite sized sandwiches and of course the more traditional pizza and the usual slew of tempting dessert offerings.

More than forty Team members that attended our meeting where we were welcomed to the City by Los Al PD Captain O’Connell and Emergency Services Coordinator Robert Acosta. It was great having such a good turn out for our first meeting of the year.

Our training presentation from SCART (SoCal Animal Recuse Team) was both interesting and thorough. Our thanks to Susan Keyes and the other presenters for educating us on our personal animal preparedness and how to assist in caring for pets in a disaster. If you want to be ready to assist with pet care following a disaster, feel free to reach out to SCART for training dates and additional information. And a huge thank you to Robin for arranging the presentation.

The rest of our event was all about the upcoming CERT Basic Academy and finalizing the class leaders, the Team members who will assist with the medical exercises and of course who will gt to wear the “red hats” during the final exercise. Our next Academy is at the end of March, so we have jsut a few weeks to get things set.

Our Academy events are a full team effort to get 50-60 area residents exposed to basic disaster preparedness for themselves and their family members. When we have the next major disaster event in Southern California it will be 3-5 days before our first responders will be able to get to our homes to assist. During those times, we will be on our own. Our family members. Our immediate neighbors. Our block. Are you prepared for that? What if you are at work when this disaster occurs? Will your family be able to care for themselves if you can get back home for days? These questions are at the core of the FEMA based CERT Basic Training. If you need a refresher or are just stopping by for a bit more information, click the red button at the top of this page to find out when our next CERT Basic Academy is.

Our next Team Training & Potluck will be on Wednesday April 8th at the Seal Beach Police Department.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October Team Meeting – Tasty Food, Recognition & Skills Tune Up

October Team Meeting – Tasty Food, Recognition & Skills Tune Up

Our October Team meeting was held at the Cypress Community Center and did we have a great turnout – WOW!

More than 40 Team members brought a large assortment of store bought and home made food items: salads, chicken, pizza, macaroni casserole and enough desserts to feed an army of locust. Nicely done Team!

After Loree Erpelding (Cypress) welcomed us to the Cypress Community Center, we had time to catch up and share stories with CERT members both new and more seasoned. The “business” part of the meeting kicked off with recognition of those members with 10 or more years of service with our Team.  Willie Ortega, who is a member of the La Palma Trailer Team was recognized for his 11 years of service to our communities.

The members of the CMAP class we held this past weekend received their CMAP patch and most of them will be moving from B Level up to A Level which means they can be activated for emergencies county-wide when they are available. (Unlike the military, if an activation does not fit your schedule, you are not obligated to go, being a Level A member just makes you eligible to be deployed).

Before Ed Fleming (La Palma) started the night’s training, the Team members that helped out at National Night Out back in August received letters of thanks from the Cypress Police Department.

Our skills refresher was on triage and how to rapidly determine how critical an injured person is and how to initially classify them for treatment and care. Each of the more than 200 paper dolls had a condition listed on the back and team members were asked to make a determination of which classification best applied to the person.  There was a lot of discussion and when all the “cases” were classified, Ed did a spot review of them. The hands on following the review of START and RPM was well received and was found helpful by the members.

Julia Clasby (Seal Beach) then reviewed our upcoming events and opportunities to serve. Highlight events are the Seal Beach Christmas Parade on Friday December 7th and our December Team Meeting on Wednesday December 12th at the Seal Beach Police Department.

To close the meeting, there is a fundraiser by the Woman’s Club of Cypress. They are creating a cookbook, with 50% of the profits from sales will be donated to
the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation. The other 50% goes to college scholarships and other charitable donations. This fundraiser helps to cover cookbook production costs, so more profit can go to the foundation, scholarships, and charities.

The fundraiser is Tuesday October 23rd at Hoff Hut in Los Alamitos. If you’d like to support the fundraiser, please print the flyer here and show it to your server on 10/23 and 15% of your bill will go to the Club’s cookbook project. And please share this information with your friends.

West County CERT Meeting – August 2018

West County CERT Meeting – August 2018

Det. Josh Goldmark briefs West County CERT members on OCIAC
Det. Josh Goldmark briefs West County CERT members on OCIAC

La Palma played host to the West CERT meeting in August and as usual, the City was terrific.

After catching up with Team Members and sampling from a delicious set of food items, we had a terrific Team meeting on the evening pf August 8th.

After being welcomed by the City of La Palma Police Chief  Terry Kim and  Chet Corbin, we were briefed with an enlightening presentation about  the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center or OCIAC by Detective Josh Goldmark. Orange County has one of the 79 recognized “Fusion Centers” in the United States and we were fortunate to have Josh share a bit about what these centers do and how we can help them to keep us safe. You can find more information about OCIAC here

Following the presentation, Loree Erpelding presented thank you letters to those Team members who assisted at the Cypress Community Festival and gave a special “thank you” to Jeanette Vella for all she has done and continues to do as Admin Lead for the Team.

Watch your email for the upcoming CERT Academy’s Availability Sheet. We will need help both weekends.

And a big thank you to the City of La Palma for hosting us this month.