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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West Orange County CERT can help me and
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July 2019 CERT Academy – Week 1 – What an Amazing Group

July 2019 CERT Academy – Week 1 – What an Amazing Group

We kicked off our 2019 CERT Academy* with an amazing group of community members and leaders. This is a great class representing all six cities who sponsor our program and a half dozen surrounding communities.

Our first weekend we covered disaster psychology, fire safety, utility control for your home, search and light rescue, and disaster triage and first aid. Quite a lot of terrific information. And thanks to the City of Westminster, we had a delicious Italian meal for Saturday lunch.

As special thanks to all of our instructors and to Dr. Heather Williams for coming out to talk with our class about disaster psychology and the emotional effects of disaster for everyone including responders.

Here’s a quick summary video of weekend 1

 

CERT Academy is for you too!

If you want to find out more about how you too can prepare your family for the next disaster that strikes your neighborhood or Southern California, please sign up here and we will send you an invitation to our next class.

 

* The West Orange County CERT Academy covers the basic FEMA CERT 20 hour training course and includes a full exercise following our graduation ceremonies on the second Saturday.

 

CERT Academy Graduates – August 2018

CERT Academy Graduates – August 2018

Congratulations to the latest class from the West Orange County CERT Academy
Congratulations to the August 2018 class from the West Orange County CERT Academy

Congratulations and a warm welcome to the 60 new CERT Academy graduates and thank each of you for showing up and digging in to the weekend. We all learned a lot and had some fun and met some new friends while we were at it.
And a HUGE thanks to all the CERT Members who met and planned in the days and weeks before the Academy helped make this terrific event possible and then during the four days at JFTB, Los Alamitos. The Team came out in force over the entire weekend to support the Academy and made it one of the best we have held.

The registration team lead by Jeanette Vella did a terrific job of getting the attendees to the Academy, checked in and out, and all the other administrative tasks needed to keep the records straight. Our Team instructors, Kris Moscowitz, Ed Fleming, and our dynamic physician team of Dr. Michell Ryan and Dr. Joe Horejsi who held pre-academy meetings to ensure the CERT Members helping with medical portions of the Academy were all on the same page and knew the high points to cover.

The Seal Beach Trailer Team lead by Ray Vella and Dave Atkins were there to support the Academy each day and the La Palma Trailer Team of Kris Moscowitz and Willie Ortega were on scene to assist with the final exercise. Of course, the Team shutter bugs Pat and Roberta O’Toole along with Art Remnet were snapping away. How does that go, if it isn’t recorded, it didn’t happen?

And it all starts with our coordinators Ed Fleming, Julia Clasby, Loree Erpelding, Ellen Lopez, Dan Brandt, and Aaron France who pulled together the facilities, logistics, and resources we needed. And we tip our hats and give thanks to the outside experts who shared their insights with the Academy: JFTB/Los Alamitos Fire; Robert Acosta, OCFA; OCFA Buena Park; the CARE EMTs (both Saturdays), Dr. Heather Williams, OCSD; and Josh Goldmark, OCIAC. And we appreciate the assistance of the JFTB command staff who allowed us to use their facilities.

In support and appreciation of the CERT program, each of the six cities comprising West County CERT was on hand to congratulate our latest Academy Graduates: Chief Rod Cox, Cypress; Chief Terry Kim, La Palma; Asst City Manager Buena Park Aaron France; Sgt Mike Henderson, Seal Beach; Sgt Kain Gallaugher, Los Alamitos; and Chief Ralph Ornelas, Westminster.

And to make our final exercise possible, the make-up artistry and skills of Marie Sorenson and the willing victims/actors Explorers from Seal Beach, Buena Park, and Orange were amazing.

The August 2018 CERT Academy Graduates

Congratulations to the August 2018 Graduating Class from the West Orange County CERT Academy
Congratulations August 2018 Graduates!

If you are interested in joining one of our upcoming CERT Academy programs or just want to find out more about CERT in your area, please let us know. You can find out more about the CERT Academy here or sign up for our CERT Academy notification list here.
 

 

 

 

 

Please note: the danger in thanking people by name is someone always gets left out. We appreciate everyone who helped make this Academy so terrific. If your name should have been listed, please accept our apologies.

CERT Academy – August 2018 – Weekend #2

CERT Academy – August 2018 – Weekend #2

On the second weekend we start off with a always great pot-luck dinner with the class and then dive into both disaster psychology and how CERT responds to terrorism (hint: report what you see happening and then leave the terrorist activity to the professionals) with some tips on how to keep yourself and family safe.

West county CERT Academy
Two Weeks is the New 3 Days

Then Saturday morning we review what we have covered so far, get a good feel for how ICS works, run through an ICS exercise, and then start planning for the afternoon exercise where we use the skills we’ve acquired over the past 4 days to use in a disaster scenario.

One of the big take aways from the morning presentations is that “2 weeks is the new 3 days” when it comes to how long you need to be prepared to survive before “first responders” can provide assistance. You and your neighborhood are the first line of defense when it comes to post-disaster survival.