CERT seeks volunteers to better prepare city
Retired Army Lt. Col. John Griscom is a good man to have around during a tornado, or a terrorist threat, or worse.
As program manager of Trussville’s Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), he, along with his five instructors, trains citizens to be prepared for any disaster in the community.
The city of Trussville is sponsoring CERT courses that have been ongoing at Trussville Civic Center since January, and the most recent class of CERT volunteers graduated March 8. There are now more than 24 CERT teams in Alabama, and to date, Trussville’s CERT instructors have trained 32 residents.
These citizens have learned about disaster preparedness, light fire suppression, medical operations, light search and rescue, disaster psychology, CERT organization and terrorism awareness.
When an EF-3 tornado struck Clay’s Pilgrim’s Rest subdivision in 2012, Trussville’s CERT volunteers were there to help.
“CERT’s response was limited during this time and small in scope,” Griscom said. “But we assisted the local departments and helped with the spontaneous volunteers.”
Spontaneous volunteers are those who show up to help, but haven’t had any training and can often get in the way of trained responders doing their job.
Likewise, when Longmeadow resident and The Palace employee Pei Yen Sung went missing in June last year, CERT volunteers completed light search and rescue, covering every square inch in the Trussville area. Sung is still missing, but it’s those cases that push Griscom to work harder at building the local CERT program.
What he really needs and wants is more people.
“We would like more participation from our local community,” he said. “What we would like to have is a leader from each subdivision or neighborhood in the city to lead a team.”
That way, if disaster strikes, Trussville would already have an infrastructure of trained disaster relief volunteers who could work together. He said he would like to see at least 20 residents in the next class, instead of the five they had this time.
The CERT courses are open to anyone who wants to be better prepared to respond to and cope with the aftermath of a disaster.
“People should want to do this because they’re interested in helping themselves and their community,” Griscom said.
Griscom completed his first CERT course in 2005 in Homewood’s program. He was working with the Emergency Management Agency, or EMA, at that time, and when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that year, he volunteered for the American Red Cross, running supplies to and providing security for the local shelters.
If a catastrophic event hit Trussville next week, more than likely residents wouldn’t need to seek out CERT’s help. Instead, CERT would come to them. They would take certain steps initially, including assessing the area and its damage, splitting their team off and looking for survivors and checking them for injuries. They also might administer basic first aid, CPR, and Automated External Defibrillator, or AED, and set up a reception center or triage.
The volunteers have learned how to do this and more, including how to use a chainsaw safely and effectively; thus, the instructors have emphasized that CERT volunteers learn to take care of themselves and family first, and then they can assist their neighbors and community.
“Our priority is safety first,” Griscom said. “The last thing you want is a team member who becomes a casualty. That’s one reason we teach them to work in pairs; everyone has a partner.”
CERT teams are also trained to assist local fire and police operations, in hopes that they can relieve some of the administrative burden during a crisis. They also look for potential hazards in the area, such as examining what’s flowing through the city’s drainage system.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has provided the instructional materials for the courses and some grants, but the maintenance of the city’s CERT program has mainly been left to the local police and fire departments, Griscom said.
“We have a lot of support from the local fire department and police,” he said. “The fire department has been great in supplying our CERT kits, and they provide additional training monthly, too. They have also given us a disaster trailer that will hopefully be turned into an office for CERT.”
For now, the civic center remains home base, and there is much work yet to be done, he said.
The City and Trussville’s Public Safety Committee will host a joint CERT exercise April 30 with teams from Irondale, Springville, Trussville and Vestavia Hills, to test training and procedures in responding to a disaster.
“We are expecting at least 100 to be there,” Griscom said. “The simulated exercise will be a tornado, and we will even have scouts who will serve as casualties.”
In October, they will also participate in the fourth annual National Night Out, a community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships. To be held in Target’s parking lot, CERT will show residents their equipment and talk about what they do, and other organizations will do the same.
Griscom said they hope to open another CERT class in July or August. The course is nine weeks long with three hours each session.
For further information, contact Griscom at certpm@outlook.com, or find the team on Facebook. More information about CERT teams can be found at fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams.
Family supply list for emergencies
► Water, one gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation
► Food, at least a three-day supply of nonperishable food for each person
► Battery-powered radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert, and extra batteries for both
► Flashlight and extra batteries
► First aid kit
► Whistle to signal for help
► Infant formula and diapers, if needed
► Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
► Dust mask or cotton T-shirt, to help filter the air
► Plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
► Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
► Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
► Clothing and bedding:
It is possible that the power will be out and you will not have heat. One complete change of warm clothing and shoes per person, including:
► A jacket or coat
► Long pants
► A long sleeve shirt
► Sturdy shoes
► A hat and gloves
► A sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person
Below are some other items to consider adding. Some, especially those marked with a * can be dangerous, so an adult should collect these.
► Emergency reference materials such as a first aid book or a printout of the information on ready.gov
► Rain gear
► Mess kits, paper cups, plates and plastic utensils
► Cash or traveler’s checks, change
► Paper towels
► Fire extinguisher
► Tent
► Compass
► Matches in a waterproof container*
► Signal flare*
► Paper, pencil
► Personal hygiene items including feminine supplies
► Disinfectant*
► Household chlorine bleach* You can use bleach as a disinfectant (diluted nine parts water to one part bleach), or in an emergency, use it to treat water. Use 16 drops of regular household liquid bleach per gallon of water. Do not use scented, color safe or bleaches with added cleaners.
► Medicine dropper
► Important family documents such as copies of insurance policies, identification and bank account records in a waterproof, portable container