In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

Last month, I wrote a post, “As 25th Birthday Approaches, Is It Time To Reevaluate CERT’s Role, Management, Training, Resources, Etc.?”, discussing the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program (which I participate in here in New York City). I was prompted to write it by another post on the blog Homeland Security Watch in which Mark [...]

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There was an interesting and provocative post yesterday by Mark Chubb in the Homeland Security Watch blog, “Volunteer Does Not Equal Free.” Chubb, a senior civil servant in an emergency management agency, writes about a recent meeting in which he heard feedback from local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteer team leaders. He was struck [...]

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This edition of the “What Should We Tell The Public?” video series features Lt. Erica Arteseros, the coordinator of the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) in San Francisco, the city’s equivalent of CERT.
In the video, Arteseros encourages citizens to consider volunteering for NERT or CERT because “getting involved is one of the most empowering things [...]

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CERT members don’t volunteer for the fringe benefits. But nonetheless it was great that the USS Intrepid Museum offered free admission today to CERT’s as part as their “Safety Preparedness Weekend”. So, I took one of my daughters to the newly refurbished carrier which is docked on the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan. It’s always [...]

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On this blog, I try to highlight examples of people who show what can be done by a single individual in the area of citizen preparedness — and may provide inspiration to others. The story of one such person, Lisbeth R., was recently featured in the “Safety & Security” section of the Serve.Gov website. Lisbeth explains [...]

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In a recent Blogger Roundtable, new FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate while extolling the value of the CERT program misspoke and called it the “Citizen Emergency Response Team”. The actual name for these citizen-staffed squads is “Community Emergency Response Team.” Yet, Fugate is not alone in occasionally making that same slip. I hear it a lot [...]

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Bill Firestone was Florida’s first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program coordinator from 1998-2001 (under new FEMA head Craig Fugate). Firestone now runs a consultancy EM Training. He is also a reader of the blog and sent me an email reacting to Fugate’s comment I wrote about urging CERT members to be “ambassadors” in their communities. [...]

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As I mentioned previously, I completed a “Ready NY Presenter Training” last month for CERT members interested in doing public preparedness presentations in the community. At the end of the training, each of us had to narrate five of the Ready NY presentation slides and were evaluated by New York City Office of Emergency Management [...]

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I received a birthday e-card this morning from my friend, David Stephenson, which said: “I’m sure today will be one the happiest birthdays of your life. Enjoy it to your fullest.” He’s right. Finishing six months of chemotherapy just weeks ago has made today, my 46th birthday, happy indeed. And I tried to enjoy it to [...]

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With my chemotherapy finished, I have had the time and energy to participate in several Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training sessions being offered by the New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) which oversees our CERT program. I ended up completing three in the same week (in addition to the drill at the the World Trade [...]

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