In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

After the American Red Cross’ Senior Vice President of Preparedness and Response Joe Becker finished doing a segment for this blog’s new video series “What Should We Tell The Public?”, he said he had another one in him and was kind enough to stick around to tape it. In his second segment, Becker again [...]

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Last night, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hosted a barbecue marking the 5th Anniversary of the Civilian Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program in New York City at Gracie Mansion on the East River. CERT members came from all over the City to enjoy the beautiful weather and view as well as to celebrate the growth and impact of CERT since its [...]

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My CERT team was mobilized by the City’s Office of Emergency Management for the last two days to help tenants move back into the Upper East Side Manhattan building which was struck by a falling crane last Friday morning. Our team, the East Side Neighborhood Association (ESNA)-CERT, was joined by the Upper East Side CERT. We were activated because we are [...]

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Soon after the tragic crane collapse on the Upper East Side, my CERT team was deployed by the City’s Office of Emergency Management to help in the response.

A photo I took yesterday of local residents looking at the aftermath of a crane collapse that had killed two people earlier in the day.
We helped the Red Cross set up and staff [...]

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I just received some terrific news from Pat Salins, the leader of the CERT team in Manhattan’s Community Board 6. She told me that a neighborhood resident heard me discussing about my CERT experiences on the WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show last month and decided to join up.
 
This would be the second person I know who has joined CERT as a result of the WNYC series, which [...]

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Last night, I attended a CERT Training for Manhattan team members at Lehman College which featured presentations from officials from the New York City Office of Emergency Management, Fire Department and Police Department officials. 
NYFD Captain Joe Brosi, a CERT Liaison and team trainer, (pictured above) reviewed the Incident Command structure under which we work during an emergency. Because CERT [...]

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As part of our CERT responsibilities, we are occasionally asked to participate in City emergency drills. On Saturday, I had the opportunity along with 30 other CERT members to play the role of ‘civilians’ in a major New York Fire Department (FDNY) exercise, “Operation Civil Support”. 
 (Firemen arrive to rescue us ‘civilians’ after mock chemical attack on mock subway at the Fire Academy)
 (Outside [...]

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I don’t know how interesting and helpful my ‘Are You Ready’ series was for most of Brian Lehrer’s listeners on WNYC. However, I was thrilled to hear that it may have at least had a small, albeit important, constructive impact on New York City’s emergency efforts.
Roger, a listener from Brooklyn, New York, emailed me through this site after the second episode to [...]

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I did my first appearance on the Brian Lehrer show today on WNYC. I will be appearing every Thursday this month to discuss civilian emergency preparedness. The audio file is on this web page.
 http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/04/03
I don’t know how well I sounded. But at least I looked the part in my CERT outfit.

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One of the most interesting and fulfilling parts of my preparedness experience thus far has been my participation in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. CERT is a federally-funded program which trains citizens to help the authorities during emergencies. It began in California and has spread across the nation. Here in New York City, there are currently 56 teams in all [...]

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