Huron Township CERT

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Huron Township CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) is a group of volunteer citizens who are trained & willing to step in, when asked, by the emergency manager. Events that may trigger a CERT Team deployment are disasters of varying sizes & orignins or large public gathering that may overtax the local emergency services. The Team's roll is to assist fellow citizens who otherwise may not receive services in a timely manner due to the overextension of emergency services. The team is trained to operate according to the federally mandated Incident Command System. Services the Team is prepared to render may include light search & rescue, cribbing, triage, first aid  / CPR, small fire extinguishing, crowd management, traffic control, shelter management, weather spotting and others as needed. As of April 1st, 2010, the Team consists of 91 trained members.  Another CERT Academy will be starting in early fall, 2010. 

 

 

CERT is a federally funded program and is a partner program to the US Citizen Corps, which was founded by the president in 2003. Our Team was established in November of 2007. A committee of five members was assembled by Huron Township Fire Chief, Dave Russow, to work out the logistics & financing necessary to start a local CERT Team. After many hours contributed by this volunteer group, the foundation of the program was solid enough to build on. The Township Board, by a unanimous resolution, endorsed the establishment of the Huron Township Citizen Corps Council which includes CERT as a partner program. Arrangements were then made to acquire training materials & recruit team members.

 

 

 

On January 22nd, 2008, the first CERT Academy was started. A class of 27 members began receiving their training in the CERT concepts. Training includes 30 hours of classroom & practical exercises. Courses included in the academy are: Intro to CERT, CERT Organization, Hazard Mitigation, Disaster Preparedness, Personal Protection, Fire Safety / Extinguishing, Disaster Medical Operations, Triage, Light Search & Rescue, Cribbing, Terrorism Awareness, Disaster Psychology, radio communications and Hazardous Materials. Practical training includes hands-on exercises in size-up, search & rescue under less than favorable conditions, lifting heavy objects using cribbing methods, triaging & transporting victims, first-aid, CPR, extinguishing small fires using our fire simulator, emergency water & gas shut-offs and operational debriefing.