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| About Us The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. Furthermore, it confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their immediate needs following a disaster. Recognizing that Fire and Police Department resources would be overwhelmed and may not be where they are most needed, initially, neighborhoods need to be organized, and they should know one another in order to be better prepared to respond to and cope with, the aftermath of a disaster. We recognize that after a major disaster, people would naturally want to help, but they should be trained to help, so that they do not become victims themselves. These groups of trained “first responders” can provide immediate assistance to victims in their area, organize spontaneous volunteers who have not had the training, and collect disaster intelligence that will assist professional responders with prioritization and allocation of resources following a disaster. Since 1993 when this training was made available nationally by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), communities in 28 States and Puerto Rico have conducted CERT training. Here in San Mateo, in the mid-nineties, we had already started our “NEST” Program, which stood for Neighborhood Emergency Services Team. Hundreds of San Mateo residents were trained. In 2001, the City’s Disaster Cache, which contained the supplies needed to serve the community during a disaster, were destroyed in a fire. Although devastating at the time, the fire allowed for an opportunity to re-design how disaster equipment was stored in the City. Funds were acquired to replace the destroyed cache and 4 portable disaster trailers were purchased. In late 2005, while the Office of Emergency Services was in transition, the decision was made to re-vamp the NEST program and make it conform to the standards of the federally accepted CERT Program. Since July, 2006, we have trained 158 citizens in the new CERT curriculum. It is our goal to have 1 in every 25 San Mateo residents trained in the CERT program. |
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