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Lynn Burttchell from Star Flight and a Lt. with the Wimberley VFD was the instructor for our Swift Water training session Saturday, May 12th.
He presented an important, informative and entertaining session on swift water rescue. The main objective of the techniques was focused on keeping the rescuers safe while attempting to help people in need.
This training was very topical as Lynn had participated in five water events over the last couple of days. Members who were not able to attend, should review unit 5 of the CERT training manual on light search and rescue.
At the end of the training session, CERT members participated in a rescue bag throwing exercise to review and learn the proper use of throw bags and common signals and communications during water rescue. CERT is not trained to be “in the water” for rescue, but we perform a critical role in supporting the first responders.
It's absolutely essential we understand the principles, techniques, precautions and silent or whistle communication signals associated with water rescue scenes.
Attending were: Paul Elliott, Mike Wilmore, Andrew Garcia, Kay Mayfield, Marsteller, EJ Josephson, Cathy Kubica, Gary Callon, Jim White, Charlie Plassmann, Rich Coleman, Eleanor Coleman, Char Wood, and Jason Hatch... plus one new applicant, Brian Lysek.
[Information provided by Ops Director Mike Wilmore and photo by Charlie Plassmann]
IMPORTANT TEAM NEWS & INFORMATION
Enjoyable, productive Firefighter Feast... CERT participated in the Driftwood Fire Fighter Feast with a display of our ISV along with the “Are You Prepared” program.
We had a representative “72 hour go bag” along with our preparedness hand out and mini Frisbees. New this year was having a TV with a running display of CERT activities.
A number of people stopped by to look at our information and took our handout.
Gordon DeWitte, Charlie Plassmann, Patti Barrett and Mike Wilmore participated. Bill Coffman was also there but as a Driftwood VFD captain. [info from Mike Wilmore & Charlie Plassmann.
MSAR training set for Wed. May 23rd... It'll take place between 0900 & noon at the Old Glory Ranch, 3633 River Road, Wimberley.
The goals will be (riders)practice marking trails with our handheld GPS and(Horses/Mule): conditioning riding on hills, practice crossing water, maneuvering around various trail obstacles and sensitize around local wildlife.
We will meet just inside the main gate at 0900. This is a 2,200 acre ranch that has 2 miles of water footage on the Blanco River. We will be riding for three hours.
Two graduate from Sheriff's Academy... Monday, May 7, 2012, CERT members Gary Callon and Ed Josephson along with 20 other Hays County citizens graduated from the Hays County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy. They join 19 other CERT members who have graduated from the Academy.
Recommended for all CERT members, the Academy has been conducted for 14 years, with two classes every year. The course is 13 weeks long, and consists of approximately 45 hours of instruction. Students learn about aspects of the law enforcement profession, and get to see life from the perspective of a law enforcement officer. Participants also observe a SWAT team exercise, participate in emergency vehicle operations, and have an opportunity to shoot firearms with deputies.
The next Citizens Academy is scheduled to begin in August. Information and applications will be available in July.
For further information or questions, contact Deputy Jeff Jordan with the Community Outreach Division at 512-393-7373 or via email at jeff.jordan@co.hays.tx.us.
We establish important HAM radio connection... The CERT team and the county Amateur Radio Emergency Services have coordinated for CERT to be a serviced agency for emergency communications support now that we have a radio setup that allows us to communicate on Amateur Radio frequencies.
On the 5th of May, along with Market Days support, CERT responded to an Amateur Radio exercise call out with our ISV to participate in a simulated emergency test of communications support. The scenario for the exercise was a massive solar flare that shut down most of the communications elements, internet, etc. We deployed the ISV to Wimberley and along with two members of the Hays/Caldwell ARES team set up an emergency communications location. We monitored radio traffic and provided input to the exercise. This exercise was our first to use the ISV’s Radio setup in an operational event.
Gordon DeWitte and Mike Wilmore did the "heavy lifting."
Training plans...Following is a list of training subjects through August. All will begin at 0900 and take place at the Annex unless otherwise indicated:
April 14 - Disaster Medical Operations (part 2)
May 12 - Swift Water Rescue
June 9 - Light Search & Rescue
July 14 - Terrorism & CERT
Aug. 11 - Disaster Preparedness & Disaster Psychology
HC CERT structure,leadership & 2012 schedules... Below is the Management structure of Hays County CERT effective 10 December 2011.
Directors:
Finance – Bill Coffman, Logistics- Gordon DeWitte, Operations – Mike Wilmore, Training – Paul Elliott
Each Director will serve a 3-month term as Managing Director as follows: Jan-Mar - DeWitte; Apr-Jun - Elliott; Jul-Sep - Coffman; Oct-Dec - Wilmore
Team Leaders/Alternate Team Leaders
North Team – Charlie Plassmann, Cathy Kubica
East Team - Char Wood, Karen Herrmann
South-West Team – Kay Mayfield, Ron Kondoff
SAR Team Training Coordinators
SAR Training Coordinator: Charlie Plassmann
MSAR Training Coordinator: Shirley Roberts
Market Day rotation...Following is the rotation of teams staffing market day for fire prevention and EMS support:
Mar - North; Apr - East; May - South-West; Jun - North; Jul - East; Aug - South-West; Sep - North; Oct - East; Nov - South-West; Dec - Directors
A Hurricane Shelter Update.... This year's "hurricane season" has ended. Still, if you haven't done so, be sure to know how to get to the three principal county shelters that could be used for Hurricane evacuees. We need to be able to find our way to these locations quickly and probably on dark, rainy nights: Hays H.S. (4800 Jack C. Hays Trail, Buda); Lehman H.S. (1700 Lehman Rd., Kyle), and Barton Middle School (4950 Jack C. Hays Trail, Buda).
Thanks to recent ARC Shelter Mgmt/Operations training, we now have 36 members who are certified, including 13 who've completed CASHP (Capital Area Shelter Hub Plan)training.
FEMA Incident Command System courses required...All Hays Co. CERT members are expected to complete two on-line courses pertaining to the Incident Command System -- the system we will be working under at virtually all call-outs.
The many members who have completed the courses say each takes about 1-1/2 hours to complete. Access them at: http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp. That will take you to the Emergency Management Institute course list. Scroll down the course list to the first required course: ICS-100 (Introduction to the Incident Command System), then take ICS-700 (National Incident Management System). It's recommended you download the course outlines which you can use to complete the quiz which you can also download. Any questions... and once you've finished a course, please contact Training Director Cathy Kubica. In addition, Team Leaders are required to complete ICS-200.
Severe weather CERT advisories... The best place to stay up to date on what's happening in the County is to check the County web site (http://www.co.hays.tx.us)and click on the Office of Emergency Management tab on the home page. Call out standbys and actions will continue to be communicated through Team Leaders.
How to get to our "Annex" meeting location... To get there, it’s best to first locate the intersection of Jacobs Well Rd (CR 182)with RR12 on a map or Google.
That intersection is about 11 mi South of Dripping Springs (intersection of Hwy 290 & Ranch Rd. 12) or about 3 mi North of Wimberley.
There’s a huge Veterans Park/Rodeo sign at that intersection. From there, go West on Jacobs Well Rd. while looking skyward and spot a cell phone tower pretty much right in front of you. The tower will be about 1/4 mile from the RR 12 intersection.
Go in the open gate right under the cell phone tower, which leads to some ball diamonds and a little building to the right that looks like a portable school building. That’s the VFW annex where we regularly meet & also keep our supplies. There's a CERT sign on the building.
At meeting time on a Sat a.m., the Annex will also be the first structure you see that will have a bunch of cars & trucks outside within plain view of the road you’ll be traveling on.
There’s no physical street number for anything mentioned. But, if you use "Google" satellite map views, you can easily spot the ball diamonds, the annex building and the adjacent VFW rodeo arena and large VFW Post building and grounds.
Volunteers are needed. For more information, please click
here to email CERT.
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