The 6th Ojai Valley CERT class, sponsored by District Supervisor Steve Bennett, graduated and completed their final drill exercise on Saturday, November 1st -- training was provided to nearly 60 students by Capt Steve Lazenby (Santa Paula FD).
The rain abated long enough to complete all portions of the drill. A downpour began immediately after the last CERT student used their extinguisher on a fire -- created and closely monitored by the local Ventura County Fire Department. As participants sought shelter, the Firemen didn't seem bothered by the rain.
Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club (www.ovarc.org) assisted with Radio Communications.
All components of the drill (Search & Rescue, Cribbing & Lifting, Medical/Triage, Fire Suppression) went smoothly with constructive suggestions offered by Firemen.
Ventura County District 1 County Supervisor Steve Bennett officiated at the graduation ceremony -- giving out over 40 certificates and reviewing the structure of Ojai Valley CERT being organized into nine neighborhoods.
Sean Kellythorne and Paul Garth welcomed the CERT graduates into the rapidly growing organization and reviewed Incident Command System and the importance of behaving professionaly at all times. Everyone (including the public) were invited to attend the upcoming Golden Guardian Presentation & Drill on Saturday November 15th -- please review http://sites.google.com/site/gg20081113/Home for more information.
Welcome to Ojai Valley CERT
IMPORTANT UPDATE.....
THIS WEB-SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED.
PLEASE GO TO HTTP://OJAIVALLEYCERT.ORG
This blog provides information to those interested in CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) activities in The Ojai Valley, CA. CERT works in partnership with OVARC (Ojai Valley Amateur Radio Club) which provides Ham Radio Communications - http://www.ovarc.org/.
http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert is a good place to begin learning about CERT. The fact is, immediately after a major disaster, each of us will be on our own while Emergency Services Personnel (Fire, Hospital, Police, Hospitals, etc) figure out what happened and how to respond. CERT teaches valuable self-preservation skills and empowers each of us to be of service to ourselves, family, neighborhood and community. By integrating CERT with Ham Radio, citizens can effectively communicate actionable information from the field to the Emergency Operations Center -- help will be on the way sooner.
Please check out the CERT Calendar & Map at the bottom of this web-page and sign our Guestbook (top right of page).
