The following is an overview of events I was involved with during the Golden Guardian Drill on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 starting at 10AM. In the weeks leading up to the drill I worked closely with Andrea (HR Manager) of The David Allen Company in Ojai (where I work) to put together a drill.
At 10AM each of the building captains (4 buildings) blew a whistle
Everybody got under a table and held on for one minute
Another whistle was blown a minute later signaling to evacuate building
Building captains did a headcount
Andrea and Paul communicated easily between building using FRS radios
Everybody accounted for by 10:03AM
All participants convened at main HQ building for a discussion
Discussion included:
-Evacuation procedure
-Re-entry procedure to retrieve laptops, etc
-Procedure for turning off electricity to building (if needed)
-Procedure for turning off water fountain
-Locations of fire extinguishers
-Shelter-in-place location
-Water, food, medical supplies
-Out of state contacts and means of communicating
-Procedure and importance of checking-out before leaving site
-Paul communicated drill results (via GMRS & Ham Radio) to Ojai EOC
A Disaster Prep Council was formed and will meet monthly.
I was extremely impressed with how smoothly the drill went -- demonstrates what's possible if everybody knows what to do and complies.
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THIS WEB-SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED.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).
