Cobb County’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will hold another round of free training sessions for volunteers in May.
To better understand what they do, in March these trained volunteers led and organized three separate searches for missing persons.
Previously, CERT members have assisted in police training events, performed disaster damage assessments and supplemented staffing for the county’s Emergency Operation Center to keep it ready for crises.
In February, CERT had classes for deaf participants held entirely in sign language. A total of 16 graduated.
In a related effort, Boy Scout Harrison Sullivan from Kennesaw put together more than 100 “three-day” survival packs for the deaf community as his Eagle Scout project.
Though the county runs free training classes on an almost monthly basis, the Cobb Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) would like to see more participants join its efforts.
Staff is hoping to see similar programs run by all of Cobb’s six cities as well as more participation by churches and large employers, according to a county statement.
“This training is needed more and more because civilians are typically the initial responders at incidents and are on the scene at the time,” CEMA Public Programs Coordinator Bernard King said. “This was the case in Boston, Paris and Las Vegas.”
Training includes disaster preparedness, first aid, evaluating wounded patients, fire suppression, team organization and conducting searches.
While each class is designed for up to 30 attendees, only about 15 to 20 participants are enrolling, leaving plenty of room for those interested, King said.
Applications are being accepted for the next sessions on May 12, 19 and 26 on the CERT website at CobbCounty.org.
Once completed, this online application will be submitted to CEMA for processing.
Applicants will need to send a legible copy of their driver’s license by email to Bernard.King@CobbCounty.org to complete the application process.
Information: 770-499-4568.
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