I’m Proud Of CERT Training. Can You Tell?

Our CERT Mock Disaster Drill ...

Drat!

Bad weather plagued our JaxCERT class.

Instructors postponed two classes when the Emergency Operations Center had to be activated because of tropical storms. Then Saturday morning our disaster drill was postponed for a couple of months because of heavy rain storms over the site.

Ginny and I feel both relieved and disappointed.

Relieved because the prospect of screwing up the disaster haunted us; disappointed because we were loaded for bear.

I mean, here we’ve studied and reviewed our manuals and class notes and talked of little else for weeks, then our disaster fizzled. We drove over the Fire Training Academy ready to perform amateur tracheotomies and then didn’t even get to apply a band aid with Fred Flintstone’s picture on it.

Drat!

All psyched up at 4 a.m. for nothing.

Just kidding about the tracheotomy thing, that’s beyond our training. Maybe they’ll cover that in the advanced class.

Our training teaches us the bare minimums to give disaster victims their best chance for survival. What I call the Ku Klux Klan Plus One:

Keep ‘em breathing.

Keep ‘em from burning.

Keep ‘em from bleeding out.

Plus, Keep ‘em from further shock.

But, although this morning’s drill was postponed, Ginny and I and all the other students did graduate!

First our instructors registered us in a restricted group for communications on the web. Then Jennifer, the program director, called our names and gave us certificates, hard hats, badges, backpacks full of safety/rescue goodies, and other equipment.

Here’s a photo of my new CERT helmet and backpack:

In addition to the backpack they supplied, I’ve equipped an emergency kit of my own containing essentials the Fire Department may not have thought of—pipe, matches and tobacco pouch, fruit bars and juice, pliers, scissors, red bandannas, a small Testament with Psalms and Prayer Book containing the burial service, a pry bar, small bolt cutters, dry socks and canvas shoes, a headband with LED lights, curved off-set tweezers, mosquito repellent, folding trowel, permanent marker, clorox wipes, flat and phillips head screwdrivers, etc.

Here’s a photo of me with some of the equipment CERT issued:

And here’s a photo of Disaster Ginny in her new CERT rig:

And, no, they didn’t let us take the fire truck home.

Drat!

Anyhow, I am now certifiable… Er, that doesn’t sound right.

What I mean is that like Superman, I’m “faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap off tall buildings in a single bound…”

Er, Ginny says the phrase is “Leap over tall buildings…” Maybe leaping over them will be covered in advanced training.

Anyhow, with my first course of CERT training I may not be Superman, or even Batman, but today I feel as though I can kick Robin’s ass.