Emergency Response Team Looks to Double Size
All-volunteer Community Emergency Response Team hopes to expand group beginning in February.
If you had the opportunity to visit the local warming centers or overnight shelters during the days that followed Hurricane Sandy, chances are you met members of the Long Valley Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT. CERT is a nationwide initiative to train individuals to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their neighborhoods and communities. Last September, the first Long Valley CERT members graduated from their training, and were almost immediately faced with providing help during the most severe storm in recent memory. Jim Smith, the Washington Township Operations Coordinator for Emergency Management and Bruce Clark, Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator, spent several months in once-a-week evening …
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Tracy Tobin
12:21 am on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
My daughter is one of the first group of unpaid volunteers trained. She spent several days staffing town shelters and working the phones at the OEM Center during Sandy. I hope we get more residents to take the training. Hopefully we will not have another two week weather event like Sandy any time soon, but I am sure there will be other events where CERT volunteers can help residents while … more ›