2003 An Overview of First Aid and Medical Triage
with support from the Westside CERT Leadership Council, Santa Monica Airport EVAC,
St. Bede's Episcopal Church, Adventure 16, and EarthQuake Management Co.
Here are some pictures and a report from the Battalion Coordinators to Captain Lee:
On Saturday, March 15, about 60 CERT stalwarts, despite extremely heavy rain, attended a three-hour morning medical exercise at St. Bede's Church. We wanted to write to you because the event was so successful and because we thought you would be pleased to know that CERT in Battalion 4 is on the move. There were several distinguishing characteristics about this exercise.
First, it was a cooperative effort among Hilltop and Westdale CERT, nearby homeowner associations and other interested parties including several vendors and potential financial sponsors of expanded CERT activities.
Second, the faculty, Pat Nagy and Marc Vetri, delivered informative talks on the medical aspects of emergency response and organized a quality training scenario.
Third, we had a fine turnout from our colleagues at Culver City CERT who were impressed with the program and who are committed to working closely with us. Culver City has nearly 300 well-trained and motivated CERT team members and currently is growing steadily.
Chris and I were thinking and we realized that this is an important year for CERT in Battalion 4. The two of us will most likely be ham operators by June. We have connections with Santa Monica EVAC and with the Culver City radio net and with John Beckwith (the battalion communications officer) at Loyola. We have made significant steps toward improving the emergency communication net in this area. When the new battalion headquarters is built we are hoping to have dedicated CERT space and a number of trained radio operators able to use whatever com facilities we can put into the new building. It is also a pleasure to work with the professionals in Battalion 4 and we have established working relations with headquarters as well as several area stations. This is important and most welcome. We have established a framework in the battalion for annual events. The March event has just passed, and we are planning a callout to try to maximize the number of Battalion 4 CERT members at the April refresher. In May we are having another informative event, in which speakers will discuss terrorist threats and earthquake prep. Hilltop CERT has an event in June, and we will have another area-wide event around the beginning of the school year. The fall refresher will probably cap the year. There are a variety of Culver City exercises, including one Thursday, that we are invited to attend. We have also been invited to Battalion 9's training on March 29. Westdale CERT is reviving and there are two teams in the Venice area. Chris was able to identify 12 persons interested in the Red Cross 64-hour first aid course and we should be able to arrange one on the Westside.
We have been fortunate to identify and work with a number of wonderful individuals with strong community spirit. These people have stepped forward with time and money and dedication and the results are starting to show. We just wanted to write you to let you know that many things are happening here and that Chris and I are working to strengthen CERT at the local and battalion levels as well as working with you, Capt. Lee, to build it citywide.
Jim Stebinger, Chris Nevil
Battalion 4 Coordinators
