If you are interested in joining CERT, click here for more information

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are groups of volunteer emergency workers trained an equipped to assist their neighborhood during disasters and emergencies when professional emergency response services may be overwhelmed.  CERT personnel receive basic training from  and work in the initial aftermath of a disaster to augment official emergency services.  CERT members are not intended to replace a community's professional response capability, but rather to serve as an important supplement to it.

The Community Emergency Response Team concept was developed and implemented by the City of Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985.  They recognized that citizens would very likely be on their own during the early stages of a catastrophic disaster.  Accordingly, LAFD decided that some basic training in disaster survival and rescue skills would improve the ability of citizens to survive until professional responders or other assistance could arrive.  The Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987 underscored the threat of a major disaster in California and the need for training civilians in the CERT concept.  As a result, LAFD created the Disaster Preparedness Division with the purpose of training citizens in CERT.  That training proved to be so beneficial that the Federal Emergency Management Agency felt that the concept and the program should be made available to communities nationwide.  With the cooperation of the LAFD, FEMA's Emergency Management Institute expanded the CERT training materials to make them applicable to all hazards.

If you are interested in joining CERT, visit www.readymarin.org/cert for more information.