Preparing for Disaster: CERT Classes
Disaster Preparedness Classes Held by CERT-Rutherford:
Each month Rutherford County CERT strives to provide classes on how to deal with disasters that could effect you and your family, your neighborhood, our county or the country.
Our monthly meetings are at 12:00 noon on the second Saturday of each month, at the Rutherford County Administration Building (The Annex) 289 N. Main St. Rutherfordton, NC, 28139
Our classes have included: How to Stop Severe Bleeding, Home Defense from a Home Invasion, Ham Radio, using Personal Drones After a Disaster, Using an AED – Defibrillator, Meshtastic Communications, Land Navigation, Bug Out Bags, Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense, Situational Awareness, CPR Class, Avoiding Abduction, Retreat/Wildland Firefighting, and Electrocution.
Online CERT Training
Also, anyone can take the basic online CERT course at OnlineCERT.org It is the University of Utah website. You need to click the Register button. When it asks for company, say “Rutherford County, NC CERT”. And in the drop down box select “not listed”. There are 8 modules/units that you can go through one at a time at your own pace. Then Unit 9 is the final exam. When done, print your certificate and bring it to our next meeting.
Next Meeting:
Saturday Nov, 8th, 12:00 pm (Noon), At the Rutherford County Annex Building, 289 N. Main St. Rutherfordton, NC, 28139
Our Recent Meetings and Classes:
Mountain Area Healthcare Preparedness Coalition (MAHPC)
Mark Stepp, Healthcare Preparedness Coordinator
Come and learn, and ask questions about how the our area’s disaster medical response system works, from the man that runs it.
MAHPC is also part of North Carolina’s State Medical Response System (SMRS) – a system of response partners including Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Management, Public Health, State Medical Assistance Teams (SMAT), and the Mountain Region Medical Reserve Corps (MRMRC).
Coalition activities have included annual regional exercises, coordination of education and training, development of decontamination capabilities within hospitals and EMS, and the provision of Viper Medical Network radios to all hospitals and EMS partners. All initiatives are funded through the ASPR Healthcare Preparedness Program and through in-kind support from our regional partners.
MAHPC strives to support all disaster-related educational and training needs, including incident command system (ICS), hospital incident command system (HICS), disaster/mass casualty triage, facility evacuation, disaster medical care, decontamination, emergency preparedness and response, and disaster communications.
The Mountain Area Healthcare Preparedness Coalition (MAHPC) includes over 80 healthcare agencies in the 18 westernmost counties of North Carolina and is one of eight coalitions across the state developed to aid in regional disaster preparedness and response. Over the past several years, in preparation for disastrous events, Coalition members have collaborated to train response personnel and build a robust cache of medical-response supplies and equipment.
The Coalition is comprised of regional healthcare partners such as hospitals, EMS, public health, emergency management, public safety and other healthcare entities with the purpose of enhancing the ability of the region to be more resilient in a disaster. The coalition provides a forum for all partners who have a stake or interest in healthcare disaster preparedness, planning, response, or mitigation to work together to improve disaster resiliency. The MAHPC team facilitate the planning initiatives with the coalition.
Emergency Management Professional Crisis Training Exercise
1- Emergency Management Professional Crisis Training Exercise attended by and presentation by Mayor Guy. We will hear about the exercise, and then discuss how we can orchestrate a community wide training for Rutherford County. The learning for all of us could be invaluable and life saving.
2-Discussion of the Sheriff’s new Volunteer Intervention Prevention Response (VIPR) program. “Law enforcement agencies depend on volunteers to boost public safety and help prevent crime. Volunteers don’t take the place of officers; instead, they play a vital role in supporting out mission.” We will also discuss how the Sheriff is making resources available to support this program. (Henderson County has had a program like this for years, and it has also saved the taxpayer’s a lot of money.
Electrocution Emergency Class
Instructor: Tom Trout
CERT Electrocution class. Learn what to do (and what not to do) in an emergency situation that involves electricity. Whether that is a loved one at home, an industrial accident, or disaster related incident. What are the protocols, and how do you save someone who has been electrocuted, without getting electrocuted yourself? Taught in person, with pictures, videos, and stories, by our own Tom Trout.
CERT Certificate Hands On Training
Instructor: NC CERT Training
This class is the final Hands-On training for completion of CERT certificate program.
These hands-on sessions are designed to build confidence and competence in skills like fire suppression using extinguishers, basic first aid, triage, light search and rescue, and team organization.
Retreat/Wildland Firefighting
Instructor: Andrew Herrington
Since 2005, more than 89,000 structures have been destroyed by wildfires resulting in an untold number of fatalities, evacuations, and personal losses. Drawing from over 20 years of wildland firefighting experience, Andrew Herrington will outline the steps to protect your retreat and community, along with the resources, gear, and techniques to fight the threat if needed. Andrew’s eyes were opened the first time he triaged homes on a Western fire detail and again on the front lines of the Gatlinburg Firestorm. Lessons from those experiences were directly incorporated into the construction and wildland fire defense plan for his own home and have been tested during a recent wildfire in his community.
Andrew Herrington has been employed by the National Park Service since 2001.An experienced search and rescue team leader, tracking instructor, and emergency medical technician (EMT-B), he has first hand knowledge of how outdoor emergencies start, what happens during them, and how they are resolved. As a survivor of a major rock climbing accident, a rattlesnake bite, numerous bear encounters, and being stranded several times, he also understands what it is like to be on the other side of the equation, dependent on his skills and those of others.
Avoiding Abduction – Don’t be the Victim
Instructor: Sara Hathaway
The threats to women and children seem ever-increasing in this twisted world. Distractions from modern technology add to the vulnerability. Women and children must know how to respond if evil comes for them. Increasing awareness of the area around them is critical, but they also need reliable defensive strategies.
This class teaches individuals how to avoid transportation to a secondary location and why that is critical. You’ll learn what to do if a firearm is pulled and how to escape many of the bondage methods criminals deploy. You need to know what to say and how to attract attention to find help. Most importantly, you need to know how to escape or end the situation so you can return home safely.
CPR Class
Our next CERT meeting will be Saturday March 8th. We will have a CPR class. You will get your certificate, and the class will be for new people as well as those that need a recertification. The class will be 2 hours and hands on. The cost will be $40.00 per person. (That cost includes the AMA card.)
Situational Awareness For Everyone (S.A.F.E.)
Instructor: Ken Hardy
In everyday life, people get comfortable in their environment, personal routines, and the comings and goings of others in their lives. This can be comforting, secure, and easy, however, becoming complacent and routine can allow for opportunists to take advantage of these habits by catching people unaware, vulnerable, and subject to harm. It can lead to being unaware of physical conditions that can lead to injury or even death. In today’s volatile and unsettled society, situational awareness is a key to avoiding a multitude of dangers, from predatory individuals to dangerous physical environmental conditions.
The S.A.F.E. presentation will cover such topics as atmospherics in social environments, awareness and observation of individuals who are behaving in unusual ways. Anomalies in everyday life, being aware of what should be “there” that is not “there” or conversely, something unusual that is “different” about a known environmental (daily routine) situation. The S.A.F.E. program will help the student understand more about observation of situations, how to develop observational skills, and determine whether a situation is potentially dangerous or could develop into a dangerous event. The development of these skills can help with mental acuity and cognition.
NBC: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense: A practical guide to survival in an NBC environment.
Instructor: Dave Jones
In this class you will learn the effects of a Nuclear blast, how far they travel, as well as fallout: how it travels, what it will effect and how to protect yourself from it.
You will also learn how to build a Faraday Cage and more importantly, what to put in it!
You will also learn the best protection in a chemical attack, as well as the number one killer in any NBC attack, and the best protection from a biological agent or pandemics including Anthrax, Ebloa, the Zika Virus and the coming “Bird Flu”.
This class will give you practical steps everyone can take to protect themselves and their family.
Bug OUT bags , Go Bags. Get Home Bags everyday Carry items on your person
Instructor: Jan Emore
Some of you may have Bug Out Bags/ Go Bags/ Get Home Bags/ Survival bags, etc. But I can pretty much guarantee that they are too heavy, have too much stuff, and could instead, have items that have multiple purposes so you can carry less.
Jan Emore is a homesteader, survivalist and preparedness instructor, and at five feet tall, and 60 years of age, she has developed simple and effective every day carry ( on your person) items that are lightweight, don’t make you stand out in public, and that can save your life. She also has a way to create your own bug out bag that is minimalistic, lightweight, and if need be, fight ready.
She teaches a great class, that even the most seasoned preppers, survivalists, and bushcrafters lean from. And for those that don’t already have a bag, this is a great place to start.
Land Navigation
Instructor: L. Douglas Hogan
We will be having a class on Land Navigation- (how to find your way from point A to point B without electronics, cell phones, and GPS satellite services).
We will be providing laminated maps of a USGS quadrangle in our area for everyone to keep. Please bring any compass, a straight edge (ruler), a pencil, and/or a grease pencil/ chinagraph pencil and alcohol wipes so you can draw lines on your map, erase them and reuse it in the future.
Please come, even if you have not had a chance to get a compass, or the specific compass we recommended, as you will still be able to learn skills that you can apply, once you do.
AED – Defibrillator
Instructor Ramona Smith, EMT
How do you use those machines that will start a stopped heart, and when exactly do you use it?
Find out at this class.
Hurricane Recovery Update
Sheriff Aaron Ellenburg and Mayor David Guy will brief our CERT on the ongoing rescue and recovery efforts in Rutherford County from Hurricane Helene.
Personal Drones- Post Disaster
Using off the shelf consumer drones for intelligence gathering, search and rescue, manhunts
Instructor: Michael McKinley
Off the shelf consumer drones can be a force multiplier in a SHTF scenario, as well as everyday monitoring of your property and your area. Learn how a personal drone can be your high platform observation post. Find out how you can use it in a manner that will unlikely be detected, and how cameras, and thermal optics can multiply your ability to see what is going on around you.
Small drones can even be used to deliver payloads, from life saving water and first aid in a Search and Rescue operation, to information and supplies for your team on patrol.
We’re going to concentrate on the middle of the road types of drones and their uses in a post SHTF scenario. We’ll be going over types of drones, the many sizes of drones and the many tactical uses of a drone in the current political climate. Don’t be paranoid, be prepared.
Meshtastic – The Ultimate SHTF Communication. Totally Secure, and Totally Off-grid.
Instructor: David Walden
How can you communicate in an emergency where there is no cell phone service? How do you communicate when the grid and internet are down too?
Sure, you can use handheld walkie-talkie type radios using Ham, MURS, GMRS, or FRS channels, but anyone that wants to, can hear everything that you are saying and they can triangulate your location.
And what if you also needed to know where a family member or teammates were located?
With Meshtastic you can communicate without any connection to a cellular network, or even the internet, and send encrypted private messages to individuals, or to groups without anyone knowing.
And you can visually keep track of your family or your team on a map, while they are on the move.
Meshtastic works using a tiny little $65.00 radio that is blue toothed to your phone (with no cellphone signal needed). You just use your phone as an screen to send and receive messages over the air using the radio. The messages are encrypted end to end, so no one can eavesdrop on your conversation, and no one can triangulate your location.
In this class we will go over several scenarios where you can use Meshtastic, before, during and after a SHTF event.
Practical Radio Preps- Communications – Ham Radio, GMRS Radio
Instructor: David Walden
Become a communications asset!
Join us as we talk about the basics of communications and how you can stay informed and connected with family, friends, neighbors, and others across your state or across the country, no matter what the circumstances.
We’ll discuss licensing, radio equipment including low cost shortwave receivers, improvised and homemade antennas, radio direction finding, communications procedures, and how to practice your radio skills.
And if you are not sure what to do with your new radio, we’ll go through programming examples for some common models and how you can get on the air to practice, along with how to build your own Comms Go Bag.
Home Defense
Instructor: Nicolle Wallace
Our Home Defense Course will delve into just what it takes to keep your most valuable assets safe. These assets are your spouse, kids, and friends. Property can be replaced through your insurance policies, but a life and mental anguish is something which can never be fully recovered from.
We all have watched the news and seen how violent crimes are on the rise, especially since politicians are cutting the budgets of our local Law Enforcement Officers and allowing convicted violent criminals to be released from prisons.
These same politicians understand the threat and live inside homes surrounded by fences, protected by strong men and women who carry firearms that you could never be allowed to own, and have the most expensive Security Systems available.
Here are the topics we will discuss:
The Criminal’s Profile
The Sheep Dog
Perimeter Security
Emergency Kits
Inside of your Home
Outside of your Home
Have a Plan
Firearms & Equipment
Firearms are not your only choice for Home Defense. But they are the most effective. Bad Guys typically stop their attack once they have been shot multiple times.
Stop the Bleed
Instructor Ramona Smith, EMT
This class will be on stopping the bleeding from a traumatic injury, and dealing with traumatic shock from loss of blood. We will discuss gunshot wounds, amputated limbs, and impaled objects. This training will be not only visual, but will also be “hands-on” for the attendees.
We will go over different types of equipment for the job, including tourniquets, and trauma kits, gunshot wound kits, and basic first aid.
Find out what to look for when purchasing a trauma kit. And how to build your own blowout kits.
CERT Overview
Instructor: Nat Sellers
An overview of the entire CERT structure and organization, Incident Command, and various structures of CERT groups. Nat Sellers will also present an area study of potential disasters and events that could require CERT help in our county.