Chatham CERT Newsletter January 2021

January CERT meeting

Our January 2021 CERT meeting is a bit different this time: instead of a Chatham CERT meeting, please attend the all-North Carolina-CERT-volunteer virtual meeting on January 28 (Thursday) starting at 6:30 PM (18:30).  Below is the login link. Password is CERT. See you there.https://ncdps.webex.com/ncdps/j.php?MTID=mb2bb08110f784a737a1775fdb016ce42

We will have our next Chatham CERT meeting on February 24, 2021.

Covid vaccination update
CERT has been asked to provide volunteers at the upcoming covid-19 vaccination events in Chatham County. As the availability of vaccine increases, we expect to see some large vaccination events at the Ag Center and at Bray Park in Siler City. 

If you have not already emailed us with your interest in helping with the mass vaccination events, please send an email tocovidvolunteer@chathamcert.organd we will add you to the potential volunteer list. We need general support from the CERT volunteers. For those with current medical training, if you wish to volunteer please send an email with your qualifications and your name will get passed to the appropriate authorities. Chatham CERT is coordinating any non-medical volunteers interested in helping at the mass vaccination events, whether CERT members or not.

New Chatham CERT equipment
Chatham County Emergency Management has a new emergency trailer, popup tents, and other new equipment. Look for a work party / training day sometime this spring to learn about the new gear and help put the trailer in working order.

Amateur radio repeater

Previously announced, but good information. There is a new 2-meter amateur (ham) radio repeater in Chatham County, located on Fire Tower Road. For you amateur radio operators, you can find it at the below location. Use so far shows extremely clear and extensive coverage across most of the county.

Name: CCAUXR2
Frequency: 145.230
Duplex: –
Offset: 0.6
Tone: 107.2

Need CERT gear?

ProPac has a discount for CERT Volunteers. If you decide to order something, call ProPac at (800) 345-3036 and mention ‘NCA’, the National CERT Association for a 5% discount on CERT products. This is not an endorsement of Propac; they may or may not have competitive prices on preparedness or CERT gear.

 Interested in being a CERT member?
Learn more about Chatham CERT at this link. Thanks for your interest, and remember our motto: Don’t Be A Victim.

CERT Volunteers Needed

Chatham County will soon begin offering wide-spread coronavirus vaccination by drive-up clinics. Chatham CERT will be asked to assist in the vaccination efforts – primarily through vehicle and individual traffic direction, assisting healthcare staff, providing information and answering questions, and observing individuals for the 15-20 minutes after getting their injection. While the schedule has not been announced, I expect this will begin in March 2021 and will continue for some time.

We need your help! Please send an email with your name, email address, and cell phone number to ExComm@groups.io if you can volunteer for one or more days of the vaccination clinics. 

Need a coronavirus vaccination and fall into a lower priority group? Volunteer to assist CERT with county-wide vaccinations and you can be placed into group 1b (frontline essential workers). 

March CERT cancellations

The CERT Basic Training Course previously scheduled for March 21 and 22 has been cancelled. There will be a new online training course announced in the next few days.

The planned monthly CERT meeting on March 25, 2020 is cancelled and will not be rescheduled. Updates to CERT meetings will be posted on the Chatham Chatlist, emailed to CERT team members, and updated on our CERT website at http://www.chathamcert.org.

February 2020

A big thanks to everyone who attended our February 2020 CERT meeting on victim transport. You can view the regular presentation here and the victim transport class here.

Please remember to put the March 25 meeting on your calendar, where we will be talking about survival food preparation.

If you would like to attend the next CERT Basic Course in Chatham County, you can register here.

As always, remember that we need to be prepared so we can take care of ourselves and assist our households, our neighborhoods, and our communities in a disaster.

January 2020

CERT Update 
A big thanks to everyone who was able to attend our first Chatham CERT meeting on Wednesday evening. Slides from the meeting are located here. Special thanks to Colby Sawyer from the Chatham Emergency Management Office who discussed emergency operations.

CERT Basic Class 
Our first CERT basic class for 2020 will be held March 21 and 22 (Sat and Sun) at the community college in Pittsboro. If you would like to attend, please sign up on TERMS at https://terms.ncem.org/TRS/courseDesc.do?sourcePage=courseSearch&cofId=124309. Chatham residents will receive priority until a couple weeks before the class. Class size is limited to 30 students.

Schedule
Here is the CERT 2020 planned schedule.
Meetings will be at 6pm the Chatham Emergency Operations Center unless noted. 
Feb 26: victim response, transport (exercise)
Mar 21-22: CERT Basic Course (all-day Sat and Sun at the Chatham Ag and Conference Center)
Mar 25: Food safety, storage, prep
Apr 22: Flood response, windshield survey
May 27: Blocking & Cribbing (exercise)
Jun 24: First Aid, CPR, AED (exercise)
Jul 22: SkyWarn (6pm at the Chatham Library Holmes Room)
Aug 26: Hurricane Prep
Sep 23: Long-term disasters
Oct 24 (Saturday morning): Communications (using the FEMA comms course)
November: we are planning on a basic-level (technician) ham radio operators course 

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Stay safe!