Newsletter July 2018

July CERT Meeting

The July 2018 meeting of Chatham CERT is on July 25 at 18:30 (6:30 PM) in the Chatham County Emergency Operations Center, 297 West St, Pittsboro. After our regular meeting, this months’ class is ‘What Happens When My GPS Doesn’t Work, or How I Learned to Love My Paper Maps’. We will discuss topics on map coordinates, map reading, and land navigation, all of which are essential for CERT support to many operational mission scenarios including search and rescue. Everyone, CERT members or not, are invited to participate at no cost.

Upcoming Meetings for your Calendars

  • July 25, 2018: Maps, coordinates, land navigation.
  • August 22, 2018: Become a SkyWarn weather spotter – you won’t want to miss this one!
  • September 26, 2018: Intro to Ham Radio and Emergency Communications. (We’ll have a ham radio basic license class sometime this fall.)
  • October 24, 2018: First Aid / CPR / Stop-the-Bleed.
  • November 28, 2018: Fire safety and winter preparedness.

Chatham CERT by-the-numbers

As of July 2018, we continue to grow our new organization. We can claim 58 members who have completed basic CERT training, with over 150 Chatham residents on the mailing list. Thanks to everyone for supporting our group!

Mission

For those of us who don’t yet have the Chatham CERT mission memorized, here it is:

The Chatham Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) delivers education and training for Chatham County residents on emergency and disaster preparedness, and when activated, supports, to the extent of their training, Chatham County emergency response under the direction of Chatham County Emergency Management officials and local incident commanders.

Outreach

A big thanks to John, Julie, Mary, and Nick who staffed the CERT outreach booth at the Pittsboro Summerfest. We met with attendees who wanted more information about CERT and several who will be great additions to the experts already involved.

Mary is planning many more outreach events in the future. She needs your assistance to help staff our CERT booth. Some upcoming events are Music in the Meadows at Briar Chapel, the Siler City Fiesta (tentative), the Abundance Pepperfest on September 23, and the Pittsboro Street Fair on October 27.

Are you bilingual Spanish? If so, please let us know, as we need your assistance with reaching out to Chatham County residents.

CERT Summer Reading

For an interesting non-fiction CERT-related book, try ‘The Big Ones’ by Lucy Jones. Dr. Jones discusses disasters throughout history and compares past emergencies with future potential storms and earthquakes. If fiction is more your interest, consider ‘One Second After’ by William Forstchen. This is the story of how a North Carolina community (Black Rock, NC) deals with the aftermath of losing all electric devices.

Have a safe rest of your summer, and see you at the CERT meetings.

Terry Schmidt

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