My Small Corner

Kaboom

One of the members on the CERT team is involved in construction, specifically demolition.  That makes them one of my experts that I go to for equipment issues and questions. 

Meeting With The Fat Man

Several weeks ago, I went to Trenton to meet NJ Governor Christie.  As the CERT Coordinator in our town, I'm the figurehead for all the great work the team does.  Our mayor was given the opportunity to nominate 5 or 6 people to be honored for their service during Hurricane Irene and the aftermath.

Being Aware

Hurricane Irene is headed our way.  So far, this is what irritates me the most:

Operation Rubber Ducky II

I'm in the last 30 minutes of a 21 hour pause between shelters.  As it's been explained to me, the shelter we had the last couple of days is a dry run compared to what we are expecting later today.  I closed at 12 noon yesterday and finished cleaning up around 2pm.  At 8:30 this morning we start the process of reopening.  Our official opening time is 9am.  At the moment we are planning to be open through Saturday.

Posted Late 3-13-10

Practice session of doing CPR while riding in an ambulance, which came in handy exactly 1 week later when we were actually doing CPR on a patient, while riding in the ambulance.

On the way home, I stopped to see how the dam was doing with all the rain.  My reaction after seeing this scenes, was that this was really not good.


 

That's Got To Hurt

I have three photos today, all from a class for CERT on First Aid Improv, where we practice first aid using junk instead of all the neat toys on an ambulance.

Flu Clinic

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to volunteer at 3 flu clinics for the H1N1 virus.  I had expected them to be really miserable experiences with a lot of difficult people.  However, I have found the nurses, pediatrician, volunteers and those getting vaccinated to all be kind and patient.

Never Too Old To Feel Four

I got to ride in a fire truck last night and it was cool.

We had CERT training and the fire chief and I worked out a plan to talk about size-up (walking and looking around to assess the situation, damage, potential hazards, helps) and communication - specifically getting comfortable talking on a radio.

A Happy Pass

Yesterday I was outside of our town hall, which is right next to the kids' school  I was there to pick up Eldest Child and had stopped to talk to a friend.  We were accosted by the nice man from our local radio station who wanted to interview parents regarding the reaction and preparedness of the school, town, state and media over H1N1 (the flu).

My friend gave a detailed interview on what her thoughts were on how the school and town were handling things, and gave a little negative review on the media.  He finished with her and turned to me.  I,fortunately unfortunately, was wearing my OEM CERT jacket.  That made me an official representative of the town and the Emergency Response Team, with knowledge of the town's plans that most citizen don't have.  I had to decline to be interviewed, citing my position and saying "no comment", which is the first time I've ever had to do that.

National Night Out

Last night I was responsible for the CERT booth at National Night Out.  When I was first asked, the OEM coordinator asked if we could provide some kind of activity for the kids to do.  I threw that out for suggestions among the team.  One member suggested some kind of water balloon toss.  I added the carnival aspect of a toss game (and replaced the water balloons with reusable water balls) and then promptly delegated the idea to a couple who offered to build and paint it.