Pittsylvania County CERT Program

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Background Information
• The largest county in Virginia, Pittsylvania
  County consists of 982.89 square miles, and has a
  population of 61,000.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Because of our size and the natural and man-made
  threats that are inherent to our area, we
  realized that our 21 fire departments and 12
  rescue squads would eventually succumb in the
  event of a major disaster.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• For Pittsylvania County, the CERT program is the
  perfect way to enhance our responder system.
• Trained citizens from all areas of the county
  are ready to act when disasters strike.
• They help themselves, their families, and their
  neighbors until professional help can arrive.
• Communities are now more prepared than ever.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Innovation in action
• Most jurisdictions only train about 10 to 20
  CERT members at a time, but we decided to get
  creative.
• We did things a bit differently.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• 4 simultaneous classes were held in each of the 4
  natural geographic areas of the county.
• Placement of people is crucial in a disaster.
• If a student could not attend on their regular
  class date, they could easily make it up on the
  other days.
• Classes were taught at the Countys 4 newly
  built, middle schools.
• People wanted to see what their tax dollars
  provided and where their children were learning.
  It was a natural way to draw participants in.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Participants were given all of the basic tools
  they needed, so they could immediately respond
  after being successfully trained.
• Participants were instructed by highly qualified
  police, fire and EMS instructors, all with a
  great degree of experience and diversity.
• This made for interesting and informative
  classes, and produced a higher caliber of team
  members.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Continuing education credits were offered to
  school teachers for participating and graduating.
  
• This idea was likely the best because it now puts
  trained people with knowledge of fire
  suppression, first aid and other lifesaving
  techniques, directly in the schools.
• Instant first response where it is needed the
  most!

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• With all that was offered to participants,
  citizens jumped at the opportunity for this
  training.
• This is evident by the fact that we successfully
  graduated 69 students at one time!
• This is the largest number of CERT personnel
  ever graduated at one time in the State.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• The following slides show pictures from our
  final exercise and graduation ceremony.
• Again, we showed our innovation by inviting
  cadets from the Danville Civil Air Patrol
  Squadron to assist us as disaster victims for our
  scenario.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Teams were first given a disaster scenario in a
  table top exercise. They chose a team leader and
  developed a plan of action.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Teams were then given a mass casualty simulation
  where members had to triage the many patients
  that lay about.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Once triage operations were complete, team
  members returned to package patients for
  transport to the designated treatment and morgue
  areas.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Once patients were transported to the designated
  treatment areas, team members controlled
  bleeding, splinted fractures and treated for
  shock.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• In the search rescue scenario, team members
  need to free a victim from a mock collapse.
  Debris is removed from around the victim and he
  is reassured.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• They then use levers and cribbing to raise and
  stabilize the collapse, so the victim can be
  extricated and further treated.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• A CERT member and her buddy use a fire
  extinguisher to put out a small, and manageable
  fire. She remembered P.A.S.S. Pull, Aim,
  Squeeze, Sweep!

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Before graduation, keynote speakers address CERT
  members along with friends and families that were
  in attendance.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• County officials and Board members issue
  certificates to all members of the graduating
  class.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• Two identical CERT cakes were especially
  prepared for the graduates. Everybody enjoyed
  the refreshments and camaraderie after a hard day
  of rescue efforts.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• The Countys first graduating CERT class. 69
  new responders. November 15, 2003.

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Pittsylvania County CERT Program

• For more information, please visit our website.
• www.pittgov.org/cert