Will you be ready when disaster hits?
Milwaukie-area emergency response team aims to keep people prepared
ELLEN SPITALERI / CLACKAMAS REVIEW
Linda Hedges and Mary Weick, above, look over some emergency-response team literature. Below, members of a CERT team learn how to put out fires. submitted photo
The recent events in Japan have many people asking what would happen if a natural disaster occurred locally. Mary Weick and Linda Hedges, both Milwaukie residents, have some answers to that question – they have been instrumental in forming a local emergency response network.
Weick moved to the Island Station neighborhood just before the big snowstorm of 2008; she knew very few people when the storm hit, knocking out communication lines, closing down transportation and isolating people from one another. One good thing came out of the situation; she came up with the idea to form an emergency response network in her neighborhood.
She and other volunteers sent out postcards to all the neighbors, requesting basic information about who lived in each household, including pets and vulnerable people, and any health issues that needed to be taken into consideration.
Once information came back, Weick made up a phone tree of about 50 people, who could come together in an emergency and offer help.
When Hedges heard about the idea, she thought about trying it “across the whole city.”
The two women decided to focus on four key areas, as they set up a citywide emergency network: individual preparedness, information distribution, shelter and first aid and Community Emergency Response Training (CERT), offered by Clackamas Fire District #1.
Their efforts have received support from all city departments and community members; it has taken some time to get the network up and running, but now they are starting to see everything come together.
CERT training
A number of CERT training classes have been held and all the spots filled up right away; another class is planned for June in Estacada, Hedges said.
These classes and the teams that result are important, because if “we have a big incident, it would be virtually impossible for the fire department or the government to take care of everybody. The goal [of CERT training] is to help yourself, help your family and then go and help your neighbors,” said Kevin Donegan, CFD#1 emergency services manager.
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