CLINTON, Iowa — With severe weather season underway, the Clinton County Emergency Management is training its new Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) to ensure they're prepared when disaster strikes.
21 volunteers completed the weekend-long course learning about disaster medical operations, search and rescue, fire extinguisher use and fire safety, disaster preparedness, disaster psychology, run-hide-fight, and terrorism awareness.
They join a team of around 70 other active CERT members.
"It gives them some skills that they can apply to their own lives to keep them safer, and to allow them to respond to any smaller emergencies that they might experience," said Clinton County Emergency Management Coordinator Chance Kness. "It gives us a pool of volunteers who have a training that they can bring in a disaster to help us and to help responders."
During a disaster, Kness said CERT volunteers are notified via the Alert Iowa system and are able to assist until other first responders are able to arrive.
Volunteers are able to provide help in several different areas such as searching for missing persons, running call centers, or directing traffic.
"They've helped us with a variety of things, including our day-to-day work," Kness said. "They have helped us with tornados and the derecho we experienced in 2020."
There is a team of crisis response dogs who were also on-site during the CERT training.
Charlene Nicoletto took part in the training. She said she was inspired to join the team because of the pandemic and seeing the effects of the derecho.
"If you think about the damage of the derecho, this would be the crew helping out on the street, helping people in the community, and helping in our own homes as well," Nicoletto said. "I just want to be able to give back to those in my community."
She said one of the biggest things the course teaches is how to respond confidently and safely. She even learned how to make a splint out of household items, even out of a pizza box.
"We talked about different things that would happen in an emergency. Will you freeze? Or will you be able to fight? Or will you be able to leap into action?" Nicoletto said. "We all might freeze, but then what do you do next? Hopefully, with a little bit of training, you'll be able to jump into action with a little more confidence."
John Bray also completed the training. He said one of the most important things he learned was first aid training.
"Being able to utilize those skills and abilities and just basic first aid to help my family when first responders are on their way," Bray said. "Obviously, when an emergency happens, they're not going to be there in an instant, so being able to slow the bleed or stop the bleed while they get there and hopefully save a life."
The course wrapped up on Sunday, April 3 with a disaster simulation. Volunteers were split into teams for search and rescue, triage, and medical.
They were tasked with rescuing "victims" from a tornado scenario. Volunteers entered a dark building using their flashlights to search for injured people. The rooms were also smoky to simulate dust and debris.
Once the victims were found, other volunteers practiced checking for injuries and wrapping wounds.
"Being there to be able to help anyone who might be in need is really what I think what this team is all about," Nicoletto said.
"Nobody cares about the community more than the community members and the volunteers," Bray said. "That's what brings a lot of these folks out here is helping their brothers and sisters within the community. Whatever disaster comes, they'll come out of the woods and help everybody out, so that's what's so important about the CERT program."
Clinton County does its CERT training once a year. Volunteers must be at least 16-years-old. You can apply on the Clinton County Emergency Management website here.