When the big one hits, these neighbors are trained to come to the rescue. You can be too

Sometimes law enforcement cannot quickly get to areas when there has been a large natural disaster. A training that just landed in Gig Harbor teaches residents how to survive until they get there.

The Community Emergency Response Team Basic Training teaches members what to do before, during, and after dangerous situations their communities may face. The first C.E.R.T class in Gig Harbor graduated on Saturday, Aug. 13.

“Their job is to stabilize the incident, gather some information,” Abe Edmonson, Gig Harbor C.E.R.T. head instructor and Prevention Specialist at Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One told The Gateway.

The C.E.R.T. concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 1985.

“The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 underscored the area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. Further, it confirmed the need for training civilians to meet their immediate needs,” according to the C.E.R.T. website.

It says there are now over 2,700 local C.E.R.T. programs nationwide and more than 600,000 trained.

After surrounding cities implemented C.E.R.T., Gig Harbor Fire determined it was time to offer the program to their residents.

Other Pierce County programs are in Puyallup, Auburn, Eatonville, Tacoma, University Place, Lakewood, DuPont and on Anderson Island.

Edmonson said when there’s a large disaster that affects an entire community, residents may not see a fire truck for hours or even days. C.E.R.T. members can begin stabilizing the community, finding where the problems are and addressing the ones that they can until law enforcement shows up.

“They do what they can for the greatest amount of people around them without needing much direction. Then the expectation would be that the C.E.R.T. team could rally at a location and help as needed,” Edmonson said

This first class of 14 adult Gig Harbor students are now trained in basic disaster response skills. Over three weeks the students attended seven full-day training sessions that cover various training topics.

“The people living in single family homes, which are the largest group here in the Peninsula, will need someone to document their needs and do other services. Those people will be us during these disasters,” student Paul Petach told The Gateway.

After attending seven training sessions, the students got to put their skills to use by responding to a mock earthquake. Their search and rescue skills were the main focus of the earthquake exercise.

“They threw a lot of good things at us. We had a survivor who didn’t speak English and another who was deaf. I’ve never seen that interjected into an exercise before,” Patricia Verdella Keenan told The Gateway.

This was the first time the team participated in a mock event all together.

“We didn’t do everything perfect, but everyone was doing their very best. Everyone persevered and everyone jumped in wherever help was needed. You just don’t know what to expect when it’s a disaster or an emergency, but we were committed to the end,” Keenan said.

Edmonson asked volunteers from the Tacoma C.E.R.T. program to participate as role play survivors.

“West Pierce’s C.E.R.T. program was also an option for us. We didn’t pull from them this time, but the other C.E.R.T. groups can participate as survivors for other training,” Edmonson said.

The program is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, which oversees the Gig Harbor C.E.R.T. program, Peggy Gablehouse, the Peninsula emergency preparedness chair told The Gateway.

The local fire department usually provides the instruction, Gablehouse said.

Each student receives a backpack that’s full of gear to use when they’re responding to an emergency. It includes a vest that says C.E.R.T., gloves, a mask, eyewear, duct tape, a flashlight and medical gauze. There is also additional room for students to add granola bars, water bottles and radios.

After graduating from this program, residents can apply for an emergency workers card through the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management. They also need to pass a background test to officially become part of the C.E.R.T. team that professional responders can rely on during a disaster.

“We all hope we never have to actually use our skills and training to help save lives. But we feel better knowing that if an emergency happens we will be able to aid those in our own household, neighborhood and community,” Petach said.

These students can attend individual refreshers of this class after graduation by dropping in on local C.E.R.T. trainings in the future if they want to sharpen their skills.

“There’s definitely enough interest to build this team to be pretty large,” Edmonson said. “We are trying to put together an additional hands-on mock event before the end of the year in November.”

He said they’re working on getting a date for the next C.E.R.T. training.

Residents who want to get involved can watch for posts on the Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One website and social media feeds.

“Our team is full of a lot of good leadership. I hope that that bleeds into good recruitment and getting a lot more folks involved with the C.E.R.T. team,” Keenan said.