By Debbie Austin

For The Reporter

We have all become very familiar with the lists of supplies to have on hand at home in case of an emergency — lanterns, extra batteries, non-perishable food, plenty of water, etc.

We know to have an emergency escape route, meeting place, and an out of state contact number designated for family members should disaster strike. But there are also ways to prepare as part of the larger community.

I recently attended a Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) meeting, held at a neighbor’s home.

The MYN program provides a plan to get to know your neighbors a little better and prepare for an emergency together, so that if emergency personnel are unable to respond, neighbors know what to do and can quickly decide who needs assistance.

We decided on a central meeting place, identified each house and the location of its gas meter, designated which of our homes could be used as care centers for children and the elderly, and took inventory of everyone’s skill sets and equipment.

As a result, we all know each other a little better, and are more prepared to handle an emergency within our neighborhood.

I came away from the meeting, however, feeling unprepared to help the injured or those with special needs. As I began looking online for first aid and CPR classes, I stumbled across information about Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT.

A CERT is a group of individuals who have undergone training in what to do when professional responders are overwhelmed with high demand from the community.

According to the CERT website, the idea was conceived by the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985.

Since then the program has been expanded, and is now used in all 50 states. There are 3,170 active CERT programs across the country, and two of those programs are right here in Sammamish and Issaquah.

Dr. Brenda V. Bramwell, president of the Issaquah Citizen Corps Council and CERT coordinator, has seen first hand the vital role CERTs play in the community.

In the aftermath of the windstorm in December, 2006, CERTs went door to door checking on the elderly.

They posted flyers informing residents of a warming shelter, which they also manned.

For those who needed overnight accommodation, they arranged transportation to a shelter in Bellevue.

“The Issaquah CERTs also deployed in the recent January ‘09 flood,” Bramwell said. “They responded to help Issaquah residents whose homes were being threatened by rapidly rising water. They helped in sandbagging the homes of the elderly and those with mobility issues who needed assistance Other CERTs knocked on doors of homes whose residents were unaware of water threatening their homes.”

Sammamish CERT coordinator Jan Bromberg has also seen CERTs in action locally in various capacities, not always related to disasters.

“We did a call out last week to sandbag at Beaver Lake,” she said. “Since we haven’t had much in the way of disaster, thankfully, our CERTs have been busy volunteering for things like the Summer Concert series and Nightmare at Beaver Lake.”

So how does one become a part of CERTs? The training is completed in eight sessions and covers disaster preparedness, communications, fire suppression, medical treatment, disaster psychology and terrorism, and light search and rescue.

The training culminates in a disaster simulation drill to assess the skills of the trainees. The cost for CERT training is between $25 and $35 and is open to adults and teens.

Each community sets their own rules regarding the minimum age for teen participants. In Issaquah, teens must be at least 16 years old and must be accompanied by a parent, while the Sammamish CERTs program allows teens as young as 14 to attend with a parent. Teens 16 and older can attend on their own with parental permission.

Once participants graduate, there is further training available along with opportunities to keep newly learned skills fresh.

Bromberg added, “We have a very active Citizen Corps. CERT is the most visible program but we’re making good headway with Map Your Neighborhood for the Neighborhood Watch Program.”

If you are interested in finding out more about CERT and MYN in your community, including registering for an upcoming CERT class, go to www.issaquahcitizencorps.com or www.sammamishcitizencorps.org..

For more about the Map Your Neighborhood program and personal preparedness information, check out the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division web site at emd.wa.gov.

These programs can only be effective if people recognize their importance and participate.

The Citizen Corps web site says: “We all have a role in hometown security – Citizen Corps asks you to embrace the personal responsibility to be prepared; to get training in first aid and emergency skills; and to volunteer to support local emergency responders, disaster relief, and community safety.”