The Custer County Community Emergency Response Team met for the first time as a certified team Tuesday night in the basement of the Custer County Courthouse. The team, under the direct leadersip of Custer County Emergency Management Director Troy Smith, is now available to be activated for emergency response. Team members pictured above are: seated in front, from left, Troy Smith, Bill Butler and Keely Butler; middle row, Jenna Smith, Lori Lewis, Carol Allen, Sheri Bryant and Kim Rynearson; back row, team leaders Hunter Goldsby and Pam Goldsby, Raymond Nemeskal, Gene Schnase, Deborah McCaslin, Nancy Harrold, Jim Ingram, Doug Bryant and Ellen Mortensen. Team members not present are Norm McCaslin, Shane and Lacey Fiorelli, and Sharon Brown.

By ELLEN MORTENSEN
Chief Assistant Editor

    It’s official - Custer County now has a citizen’s emergency response team ready for activation!
    On Sept. 18 and 19, 2009, 19 Custer County citizens met at the Broken Bow Fire Hall for a special emergency response training class. It is called the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT); a program designed to educate volunteers about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area, and train them in basic disaster response skills. Some of those skills include fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.
      

 The CERT concept was developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 1985. Since then CERT teams have formed all across the country, with thousands of volunteers receiving emergency training. Hunter and Pam Goldsby, of Berwyn, are among those numbers who have gone through the program.
    The couple says after completing the program they became convinced that Custer County could benefit from such a response team. So they went to work to make that happen.

CERT team members are not trained to operate in place of fire, rescue and other professional personnel, but rather to assist them. Duties such as crowd control, and search and rescue, are the kinds of areas the CERT team might help with.
    As a national program, all CERT volunteers are trained under FEMA guidelines, which means once trained the volunteers can be called to any area of the country and know what to do, because they all operate the same. The Custer County CERT team will operate under the direct leadership of Custer County Emergency Manage-ment Director Troy Smith.
    The day and a half training class culminated with a mock disaster drill, in which team members were directed to a mock disaster scene where they assessed the situation and performed triage on “accident victims.”
    At the conclusion of the class, everyone interested in joining the team had to fill out an application, which included a background check, etc. Members were then notified of their acceptance, and an organizational meeting date was set.
    At the Dec. 1 meeting, each team member received a backpack containing their CERT vest, hard hat and goggles, as well as some other necessary equipment. The team also talked about a plan of action for calling team members in the event of activation, where the team will meet and proper protocol.
    Team leaders Hunter and Pam Goldsby presented the backpacks and emergency informational handbooks to the team members. The team will meet on a monthly basis, and Smith says he plans to offer continuing training sessions for the group.
    Pam says if enough interest is generated, another CERT training class will be offered early next year. If you are interested in learning more about the CERT team, contact Troy Smith or Pam Goldsby at the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.