"CERT" TRAINING IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

FOSTER CITY, CA,---Foster City CERT members are leaving their Incident Command Post(ICP) to go to their assigned areas near Marlin Park in Foster City, CA.

Citizen Emergency Response Teams(CERT) are formed in cities around the San Francisco Bay Area: Foster City, Belmont, Burlingame, San Francisco. These are specially trained citizens that help professional emergency response agencies( fire departments, police departments, etc.) when a disaster hits an area.

As an example, if there is an emergency situation in one of the cities---a major fire, airplane crash, a boat disaster, earthquake---and their professional response agency are overwhelmed to respond to the incident, CERT teams will respond to the scene until the professional agency arrives.

The practicing that these Foster City CERT members are going through, in the picture, is in radio training: proper way to call in information at the scene of the incident; how to receive assignments by radio; and how to solve problems that might come up using a radio during a disaster.

Foster City CERT members are always in training to handle almost any problems that might come-up in a disaster. Israel has citizen response teams that handle, many times, a bombing by the Palestine terrorist. After they are called out and within minutes, they are handling the injured and cleaning up the scene of the bombing.

So, therefore, don't be surprised when you see people walking around, in your neighborhood, with a yellow vest that says CERT: they are becoming proficient in disaster handling, through training.