Politics & Government

Join: Community Emergency Response Team

The Cobb County Emergency Management Agency provides classes for residents to prepare them for emergency situations.

Julia Harris, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge
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If an EF-4 tornado struck Northeast Cobb, could we cope? Cobb County Firehouse 14 has one of six GSAR (Georgia Search and Rescue) trucks in Georgia, but in a large-scale disaster, we'll need all the responders we can get.

The Cobb County Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their areas and trains them in basic disaster response skills such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.

Using training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhoods or workplaces following events when professional responders are not immediately available to help.

The CERT training is delivered in three-hour sessions, two evenings a week for seven classes; usually these classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The CERT training also is delivered in six-hour sessions, one day a week for a four-week period; usually these classes are on Thursdays. The training consists of the following:

  • EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: Addresses hazards to which people are vulnerable in their communities. Materials cover actions that participants and their families take before, during, and after disasters.

  • FIRE SAFETY: Briefly covers fire chemistry, hazardous materials, fire hazards, and fire suppression strategies. However, the thrust of this session is the safe use of fire extinguishers, sizing up situations, controlling utilities, and extinguishing small fires.

  • MEDICAL OPERATIONS PART I: Participants practice diagnosing and treating airway obstructions, bleeding, and shock by using simple triage and rapid treatment techniques.

  • MEDICAL OPERATIONS PART II: Covers evaluating patients by doing head-to-toe assessments, establishing a medical treatment area, performing basic first aid, and practicing in a safe and sanitary manner.

  • LIGHT SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS: Participants learn about search and rescue planning, size up, search techniques, rescue techniques, and most important, rescuer safety.

  • DISASTER PSYCHOLOGY AND TEAM ORGANIZATION: Participants learn about problems in organizing teams under emergency conditions and operating a neighborhood command post. Students learn concepts of resource procurement and allocation, disaster psychology, damage assessment, and documentation

  • TERRORISM AND CERT: Focuses on CERT operations before a disaster such as long-term planning, how to organize a neighborhood, evaluate available resources, and identify people with special needs.

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    If you have any questions about the classes, or if you would like to enroll, please email ema@cobbcounty.org or call 770-499-4567. The EMA office will be happy to assist with any questions.

    Watch a video about CERT.

    Find out what's happening in Northeast Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

    You may register online at www.cobbcountyegov.org/secure/ema/ema-cert-form.htm.

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