CERT Team Forming in South Windsor to Aid in Emergencies

South Windsor Emergency Operations Coordinator, Jay Gonzalez takes a “whole community approach” to disaster planning and that’s twofold.

First, Gonzalez is interested in meeting residents from every corner and demographic of the town to find out what their needs might be in an emergency. Second, Gonzalez hopes to engage as much of the community as possible, searching out residents’ varied skill sets and enlisting their help.

The front line of the plan, now forming in South Windsor, is the CERT team.

CERT, or Community Emergency Response Team, is a group of trained volunteers who help out during disasters by performing a variety of functions. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, CERT teams are trained in fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations to help out in their communities in the wake of a disaster when emergency personnel aren’t available. But they can do much more than that.

“It’s local citizens who are looking to help the community not by putting out fires but augmenting town staff,” Gonzalez explained. “Each town can pick what they want their CERT team to do based on what their needs are as a community.”

South Windsor’s first CERT class, of about 25 residents, is scheduled to begin Jan. 23. It will focus on communication, including ham radio, which proved to be an inexpensive and indispensible communications tool during Hurricane Katrina and subsequent disasters that knocked out power and thus cellular phones. 

The CERT classes, which will also be held in Manchester, East Hartford and Vernon, are paid for through a federal grant. Though the first South Windsor class is mostly filled to capacity, residents are invited to continue enrolling to fill the team.

“As we develop and as we come together as a team, we’re going to find out what everybody’s specialty is,” Gonzalez said.

In addition to serving in South Windsor, Gonzalez said he envisions the local towns will help each other by supplying mutual aid through their CERTs.

“If we can’t get enough CERT members to help, I can call on the other towns for mutual aid. On the flip side, if they have an incident, we want to be able to send our CERT members to them. We’re all speaking the same language and will all be trained the same way.”

To find out more or to sign up for a CERT class, call Jay Gonzalez at (860) 648-6249 or (860) 644-0515 or e-mail jubenal.gonzalez@southwindsor.org.