Tehachapi Valley CERT offering Disaster Preparation Course, seeks volunteers

The key to disaster preparedness is preparing today for the unexpected tomorrow. Recent weather events are a great reminder and now is a great time to review your disaster plans.

Talk with your family and neighbors. Have a plan and be prepared. Another great way to be prepared is to be trained as a Kern County Fire Department Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteer. This training starts with a 20 hour Basic CERT course which is being offered March 22-24 in Bear Valley Springs.

The Basic CERT course covers a wide-range of topics such as, disaster preparedness, disaster medical operations, disaster psychology, fire safety/utility control, triage and light search and rescue, along with other useful information. Upon completion individuals are that much more prepared to help their families and neighbors in times of need.

For those who wish to continue on with the program, there are five additional courses and a background check to complete the process of becoming a Kern County Fire Dept. CERT, serving the Tehachapi Valley and Kern County. This process is reviewed the first night of the basic class.

Tehachapi Valley CERT volunteers are activated when KCFD requires additional volunteers to assist in various support capacities. In recent years, Tehachapi Valley CERT’s have served at the Ridgecrest earthquake with various tasks, the French Fire updating evacuation posters and in Tehachapi handing out sandbags.

For more information or to register for the class, email [email protected] or visit http://www.tehachapicert.com and click on links tab to register.