Glynn County, Ga., Gets Surprising Response for CERT Signups

During a recent severe storm in Glynn County, Ga., a pregnant woman’s unborn baby decided it was time to make its debut. But because of the storm, a bridge leading to the hospital was closed down.

So a few volunteers with the county’s search and recovery team found a doctor and brought them to the woman, who safely had her baby. Search and recovery only has about 20 members; imagine a similar team of 300 and how much help it could be during the next storm.

That’s what’s in the offing as the county, along with its partners, develops its first Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

CERT is a FEMA program that provides volunteer training and organization that professional first responders can count on during disaster situations to handle the less complex tasks.

The first class for volunteers, an eight-week course, is scheduled for Jan. 29; participants can sign up through the county website.

“What we’re doing with getting the volunteers is putting the word out through the media, social media sites and our county website,” said Glynn County Public Information Officer Lawton Dodd. “We’re going to have more people applying than we can handle in the first session.”

The county had hoped for 30 volunteers for the first class but so far 47 have signed up. It’s not a problem.

“We’re going to have all these CERT members trained. They’re welcomed to come and get the training, and if they want to never do anything else with it, at least they’re going to be able to help themselves and their families,” said Glynn County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Andy Leanza.

He said that out of 300 initial volunteers, realistically they’ll be able to count on about 10 percent of those to really stay active. That means attending monthly trainings. Some will get background checks and become registered volunteers.

Those people will be part of a trusted pool and sent on more specialized assignments. For example, a situation where a tree falls on an elderly person’s car or house doesn’t call for police or fire, so one of these registered volunteers can be sent. The volunteer will help the victim with contacting the resources for removing the tree, filing an insurance claim, etc.

There are already groups in Glynn County, such as the aforementioned search and recovery team as well as the local amateur radio group, that have members well-versed in disaster response who will also be part of the CERT, adding to the expertise of the upcoming training. Some of the team leaders have already gone through “train the trainer” instruction.

There are more than 2,700 local CERT programs throughout the U.S., and more than 600,000 volunteers have trained since it became a national program.