Moniteau County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

CERT training provides essential disaster response skills that are crucial when emergency services are unavailable. Through training, practice, and teamwork, you will enhance your emergency preparedness and be better equipped to protect yourself while maximizing your ability to assist the greatest number of people following a disaster.

CERT training fosters a collaborative effort between emergency services and the communities they serve. The primary objective is for emergency personnel to equip members of neighborhoods, community organizations, or workplaces with essential disaster response skills. Once trained, CERT members become an integral part of the emergency response capability in their area. In the event that a disaster overwhelms or delays the professional response, these CERT members can assist those in need by utilizing the basic response and organizational skills they acquired during training. Such skills are crucial for saving and sustaining lives after a disaster until professional help arrives. Additionally, the disaster response skills learned through CERT training are applicable in everyday emergency situations. To maintain and enhance their abilities, CERT members regularly participate in exercises and activities. They also have the opportunity to attend supplemental training offered by the sponsoring agency and other organizations to further expand their skill set. Ultimately, CERT members can volunteer for projects aimed at improving community emergency preparedness.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is a nationally supported, locally implemented initiative designed to teach individuals how to better prepare themselves for hazards that may impact their communities. Through CERT training, participants gain essential disaster response skills such as team organization, disaster medical operations, fire safety, and light search and rescue. Local CERT programs train and organize teams of volunteers who assist their families, neighbors, co-workers, and other community members during emergencies when professional responders may not be immediately available. During each phase of a disaster—before, during, and after—CERT volunteer teams engage in vital response activities, which include checking on neighbors, distributing crucial information to the public, supporting emergency operations centers, and managing traffic and crowds. By enabling CERT volunteers to carry out these activities, professional responders can concentrate on more complex, essential, and critical tasks. Moreover, CERT volunteers contribute to their communities by organizing, promoting, and participating in various emergency preparedness events, activities, and projects.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) initiated the CERT program after analyzing civilian responses to disasters in Mexico and Japan back in 1985. The LAFD recognized that citizens are often on their own during the initial stages of a disaster. In such situations, family members, co-workers, and neighbors tend to spontaneously assist one another. While untrained volunteers can effectively aid others, their lack of training poses risks for injury or death. For instance, during the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which resulted in over 10,000 fatalities, untrained volunteers managed to save 700 lives, yet tragically, 100 volunteers lost their lives in the process.

In response to these challenges, the LAFD developed and provided disaster response training to Los Angeles residents, ensuring that volunteers could assist in a safe, responsible, and effective manner during and after future disasters. The first CERT training was piloted by the LAFD in 1986. This model was subsequently adopted by other fire departments across the nation, including those in areas where the primary threat is hurricanes instead of earthquakes. Building on this foundation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expanded the CERT materials in 1994 to encompass all hazards, making the program available to communities nationwide. Since then, thousands of dedicated trainers, organizations, and citizens have taken on the responsibility of acquiring new skills and preparing themselves to execute effective emergency preparedness and response capabilities.