CERT students have varied stories

CERT student Bob Eador demonstrates a Co2 fire extinguisher while Eve Tatman, Mike Boatwright, Mike Heuston and John Harth observe and discuss the merits and drawbacks to various types of extinguishers during Thursday's CERT class, held at VCAD headquarters in Nevada.

Editor's Note: Daily Mail reporter Rusty Murry is attending the first Community Emergency Response Team training and is reporting periodically on the progression of the class. The following article is his latest installment.

Rather than deliver a blow by blow account of what has happened at the past two or three Community Emergency Response Team classes, I thought it would be interesting to find out what my fellow students had to say about the class. On Thursday, I asked classmates to answer about a half a dozen questions concerning the course.

With the course about half finished, we have covered a lot of subject matter. Disaster preparedness, fire safety, two sections of medical operations, light search and rescue and CERT organization have prompted many questions and some hands-on activities. Most students had similar comments about the class.

The makeup of the class ranges from a farmer to a professional dispatcher, to a registered nurse for the Nevada R-5 School District. My fellow classmates have various reasons for taking the class but most of them say they wanted to gain knowledge that would allow them to prepare to help themselves or the community.

"I want to be educated in all aspects of emergency services," said Jim Hibbs, a member of the Vernon County Ambulance District board of directors.

Almost everyone in the class said the course has been interesting and "very worthwhile." Comments about the instructors have been very positive.

Pam Boatwright is taking the class with her daughter Angela. Her son, Mike, just passed his first responder training and volunteers for demonstrations and other things during the class. "The instructors have made the class interesting with the various teaching styles utilized and skills taught," she said.

Some of the participants had a hard time deciding what part of the course was the most interesting. The hands on exercises and learning how to triage disaster victims were cited the most, but others participants, like Eve Tatman said it has "all been very interesting, because I feel that it all goes together as a whole."

Most students said they weren't really surprised by anything they had been taught.

One thing that surprised me was the almost callous way in which dead victims have been regarded. Since the primary goal is to do the most good for the largest number of people during a disaster, it makes sense, but it seems strange to be told to just move on to someone else -- someone you can help.

Other students have been surprised at the diversity of people in the class, while others such as Kora Anderson expressed surprise at "how unprepared" she was for an emergency.

Most of the students said they had learned things that would be very useful. The most common response was that the information on preparation and organization was very useful. There has been a lot of information on organization during a disaster. Without good organization the relief effort can become a disaster of another type.

As Hibbs puts it, "Our community needs to be prepared not if, but when, a disaster occurs. CERT will be an important aid to professional incident responders."