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You are here: Home / Home Top List / Coastside CERT’s First Anniversary of Coastside Fire District’s Sponsorship

Coastside CERT’s First Anniversary of Coastside Fire District’s Sponsorship

May 9, 2020 by Michelle Leave a Comment

ARTICLE from Half Moon Bay Battalion Chief, Dave Cosgrave:

This week marked our first anniversary since the Coastside Fire Protection District Board of Directors voted unanimously to sponsor Coastside CERT at a special board meeting packed with CERTs and supporters. What a year it has been!

We thank the Board, Chief Ian Larkin, and all of you who have stepped up to neighborhood and central program leadership roles as we have grown since May 2, 2019.

 

 

We have successfully scaled our start-up in response to first-year growth. The program leadership team has expanded to share the workload, drawing upon the deep pool of talent, dedication, and team play within our CERT community. Our neighborhood grassroots networks continue to organize and strengthen. Progress is unique to each neighborhood and we have a ways to go before all 32 are emergency response-ready: 18 are finding their feet, 8 are off to good starts, 3 are well on their way, and 3 are prepared and ready to respond. Neighborhood education initiatives, walkie-talkie classes, Preparedness Days, and block parties have brought fun, skills, information, and raised emergency preparedness awareness up and down the coast. We have learned the value of getting to know our neighbors and working together to prepare before disaster strikes.

Oh wait. Coronavirus did strike, we are using our prolonged shelter-in-place skills, calmly responding to rapidly evolving, potentially life-threatening circumstances, volunteering safely to help our community, and experiencing the value of neighborhood relationships to protect our community health and our most vulnerable residents. This emergency preparedness training actually works!

Growth is also the catalyst for our communication platform migration and expansion. To remain agile and responsive to our ever-increasing roster we migrated to Mailchimp, enabling us to reach our entire membership in just a few minutes, and launched Coastside CERT Facebook and Twitter accounts. Coastside CERT newsletters have morphed into my weekly messages during shelter-in-place, we have a logo, and CoastsideCERT.com pivoted to COVID-19 response and is continuing to evolve. Stay tuned!

Radio communications have always been a centerpiece of emergency response planning in our isolatable geographic location. Coastside CERT has a strong symbiotic relationship with the Half Moon Bay Amateur Radio Club (HMBARC) and its subset, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Our organizations have grown hand in glove this year.

We are almost two-thirds of the way through our 18-month Listos California Capacity Building Grant, which is funding:

  • Expanded training
  • New PPE
  • Volunteer Insurance
  • Background Checks
  • Fundraising 501(c)(3)

Along the way we were granted the authority for local Fire Battalion Chiefs and above to administer the Disaster Service Worker oath and activate Coastside CERTs. This is huge in terms of our ability to rapidly respond to local conditions.

With all the skill-building and community building CFPD sponsorship has ignited, perhaps the most rewarding aspect is seeing a wave of hope and empowerment re-energizing almost every other volunteer emergency response organization on the Coastside. It is deeply rewarding to see multi-agency emergency preparedness and response organizations – both professional and volunteer – coming together on the Coastside with the hope of a future unified response.

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Filed Under: Coastside Disaster Preparedness, Coastside Fire Protection District, Home Top List, Podcasts, Public Agencies

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Coastside CERT

We are an emergency preparedness volunteer organization focused on creating a ready and resilient community along the San Francisco Bay Area coast from the southern side of the Tom Lantos Tunnel (Devil’s Slide) to Tunitas Creek Road.

Emergency Prep Resources

The average Coastsider may not be aware of the many emergency preparation resources available to us! Here’s a list of many of those resources.

KHMB LOGO AM-FMKHMB AM 1710 and FM 100.9

KHMB Radio AM 1710 and FM 100.9 is our local Emergency Radio Station. You would still want to tune in to KCBS for Bay Area wide emergency news.  Make sure you have a radio!
Go to: KHMB or KHMBRadio.com to tune in.

CEC logo-jCEC – Coastside Emergency Corp

From Waddell Creek to Devil’s Slide and up to Skyline are 4 Branches of emergency prepared coastside citizens that are forming. They include many emergency disciplines.
Go to: CEC Portal

CERTCERT Teams – Community Emergency Response Team

Trainings are offered a couple of times per year up and down the coast CERT volunteers are forming Neighborhood Watches to help their neighbors get prepared.
Go to: FEMA page on CERT

ceap

CEAP

Charise McHugh of the Half Moon bay Chamber of Commerce has worked for several years to organize businesses on the coastside in an emergency via the Coastside Emergency Action Plan). If you are a business and have not already participated, please contact the Chamber. In an emergency we need to know where our resources are and how to deploy materiel, and how to get refunded by FEMA.
Go to: HMB Chamber Page on CEAP

smc

SMC Alert

It is a free alert system that will come to your cell phone, your tablet or computer, or all three. There is no charge, although your carrier may charge for texts. This is the best way to stay on top of traffic accidents.
Go to: SMCAlert.info to sign up

mrcMRC – Medical Reserve Corps

Doctors and nurses work together to become the backbone of an emergency medical situation. Coastside Emergency Experts will tell you that the Coastside will be on its own in a major earthquake disaster for 5-7 days. And we no longer have a Medical Reserve Corps on the Coastside! Contact mdragony@coastsidebuzz.com if you are interested in creating a new chapter.

hamHAM Radio

ARES—Amateur Radio Emergency Service—of Half Moon Bay
Go to: their website

red crossRed Cross

We have several Red Cross trailers on the Coast. Take a Red Cross class so you can help in one the shelters during a disaster.
Go to: Sign up for a class or Contact Local Red Cross volunteer Jim Holley

nextdoorNextDoor

Have you signed up with Next Door? Next Door is a great social media tool that will help you stay up to date with what is going on in your neighborhood and other neighborhoods on the Coast.
Go to: NextDoor.com to sign up.


michelleMichelle Dragony, founder of CoastsideBUZZ.com, is also a civilian CERT trainer working with Dave Cosgrave, Cal Fire Battalion Chief of Half Moon Bay, and Ari Delay, Cal Fire Battalion Chief of La Honda. Email here at mdragony@coastsidebuzz.com if you have any questions.

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