ARTICLE.
Hello Coastsiders,
On the first Friday of our self-isolation, Coastside CERT just wants to check in and see how everyone is doing.
We are all doing our part to flatten the curve and protect the most vulnerable in our community while our health care professionals ramp up efforts to protect our health, develop effective treatments, and future vaccines.
The Coastside Fire Protection District wants you to know that measures to protect themselves and public members who call for service have been modified with new protocols. Calls to 9-1-1 should be for emergencies only and lesser service or questions should go to 2-1-1. When 9-1-1 is called for medical need there is a screening process that will ask questions to see if you have a fever, cough, difficulty breathing and more including exposure to COVID-19. As you can imagine many of your neighbors may have preexisting non-COVID-19 reasons for a cough or difficulty breathing such as asthma, allergies, and other respiratory issues. Regardless of the reason for the above symptoms, when first responders show up to give treatment they may be in different levels of protection from a simple mask to a medical gown. Do not be alarmed or make assumptions if you see them wearing an increased level of protection.
We can all help by limiting contact and proper hygiene as outlined by the CDC and others. One way of looking at limiting spread is to act as if you are the carrier and it is your responsibility to not spread it to others.
There are ways you can help:
#1 Stay healthy and safe.
Minor illness and injury prevention are more important now than ever. A simple preventable fall to a cut from a kitchen knife needing stitches and care will draw resources away from the medical provider and put you at greater risk of exposure.
#2 Do a safety inspection of your living space.
Are there tripping hazards that can be eliminated.
#3 Take a look at your stored food.
Clear out each shelf and look at the dates on the can, box, package…Is it still within the use-by date and safe to eat? Reorganize with the safe older food upfront. Perhaps come up with creative ideas to use those items that will expire soon.
For many of us the isolation in itself is having a significant impact. Checking in by phone, text, email, and radio, can go a long way to reassure our neighbors, family, and friends that they are not alone and we are all in this together.
While CERT is not officially activated, we are initiating use of our most powerful communications tool – the Coastside CERT roster of contacts and grassroots neighborhood networks – to serve as a phone tree to reach out to all of you to check-in with you. Our neighborhood leads, zone leads, block leads and data managers are receiving their contact lists to call you. If we don’t have a phone number we will check-in by email. If you would prefer a human to human phone call just provide a phone number in your reply to them. The relationships we have built at the neighborhood level are invaluable and if leads become aware of issues beyond what can be solved in a simple conversation they will forward them on and we will address them as a community.
Fire Battalion Chief Ken Lord has been assigned to the County EOC since Monday and looking out for all of us on the coast.
If you have questions for Coastside CERT please contact coastsidecert@gmail.com.
Coronavirus information and links to local resources may be found at our website, Facebook page, and on Twitter.
Coastside CERT Communications:
Email: coastsidecert@gmail.com
Website: coastsidecert.com
Facebook: facebook.com/pg/CoastsideCERT
Twitter: twitter.com/CoastsideCert
Thanks,
Fire Battalion Chief David Cosgrave.
San Mateo County Battalion 10
Serving Coastside Fire Protection District
CAL FIRE
San Mateo/Santa Cruz Unit Battalion 10-A
Cell (650) 740-7247
or call the
On-Duty Coastside Battalion Chief (877) 298-1712