TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

A Good Team For Bad Times

ADVERTISEMENT

By JAMIE PILARCZYK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 16, 2008

TAMPA - Bill Metler has always prided himself on being part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

It's one of the reasons he joined the Greater Tampa Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, a volunteer-led group that assists professional emergency responders during disasters.

"Another major motivation was self-preservation," said Metler, the Seminole Heights team leader and an underwriter for First Housing Development Corp. "I thought it'd be good for me to know, living in a hurricane-prone area."

The free, federally approved program requires 24 hours of training, held on weekends or evenings. Upon completion, volunteers get a training manual, a CERT kit with emergency essentials and a certificate.

"It's a revisitation of the Civil Defense," said CERT Vice President Brian Pisaneschi, referring to the Cold War-era program that prepared civilians for a military attack.

"It's teaching people self-reliance instead of becoming part of the problem," said the New Tampa resident, a chemist for Bausch & Lomb. "The more people that do that, the less draw there is on the system."

More than 800 volunteers have been trained by the host organization, Tampa Fire Rescue, since the program began in 2002, with 14 teams established throughout the county, including in South Tampa, Seminole Heights, Carrollwood and the University area.

"There is no community out there that can efficiently respond to a large, catastrophic event," said Special Operations Chief Michael Gonzalez of Tampa Fire Rescue.

He said the department has 575 fire rescuers; during a catastrophe, it could need 2,000.

"One way to increase our work force is through this program," said Gonzalez, who lives near Old Seminole Heights. "When they are trained and provided with equipment, they become great, valuable assets to the community. They protect themselves, their families and give back to the community when the resources are thinned."
CERT members have provided backup radio communications along the Gasparilla parade route and during the recent mass casualty disaster drill at Tampa International Airport. When Hurricane Katrina hit, volunteers went to the Gulf Coast states and helped operate amateur, or ham, radio, sending word of survivors to volunteers in Tampa who contacted families.

"Somebody makes a request, and they use us as a pipeline to execute the message," said Keating Floyd, a CERT volunteer and vice president of the Tampa Amateur Radio Club, which provides radio communication training. "When a big wind or water comes, or even if there's a big pileup on I-275, the cell service gets overloaded, and no one has the ability to communicate.

"Amateur radio operators know how to work without infrastructure," said Floyd, who provides backup and auxiliary communications for the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County. "In an emergency situation, we generally know what to do."

In 2004, 44 CERT volunteers headed to Hardee County after Hurricane Charley hit. President Bonnie Goodwin was among them.

She walked door to door telling people where they could get clean water and food. She helped send radio messages seeking insulin, medicine and oxygen.

"You see the pictures on television, and it's just unimaginable to be there in the devastation and then see people come together to build it up," said Goodwin, a New Tampa resident and researcher at the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute.

"It was terrible," she said, "but very positive to see people pull together."

BE PREPARED

•Have a family plan with a meeting place established.

•Secure an out-of-state contact person through whom family and friends can communicate.

•Keep an emergency supply of water, food, prescription drugs, baby food and diapers to last at least 72 hours.

Source: Greater Tampa Community Emergency Response Team
GETTING TRAINED

The next CERT training will be held in the fall. For information, call (813) 242-5410, e-mail info@greatertampa

cert.com or go to www.tampa

gov.net and search Community Emergency Response Team.

An amateur radio training class will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and July 26 at the Tampa Fire Training Academy, 116 S. 34th St. The class is free, but the test to receive the amateur license is $14. To register, call (813) 242-5410 or e-mail Jodi Pecoraro at jodip8@yahoo.com.

The Tampa Amateur Radio Club meets at 7:30 p.m. Mondays at its operations center, 7801 N. 22nd St. For information, go to www.hamclub.org or call (813) 301-7209.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT