Tag CERT

Keeping the C in CERT

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

I’m a big fan of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). For several years I was, in addition to other duties, New York State’s CERT program coordinator. I had interactions with most CERT programs in the state, conducted many CERT train-the-trainer courses, and managed federal CERT and Citizen Corps grant programs. CERT programs, when properly organized, managed, and maintained hold incredible value to their communities.

For those not fully aware of what CERT is, it is a construct that arose from high earthquake hazard communities in California a few decades ago. It is founded on the recognition that the true first responders to a disaster are in fact community members who will tend to themselves, their families, and their neighbors. The core CERT training provides information and skills practice on team organization, first aid, light search and rescue, hazard recognition, and more. Fundamentally, CERT organizations will self-activate in the event of a sudden disaster to care for those immediately around them. CERT programs have evolved in a positive fashion through the years, spreading around the nation and the world. Ideally, they should be formed with a linkage to local emergency responders, and can be leveraged to support community preparedness and mitigation efforts as well. CERT programs are organized around the needs of their communities, with their operational protocols and training rooted in that local need. The C in CERT is for COMMUNITY.

For many years, FEMA has been developing the National Qualification System (NQS), which supports resource typing as a key component of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The primary purpose of the NQS is to establish standards for positions and functions utilized in emergency management, with the greatest benefit being the requesting, processing, deployment, and utilization of resources to disaster areas. These efforts strongly support effective resource management by providing consistent definitions of capability for various kinds and types of resources, backed up by a means for resources to track and even certify progress toward meeting those qualifications.

Yesterday, FEMA released a NIMS Alert for NQS information for several CERT positions. To be honest, this frustrates the hell out of me. CERT is a community-level resource. Not one that is intended to be deployed. Yes, FEMA has called for and deployed CERT personnel in the past, but this is not a consistent practice, has not happened often, and as far as I know was deemed a less than effective utilization. The draft position task books provided by the NQS for comment for CERT indicate roles in support of the CERTs in the jurisdictions in which they are being deployed. While some jurisdictions have prepared CERT members for roles beyond the core tasks associated with CERT, such as EOC support or field data collection, CERT is not fundamentally expected to be a long-term function in the aftermath of a disaster, so to be deploying personnel to support sustained ‘normal’ CERT operations is largely a misutilization and clearly a misunderstanding of what CERT is fundamentally about, especially when most external resources requests occur days or even weeks after a disaster.

CERT members and CERT programs are and should be focused on their own neighborhoods and communities. As individuals and as organizations they are generally not trained, equipped, or otherwise prepared to be deployable resources. They are also not being deployed to a disaster in a professional capacity, many of which have their own NQS documents. While it may sound like a great opportunity for people who want to make a difference, there are a lot of pitfalls – many of which I saw when FEMA requested CERT volunteers from around the nation to deploy for Gulf coast hurricanes about 15 years ago.

The NQS documents identify several trainings in addition to the Basic CERT course, most of which are FEMA Independent Study courses which only provide a general baseline of knowledge; and none of which specifically address issues associated with actually deploying to a disaster area. If CERT personnel wish to be deployable resources, they should do so through organizations such as the Red Cross, Team Rubicon, World Central Kitchen, or the myriad faith-based groups who are established and reputed providers of various disaster-essential services. These are entities that are also organizationally capable of managing personnel and the logistical and procedural requirements of a deployment, of which there are many. These organizations train and prepare personnel for deployments, have experienced personnel that manage and coordinate deployments, they ensure they are managed and cared for on site, they support supply chains, and are experienced in addressing liability matters.

The bottom line here is that we are expecting too much from people signed up to support a disaster response in or even near their own communities, but not to be deployed around the country. I’m sure I’ll get some responses from people espousing some specific successes in deploying CERT personnel outside their jurisdiction, of which I’m sure there are; however that is the exception and not the rule. It’s not what CERT is or ever was intended to be. I’m a big fan and supporter of CERT, and believe in the extraordinary abilities of trained, organized volunteers, but I strongly feel that CERT is not a deployable asset. Personnel who are interested in such endeavors should be steered towards organizations that have the expertise in doing so.

Your thoughts, of course, are welcome.

© 2020 Timothy Riecker, CEDP

Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC®

Gauging Return on Investment in Preparedness: Organizing

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 4 Comments

As a continuation of the Gauging Return on Investment in Preparedness series (read the first one on Planning here), this post’s focus is on the POETE element of Organizing.  There are a number of ‘organizing’ efforts we engage in through our preparedness endeavors.  Some are temporary, like establishing working groups to solve a certain problem; while some are intended to be long-term, like forming an incident response team.

Why organize?  Most organizational efforts are fueled by the need to capitalize on the power of many.  What one person can do, more people can do better.  Problem solving, responding, etc.  Often our organizational efforts are internal, but, particularly in public safety, we coordinate with other agencies.  We might be building a professional response organization, such as an Incident Management Team (IMT), or perhaps we are building a community organization, such as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

What costs are associated with organizational activities?  Foundationally, it’s simply the staff time needed to prepare for, attend, and perform follow up work from meetings and other organizational efforts.  Depending on how complex our efforts are, however, and the intent of our organizational efforts, this can take on full time duties.  You also have to consider who is being drawn into these efforts and what the ‘replacement cost’ is of their time – meaning, what is the cost of someone else performing their work while they are involved in the meetings, etc.?  We also need to identify what costs might be associated with organizing?  The remaining POETE elements (Planning, Equipping, Training, and Exercising) can probably lead you to identifying these.

What are the benefits (value) of organizing?In order to identify the return on our investment, we need to be able to ascertain the benefits our organizational efforts bring – some may be tangible and relatable in dollar figures, others may be more intangible and amorphic.

As with many preparedness efforts, we find ourselves needing to make reasonable assumptions to identify cost savings or value.  We need to follow the bouncing ball of our efforts.  As an example… If we create a CERT team, citizens will be better able to tend to their own needs in the event of a disaster.  This leads to less immediate need of limited resources (first responders), allowing them to focus on more critical needs (i.e. saving lives and protecting infrastructure).   In this example we can make some assumptions about the types of infrastructure to be impacted by a certain incident and the costs associated with it becoming incapacitated.

In regard to saving lives, it’s difficult for us to attach a dollar value to that.  We often say that lives are priceless, and while that may be true, we sometimes need to make an educated guess.  Depending on who you are reporting figures to, they may be satisfied with a reasonable number of lives being saved… others may want to actually compare apples to apples (that is, dollars to dollars).  If you engage the use of your favorite internet search engine and search ‘what is the value of a life’, or something similar, you will find a number of results.  In perusing some of these results myself, I found that the dollar figure assigned to a life is obviously subjective and very much related to the industry in which the question is being asked.  This particular article makes for an interesting read on the subject.  Spoiler alert: they peg the value of a human life at $5M USD (2011).

In the end, organizational efforts need to have a purpose providing a net value.  Even in routine matters and daily business, we should examine the cost of organizational efforts – particularly meetings.  Meetings are one of my biggest bugaboos, as they are often too long, have little purpose, and the objectives can be met in a much more efficient manner.

What ideas do you have on determining the return on investment for organizational activities?

© 2015 – Timothy Riecker

Emergency Preparedness Solutions, LLC

www.epsllc.biz 

Collegiate Emergency Management

Tim Riecker, The Contrarian Emergency Manager 1 Comment

Ever since attending college at SUNY Oswego and serving as chief of our campus ambulance (the first and longest-serving all student-run college ambulance – SAVAC) I’ve had a completely different perspective than most students on the community that is a college campus.  This experience resonated with me through my emergency management career.  As a result, I’ve paid special attention to colleges and universities; helping university police, college public safety entities, and other campus partners to be better prepared by providing training, supporting exercises, and reviewing plans.  I’m fortunate to have friends and colleagues around the nation who are emergency managers for their colleges as well as those who are involved in emergency management degree programs which further the professionalism of our field.  All these folks have worked hard to enhance their colleges’ preparedness through efforts not only targeting college faculty and staff, but also students – which can be a challenge with this regularly changing population.  I’ve seen training offered to students ranging from CPR and First Aid courses, to Campus CERT (community emergency response team), to EMT training.  These types of courses, offered to students, are certainly an investment, but one that can pay off not only for the campus community but beyond the campus when these students graduate.

Colleges and universities have a tremendous amount of resources.  These resources allow a certain measure of self-sufficiency.  I was reminded of this by a recent article about Tufts University working to keep their campus operational after Nemo.  Campuses are truly communities, with hundreds or thousands of residents, hundreds of commuters, and an infrastructure to support it all including roads, facilities, healthcare, and food.  Not only must they have emergency plans in place, but also business continuity plans.  Largely, their number one hazard is fire – and colleges take fire safety very seriously – but they all have their own unique hazard profile which they must address just like any other community.

I have always encouraged colleges to work with their local communities and vice-versa.  There are a number of case studies out there, certainly of local communities aiding campuses during fires, shootings, and other emergencies and disasters.  But there are also instances of colleges helping the local communities.  Not only do campuses have public safety resources (these encompass the entire range of law enforcement – from security guards, to peace officers, to police), but they also have some public works resources, and a vast number of potential volunteers that can all be deployed to aid a local community.  Depending on the education the college provides, these volunteers can range from general labor, to those being trained as social workers, medical providers, veterinarians, and other professions which can provide direct assistance under the supervision of an experienced professional.  This is not only a huge force multiplier to aid the community but also provides real, hands-on experience to the students.  Likely an experience they will never forget.  We’ve also seen colleges and universities provide assistance to local communities on-campus.  Campuses have served as shelters (both in dorms and other facilities, such as gymnasiums) and feeding facilities through their dining halls.  When off term, campuses have massive potential to serve as incident bases, supporting the needs of a larger incident by providing services for incident personnel and resources (remember your ICS training?) through their lodging and feeding capability, medical facilities, loading docks, garages and maintenance facilities, and even just their open spaces.

Colleges and universities have to ensure their own preparedness just like any other community, but they should also work with their local communities and even their county emergency manager on cooperative emergency management relationships.  Local responders should be familiar with the campus, its hazards, facilities, and the people who operate it.  The campus can further relationships by hosting training programs for area responders and emergency managers and should include area responders in any preparedness exercises they conduct.  Engaging the student population in preparedness efforts will have great impact on the campus’s emergency program and will provide skills that the students will carry with them forever.