To all Arlington County neighborhood and civic association leaders:

 

FYI, two Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) basic training courses are scheduled to begin in September. This training provides those who live and/or work in Arlington County with the skills and knowledge to be better prepared for, able to respond to and recover from emergencies, large and small. To-date, more than 500 Arlingtonians representing almost 50 civic associations have completed this training. Some did so to be safer in their own homes and others to be better prepared to help out their community in a disaster.

 

The training takes place over six weeknights and two Saturday mornings (total of 25 hours) at the Fire Training Academy in Shirlington. It is offered free of charge and is sponsored by the County's Citizen Corps Council, Office of Emergency Management and Fire Department. The training is typically offered twice a year.

 

Additional details are provided on the attached announcement. Please include it in neighborhood listservs, newsletters and other communication vehicles. Please have interested parties contact me at ArlingtonCERT@aol.com for the schedule and additional details.

 

Also, to give you some sense of how many active-duty CERT members currently reside in your civic association, a list is provided at the end of this e-mail. They are trained citizen volunteers who may be deployed by the County's Office of Emergency Management in an emergency and their names and contact information are treated as confidential. Because CERT training takes an all-hazards approach, it would be advantageous to have as many trained individuals in your neighborhood as possible.  

 

Preparedness is everyone's responsibility ... please help spread the word!

 

Best regards,

Cynthia Kellams

Volunteer Program Coordinator and Citizen Liaison

Arlington County CERT

 

P.S. Only three of you have completed CERT training. Hope to see more of you in September!

 

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Preparedness tip: With hurricane season underway -- and a more active than usual season projected for the Atlantic -- make sure you have enough non-perishable food and water on-hand to support you and your family for at least three days. Don't assume grocery stores and drinkable tap water will be accessible in an emergency.

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More than 10 Active-duty CERT Members

Arlington Ridge

Aurora Highlands

Columbia Heights

Douglas Park

Fairlington

 

6 to 10

Alcova Heights

Arlington Heights

Donaldson Run

Lyon Park

Lyon Village

Penrose

 

1 to 5

Arlington-E. Falls Church

Arlington Forest

Ashton Heights

Ballston-VA Square

Bellevue Forest

Bluemont

Boulevard Manor

Buckingham

Cherrydale

Claremont

Clarendon-Courthouse

Columbia Forest

Columbia Heights West

Dominion Hills

Forest Hills

Foxcroft heights

Glebewood

Glencarlyn

Highland Park-Overlee Knolls

John M. Langston

Leeway-Overlee

Long Branch Creek

Madison Manor

Maywood

North Highlands

Old Glebe

Radnot-Ft. Myer Heights

Rivercrest

Riverwood

Rock Spring

Rosslyn

Shirlington

Tara-Leeway Heights

Waycroft-Woodlawn

Westover Village

Williamsburg

Yorktown

 

All others have 0 active CERT members