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!
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.
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