January 24, 2007

FORD: Announces CERT Program Coming To Long Beach

Hurricane preparedness is such an important factor that hits close to home being that we live in a vulnerable community near the water. In an effort to equip residents with the knowledge and skills of emergency response and safety there will be training sessions held by Community Emergency Response Team Program. CERT educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response and recovery skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. It is a fun hands on way to learn skills that will benefit you, your family, as well as the community. To become a CERT member it is free of charge.

The classes are three hours each for eight nights.
Doors open at 630pm, instruction starts promptly at 7:00 pm ending at 10:00 pm.
Location: Long Beach Fire Department, Maple Blvd. Station #1,
300 Maple Blvd., Long Beach (Cross Street of Park Ave.- East End of Long Beach)

Class 1: Thursday, March 1, class 1- Intro, Organization, What is CERT
Class 2: Thursday, March 8, class 2- Medical 1 & 2
Class 3: Thursday, March 15, class 3- Light Search & Rescue
Class 4: Thursday, March 22, class 4- Terrorism, Disaster Psychology
Class 5: Thursday, March 29, class 5- Fire suppression and Table Top Exercise

I strongly encourage all to attend and take advantage of this opportunity to learn and be prepared for whatever threat may come our way and help to make this community stronger. You can print out sign up forms online at:

http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/OEM/CC/CERT/signup.html