Emergency team ready to help YOU.
Volunteers train to aid in local disasters

By Darrell Halen
MethuenLife Writer

When last December’s severe ice storm hit the Northeast, a Red Cross shelter set up at Comprehensive Grammar School welcomed Methuen-area residents who had lost electricity.
There, members of the city’s Community Emergency Response Team helped register people, set up cots, kept people company and provided them with useful information.
None of them earned any money for their efforts. They did their good deeds out of a desire to help their fellow residents.
CERT is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security training program that prepares citizens to help themselves, their families and their neighbors in the event of a disaster or emergency. CERT volunteers are taught the skills necessary to help emergency responders save lives and protect property in their communities.
Methuen’s CERT program is run by the city’s Department of Emergency Management and currently has 20 members.
“I think it’s great they want to give back to their community,” said John Santoro, a Methuen police patrolman who serves as the department’s director.
The program was launched locally only nine months ago but already members have made a difference. They helped with traffic management at the city’s fireworks celebration in July, manned an information table during an emergency preparedness day at a local church, and installed emergency alert radios that had been provided to schools by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“Obviously, we’re not getting paid for it. It’s volunteering our time, basically, to help our community,” said member Ray Dixon. “With that comes some personal satisfaction, being able to give back to the community.”
During the ice storm, CERT members also escorted people from the shelter to local hospitals because they couldn’t stay in the shelter due to medical conditions. Some CERT members also answered phones, did computer work, and performed other clerical duties at an emergency operations center. Altogether, nine CERT volunteers donated a total of 155 hours of help in response to the storm.
Training is an important component of the program. Members are asked what areas they’re interested in working in. Classes are optional but Santoro won’t assign members to do something they aren’t trained to do.
To become CERT certified, volunteers need to complete a set of classes: Disaster Preparedness, Fire Safety, Disaster Medical Operations 1 and 2, Light Search and Rescue Operations, CERT organization, Disaster Psychology, Terrorism and CERT. The training wraps up with students participating in a local simulated exercise.
Beyond that, Santoro offers training in several areas, including first aid, CPR, shelter operations and management, crowd and traffic management, the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System, and donations management.
“It’s like insurance,” said Dixon of the skills they’re learning. “You hope you never have to use it but when you need it, it’s there and you’re glad you’ve got it. We’re here to help if the need comes up.”
Members may be called on to provide first aid in emergencies, manage traffic and crowds at events, educate others on how to help themselves during disasters, carry out light search and rescues, and direct people and manage traffic at emergency dispensing sites where health department officials are providing antibiotics and vaccines to the public.
“We don’t force anyone to do anything they’re not comfortable with,” said Santoro.
Applicants for the program must be at least 18 years old and are subject to a background check. There is no maximum age and members don’t have to live in Methuen or possess a special set of skills. They just have to possess a desire to help others.
Volunteers range from college students to retirees. It’s a diverse group that includes a school teacher, a FEMA employee, a graphic artist, a civilian employee of the military, and a retired telephone worker.
One of the members, Christian Goring, 26, of Lawrence, was a volunteer for the Red Cross in the Dominican Republic and served as a civil defense volunteer in Puerto Rico before moving to the United States.
During a recent class in basic first aid, Dixon paired with Goring for some hands-on training. They used a magazine as a splint. Dixon held it under his right arm while Goring wrapped it in gauze.
A former national sales manager who traveled the country, Dixon has lived in the city for 20 years but wasn’t very active in the community. He’s now semi-retired and joined up after reading a press release about CERT in a local newspaper.
“The information we get is information we can use in our everyday lives,” said Dixon, 62. “I think almost everyone at some point in time has been in a situation where they’ve seen somebody in trouble whether it was a heart attack or they fainted or whatever. And you feel somewhat helpless if you don’t know what to do.”
The Mother’s Day Floods of 2006 was an impetus to launching the CERT program locally.
When the flood waters hit, the volunteers the city had used to run shelters were either battling their own flood waters at home, had gotten up in age or were no longer living in the area. But there were plenty of individuals and groups who wanted to help and they were referred to the Red Cross and other groups.
When Santoro discovered the CERT program, he knew it would be a good fit for the city.
“We have an operation now in place that should there be any kind of major event, we’re so much better equipped to react to it,” said Dixon.
Santoro is hoping more people will join the program and he’s pleased with the enthusiasm he’s seen so far in his members.
Several of them have showed interest in helping the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency at the Boston Marathon in April.
And a couple of members want to help Methuen achieve StormReady status. StormReady is a nationwide community preparedness program of the National Weather Service that helps towns and cities respond to all types of severe weather.