McDonald County Emergency Management  will be training members with 20 plus hour training. The class will be held at the McDonald County Courthouse in Pineville.  When members graduate they will have an understanding of how to protect themselves and their communities.  The class teaches basic disaster preparedness, fire suppression, search and rescue, disaster first aid, and CERT and terrorism.  Students are doing hands on practical exercises during the class as well as power point presentations.   We will be offering other CERT classes in the near future so Call 417-223-7575 for more information.

 Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)

  

McDonald County is a member of MOCERT-1 

 

 The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.

Local government prepares for everyday emergencies. However, during a disaster, the number and scope of incidents can overwhelm conventional emergency services. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is an all-risk, all-hazard training. This valuable course is designed to help you protect yourself, your family, your neighbors and your neighborhood in an emergency situation. CERT is a positive and realistic approach to emergency and disaster situations where citizens may initially be on their own and their actions can make a difference. While people will respond to others in need without the training, one goal of the CERT program is to help them do so effectively and efficiently without placing themselves in unnecessary danger. In the CERT training, citizens learn to:

*manage utilities and put out small fires, *treat the three medical killers by opening airways,   controlling bleeding, and treating for shock, *provide basic medical aid, *search for and rescue victims safely, *organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective,   and collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts.