KRVCERT

After discovering that the newsletter was not being updated I decided to take the task on again. I will be doing the newsletter just twice a year; winter and summer. If you have any suggestions or ideas for the newsletter please contact me at the above phone number.

Most of you will receive the newsletter by e-mail. Please keep Tom or myself updated with your most current e-mail address and/or mailing address. E-mail is preferable if you have it, as I will be incurring the expense of mailings. Thanks for your consideration.

From our Coordinator:

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Last year was a quiet year for us. No major fires, floods or any other type of disasters in the Kern River Valley. Which was good, but at the same time no activations for our team.

We are still having our monthly drills; first Saturday of each month at the Youth Center in Lake Isabella from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm. We had some really good turnouts with 15 plus members showing up. We also had a few where no one but me showed up. Boy, did I train hard on those Saturdays. I kept trying to find my cert buddy but he was no where to be found.

We only had three members available to attend the Christmas Parade this year; Dean Ott, Joyce Kane and myself.

Dean and I are still teaching SERT (Student Emergency Response Team) at the high school. This is our third year of SERT training and with the graduation of this class the number of students we have trained will be around 70.

Starting this year, we will only send out two newsletters per year. One in December for the first six months of the New Year. The second, in June, for the last six months of the year.

January 2010

This coming year starting in January Dean will giving a Red Cross First Aid class for anyone wanting to refresh on basis first aid or renew their Red Cross First Aid cards. We will try to have it on January 16th from 9am to 5pm at the Youth Center on Golden Spur in Lake Isabella. Please let me know that if you plan on attending so we can have enough books for everyone. The cost for cert members is $15.00 each. Our team does not make any money from this training (from cert members) for this is the cost of the book and card and supplies. Anyone else wanting to attend (non-cert member) the cost is $20.00.

This class will be in place of our monthly meeting.

February 2010

In place of monthly meeting; Dean will be teaching the Red Cross CPR class. This class will be on February 6th from 9am to 5pm at the Youth Center on Golden Spur in Lake Isabella. Again, I need anyone wanting to attend to contact Dean or me to sign up for the class so we know how many people are attending. The cost is the same as the Red Cross First Aid class.

March 2010

On Saturday March 6th from 9:30am to 12 noon at the Youth Center on Golden Spur we will hold the monthly drill. This drill will be a Search and Rescue, Triage drill. We will have our quarter meeting and take nominations for Cert Coordinator, Assist. Coordinator, SEC/Treasurer and Public Relations Officers. These positions will be held for 3 years in accordance with our by-laws. If we move our full scale disaster drill to May each year then we also will vote on whether to have a drill in June or take June through August off from training. If you can not attend then you can send nominations to me by email. krvcert@yahoo.com.

We may have a CERT Basis Training class (for new people) starting March 13th.

April 2010

Monthly meeting first Saturday of April. That would be April 3rd at the Youth Center on Golden Spur in Lake Isabella. Time: 9:30am to 12:00pm. The training this month will be on Logistics, how to manage the equipment in our trailers.

May 2010

I am going to try and schedule our yearly full-scale disaster drill this month, in hopes to have more victims (since school will still be in session and students maybe available). I also hope that our Kern Valley High School SERT teams will participate.

WINTER UPDATE

It’s winter…be sure to carry some water, food and extra blanket in your vehicles when traveling just in case you get caught in a winter storm, or trapped on some highway closure for an extended period of time. If you do get trapped on the highway, don’t forget it is ok to run the heater but also have a window slightly open so you are not over come by carbon monoxide.

DEFENSIBLE SPACE

Don’t forget that everyone needs to have their defensible space around their property done by June 9th 2010.

PHONE TREE

How the Phone Tree Works - 1st Person is contacted by incident Commander (i.e., Tom Klein). You get a call from a team leader. Then you contact next person, if not available, leave a message and phone the next person from your team on the list. If personal contact is made then that person in turn calls the next one. Be sure to state - Date, Time, Emergency Type and Location and/or Staging Area.

STAGING AREAS:

The following areas were designated as Team staging areas:

Bodfish--Nancy Puckett's house 147 North Salaine

Cap Canyon. --Home of Roger Friend, 19526 Appalossa Ave.

Kernville-- Kernville Elementary School, Sierra Way

Lake Isabella-- Von's Shopping Center

Walker Pass --To be determined

Weldon --South Fork School at Hwy. 178 and Fay Ranch Road

Wofford Heights --Wofford Heights Post Office

FRS RADIO FREQUENCIES

The following radio frequencies have been assigned for areas:

Bodfish Ch 8 (primary) Ch 1 (secondary)

Cap Canyon Ch 9 (primary) Ch 2 (secondary)

Kernville Ch 10 (primary) Ch 3 (Secondary)

Lake Isabella Ch 11 (primary) Ch 4 (secondary)

Walker Pass Ch 12 (primary) Ch 5 (secondary)

Weldon Ch 13 (primary) Ch 6 (secondary)

Wofford Hts Ch 12 (primary) Ch 11 (secondary)

Training Ch 14 (primary) Ch 7 (secondary)

Valley wide channel 15

Please make note of all new channels

CERT RADIO

CHANNELS 1-6 ON THE CERT RADIO.

CHANNEL 6 WILL BE THE NEW RADIO CHANNEL USED DURING CALL-OUTS, SO IF THERE IS A CALL-OUT TURN YOUR RADIO TO CHANNEL 6 FOR ANY INFORMATION THAT MIGHT BE GIVEN OUT.

Tom has been working with Tony, our website master and trying to get the website updated. Sorry that it has not been kept up. Tony has been busy I guess.

PLEASE NOTE: A list of CERT members is currently being worked for the purpose of the CERT teams knowing who is on their team and how to contact them (as suggested at the last drill). If you have had a phone number, address, or email address change; please send an email or note or call Vickie Stacy with the update (Vickie Stacy, 2828 Edna St., Lake Isabella, CA 93240 or vstacy@yahoo.com or cell 760 417-0389)