“The response time is 30 to 45 minutes and if we lose a bridge, it’s even longer.” That’s the observation of Connie McCourt, East Carbon Ward Citizen Emergency Response Team Preparedness Specialist. She said because East Carbon is somewhat isolated from the more populous area of the county, it’s important that they are prepared to be self-sustaining in the event of an emergency.
The CERT team presented an Emergency Preparedness Fair Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in East Carbon to demonstrate ways to improve citizen self-sufficiency in case of an emergency such as flood, fire or earthquake.
Displays and demonstrations covered communications, shelter, food preparation, preservation, and storage, water filtration and purification, basic first aid training, emergency equipment and more.
CERT member HarryGoslin is an Alaskan native with a military background. He was demonstrating how to safely turn off a gas line and electrical service breaker in an emergency. He said there is a lot of knowledge and experience in the general population of East Carbon. “The community here is really blessed. We’re really in depth as a community with the type of people that live here.”
Water treatment expert Larry Wood demonstrated numerous EPA-approved methods to purify water, beginning with the basics of boiling, including chemical treatments, ultraviolet light and filtration. Wood displayed a make-shift earth filtering system, which consists of a bucket filled with washed and dried sand, clay, gravel and activated charcoal. Wood said, “You can make one of these, put it in your basement and 20 years later, you can drag it out and start dumping water in it, and it’ll start working.”
Several high-tech portable filtration systems, which are available to the general public, were on display. “The new technology is cheaper and better than the old technology,” Wood asserted. “They’ll take out pathogens, bacteria, protozoans– all these filters are designed to do that.”
McCourt said she became familiar with the CERT concept when she was working for the ambulance. She said when she asked if there was a CERT team in East Carbon and found out there wasn’t one, she thought, “Well that’s the wrong answer!” She began organizing the East Carbon team almost two years ago which now counts 13 members.
Newcomers welcome
The East Carbon CERT team is always looking for new members. McCourt noted, “The more people we have trained appropriately, the safer we all are. If we have training and practice it, we can respond automatically in an emergency.”
Joining the team doesn’t cost anything but a little time to attend a monthly CERT meeting. Equipment, such as gloves, hard hats, eye protection, first aid kits and other material are provided by Carbon County Emergency Management.
McCourt said the bottom line is, “We need to be self-reliant and we are in pretty good shape.”
East Carbon prepares to respond first in local emergencies
East Carbon prepares to respond first in local emergencies Rick Sherman, Sun Advocate Reporter