32 MEMBERS HAVE ANSWERED THE CALL FOR HELP

Beginning with requests from Austin/Travis officials, relayed by our County OEM, on 9/13, our response was instant, providing 26 members (and two family members) who logged 296 hours (avg. 10.6 per person) at the Austin Convention Center and 7 area school shelters.

However, our focus shifted with the opening Tuesday, 9/16 of a shelter dedicated to Galveston evacuees at the unused Bowie elementary school campus in San Marcos. The reconditioning of the school, carried out by a "full court press" of County, San Marcos, Kyle, Buda forces, tranformed it into a real haven for up to 200 people.

With no other purpose to serve, every facility in the school was put to shelter use. This enabled families to settle into classrooms, rather than a gym or auditorium - adding greatly to their privacy and comfort. Also, the gym could be used for recreation and cafeteria spaces for that specific purpose - in addition to a day room and location for social services reps to provide their aid. The old school library was reopened as such with the addition of computer, phone and TV access.

Hays Co. CERT served as the sole general purpose volunteer support group for the shelter, working 4-hour shifts around the clock. In this regard, 18 of our members logged 220.5 hours or an average 12+ per person.

The work began before evacuees arrived by bus and personal vehicles by staffing registration and continued with tasks that included everything from sanitizing vacant cots to following up on registration records, assisting clients with FEMA registration and computer assistance, handling liaison with area motels, handling questions of every kind and lending a hand wherever needed.

The shelter was closed Friday evening, 9/19 as the final resident group was either placed in motels with FEMA assistance or departed for home.

Our members who have helped are: (Team N)- Niclole Zinn, Beverly Archer, Bob Sheldon, Karen Crowther, Lana Rich, Mike Wilmore, Patti Barrett, Shirlee King, Tom Kelley, Mike Donovan and Susan Japar; (Team W) - Bob Flocke, Jenelle Flocke, Cathy Flocke and Bob Pierce; (Team E) - Charlene Wood, Karen Herrmann, John Reilly, Delania Toothman, Christine Williams, Kevin Wood, Kimberley Wood and Jared Kelley; (Team S) - Kay Mayfield, Rocky Wilson, Ron Kondoff, Rose Tempfer, Rick Bravo, Rev. Jim White and Paula McNabb; (Directors) - Darrel DeLong, Paul Elliott, Bill Coffman and Lewis Smith.

OTHER IMPORTANT TEAM NEWS

Sat.,Oct. 11 Training... Our training site will be the Wimberley VFD training facility where we will pick up (or "refresh" in case of senior members) the finer points of small fire suppression (using various suppression devices), and using blocking/leverage techniques to extract victims from auto and structure situations.

Training will begin (not an arrival time) at 9 a.m.

There's also the possibility of using the "smoke house" for training in blind navigation in structures.

This is a required course for all new (prospective members are urged to attend) members and is also a good refresher for experienced members.

The training grounds are located by starting at the Wimberley H.S. (RR 2325 at Carney Lane) and going south on Carney Lane as far as you can go (through a swing gate) toward the Hays Co. Transfer Station. Once through the gate and on Transfer Station grounds, take an immediate right and you'll see fire/CERT apparatus straight ahead at the training grounds.

Grubby clothes, gloves, your goggles, helmet are recommended. Prospective members and those without the issued items contact Paul Elliott (pde@txwinet.com) by 10/6 and we'll have them there.

SAR Team training & work days scheduled for Oct... At 1 p.m., Sat. Oct. 11 (right after the training field session)we will have a SAR training session at the new building we now are able to use at the county yard on Jacobs Well Rd. We will be going over the use new equipment for the SAR team, including helmets, PDFs, lights and other equipment. We will also go over the bus (aka. ISV) we recently acquired and its uses for SAR. It was donated to us by Hays Co. Sheriff's Office

The county yard is the area with the large privacy fence just west of the VFW Post on Jacobs Well Rd.

On Saturday the 18th at 9am all available CERT members are asked to meet at the VFW hall to work on cleaning the bus (aka. ISV). All who want to assist should be prepared to washing and scrubbing inside and out.

Lions Market Day support...We are expanding our team support to provide two CERT shifts: 0800-noon and noon- 1600. It's an ideal opportunity to put our training to work in a real-life setting which could include many different first aid/medical challenges (we have an EMS paramedic at our side) and possible fire suppression.

In addition, it's a pleasant, shaded work environment with great, free food and snacks. If you'd like to help or need more info, contact Bob Flocke (West Team Ldr) at rflocke@austin.rr.com.

FEMA Incident Command System courses required...All Hays Co. CERT members are expected to complete two on-line courses pertaining to the Incident Command System -- the system we will be working under at virtually all call-outs.
The many members who have completed the courses say each takes about 1-1/2 hours to complete. Access them at: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/IS/crslist.asp. That will take you to the Emergency Management Institute course list. Scroll down the course list to the first required course: IS-100 (Introduction to the Incident Command System), then take IS-700 (National Incident Management System). It's recommended you download the course outlines which you can use to complete the quiz which you can also download. Any questions... and once you've finished a course, please contact Lewis Smith at: LSranch@verizon.net. In addition, Team Leaders are required to complete IS-200.

Severe weather CERT advisories... The best place to stay up to date on what's happening in the County is to check the County web site (http://www.co.hays.tx.us)and click on the Office of Emergency Management tab on the home page. Call out standbys and actions will continue to be communicated through Team Leaders.

Volunteers are needed. For more information, please click here to email CERT.