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C E R T – ified FROM SCOTTS BLUFF COUNTY

COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE

TEAM

UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAINING

Scotts Bluff County CERT

Team training meetings

are held the 3rd Tuesday of

each month at 7:00PM

Location: Elks Club

Scottsbluff, NE

Oct-Nov-Dec 2008 Vol. 9

IN THIS ISSUE 1 CERT Call-out 1 Websites 2 Membership News 3 SAR Pictures 4 Highway Cleanup 4 National Night Out

5 More CERT Activities 6 Propane Tank Warning 6 PSAR Team

CERT IS ACTIVATED TO HELP WITH MISSING PERSON

09 August 2008 Members of the Scotts Bluff County CERT team responded to the call-out on Saturday August 9th. Seventy- six year old Richard Fertig, who has Alzheimers, walked away from his home in rural Bayard Friday evening. Bob Hessler put Brutus to work following the trail only to lose the scent at the West Wild Horse Creek. ERT members, including the PSAR (Ponderosa Search and Rescue Team) with their horses and dogs, worked with the Morrill County Sheriff’s Department and first responders from Bayard, Bridgeport, Banner County and Scotts Bluff County, family members, and friends and neighbors of the family, walking grids through corn fields and beet fields surrounding the creek area from noon to 8:30PM when the search was discontinued due to darkness. Searchers got a break Sunday when a man read about the search for Fertig and notified authorities that he had picked up a man on Friday night walking on the read near the Bayard Golf Course about a mile north of Bayard. The man said he couldn’t get any information from Fertig other than he wanted to be dropped off at the corner four miles north of Bayard, which he did. Searchers found Mr. Fertig about 3:30PM Sunday in a cornfield near MooMaws Corner. He was taken to Regional West Medical Center in fair condition but died later on. Thanks goes out to the following CERT members and their family members who accompanied them: Tony Amaya; Brandon Atchison; Carrie Atchison; Mike Blue; Ken Greenman; Darrell Haney; Bob Hessler; Jennifer Hoevet; Jana Kempel; Randy Kleager; Tyler Kleager; Jeanie Knudtson; Chrystal Lovelace; Kyle Meininger; Brad Mueller-IC; Randy Olson; Linda Peterson; Angelique Peterson; Dessie Ramirez; Dave Schleve; Ken Trevithick; Jodi Wiseman and PSAR/CERT Members .Anthony, Geneice and Tom Walters; Gretchen and Jerry Lotspiech; Desirea Bruner. …………….See photos of the CERT &PSAR teams in action on pages 3 & 6.

Check out these Websites:

Panhandle Citizen Corps Network Website www.citizencorpsnetwork.org (access by Internet Explorer…may not come up on Firefox) CERT Event Calendar website http://www.citizencorps.gov/citizenCorps/eventCalendarMap.do Citizen Corp: http://www.citizencorps.gov Citizen Corp Newsletter Archives: www.citizencorps.gov/news/enews FEMA: www.fema.gov Information regarding disaster preparedness. www.ready.gov/america/getakit/familyneeds.html

CERT-ified is published quarterly—January, April, July and October with “Special Editions” from time to time. Deadline for submitting information is the last Monday of the current quarter. Send all information via email as word document attachments or Jpeg to Editor, Marie “Jeanie” Knudtson at cert_nl@yahoo.com

IF YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER AND DO NOT WISH TO, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Cert_nl@yahoo.com

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CERT TRAINING AND CONTINUED EDUCATION

Trainers are: Randy Kleager; Randy Olsen; Brandon Atchison VIP Coordinator: Randy Olsen As a member of CERT it is mandatory that you pass the ICS 100 course from FEMA and then take and pass National Incident Management System (NIMS) training. This class will be offered sometime at a future training but may also be taken online. at http://training.fema.gov/IS/crs/ist.asp Course Name: Introduction to Incident Command System I-100 Course Code: IS100 Delivery Type: Self Study *Notify Bob Hessler when you have completed the course and printed off your Certificate

OFFICERS 2008-2009 Jennifer Hoevet, President; Dale Brown, Vice President Toni Amaya, Secretary; Randy Olson, Treasurer; TRAINERS: Randy Kleager Randy Olson Brandon Atchison BOARD OF DIRECTORS Greg Sell-2008-2009 Doug Rupp-2008-2010 Jamie Scholtz-2008-2011 PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER Fiona Libsack CITIZEN CORP COORDINATOR Bob Hessler

CERT TEAM TO BE INCLUDED IN THE

CODE RED

DISPATCH NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

Has everyone registered your phone numbers? If not,

please go to www.scottsbluffcounty.org, then click on the

code red icon and register your phone numbers so that

you will be in the system to receive the phone calls.

If you have any problems call Bob on his cell phone and

he will walk you through it.

Bob Hessler 631-0076

Scotts Bluff County Citizen Corps/CERT/Point of

Contact/Coordinator/Lead Instructor

MEMBERSHIP FEES: Annual Dues are $15.00 for CERT members. (March 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009) Those families that have more than one CERT member will pay as follows: 2 members = $22.50; 3 or more add $5/pp

Mail dues to: Randy Olson, 5401 Oriole Drive, Scottsbluff, NE 69361

CERT DIRECTORY Jennifer Hoevet and Toni Amaya are working on CERT Directory. If you have not had your picture taken, please email Jennifer with a current photo in *.jpg format (photo should be of head and shoulders). Send to jhoevet@oaconsulting.com

See page 5 for CERT class Information. If you know someone who would like to take the CERT class, notify . Bob Hessler

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CERT TEAM JOINS IN THE SEARCH AND RESCUE EFFORTS TO FIND MISSING PERSON

……………………………………………………………………………….……more pictures on page 6

CHECKING IN

BACK TO THE FIELDS VIA BUS

RED CROSS SETTING UP COMMAND CENTER TENT

VOLUNTEER TEAMS WALKING THE CREEK

REPORTING IN AND RESTING

SUNDAY’S SUCCESSFUL RESCUE TEAM

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ADOPT-A-SPOT MINI-GRANT CLEAN UP REPORT #3 Highway 26 – Kmart to Comfort Inn

Scotts Bluff County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) August 4, 2008

The Scotts Bluff County CERT team conducted the third clean up along Highway 26 between Kmart and Comfort Inn on August 4, 2008. We had 13 members show up at the Kmart parking lot. The clean up started at 6:00 pm and was done at approximately 7:15 pm. A total of 14 bags of trash were collected. All bags were placed along the frontage road near the Kmart sign and were collected by Scottsbluff Environmental Services for disposal. We found less litter along the highway this time and the clean up went smoothly and as expected. Thanks for everyone’s help for the clean up! It went very fast…………………………………………………………………………… Jennifer Hoevet

CERT Members present: Toni Amaya Bob Hessler Randy Kleager Randy Olson Brandon Atchison Carrie Atchison Kyle Meininger Jamie Scholtz Rich Jackson Jeanie Knudtson Dave Schleve Jeanne Reyes Jennifer Hoevet

August 5, 2008 was National Night Out. The downtown Scottsbluff area was bustling with food venders, games, demonstrations by the Police/Sheriff/Highway Patrol Departments, and many organizations with informational booths. CERT hosted a “sucker pull”. The children and/or adults pulled a sucker from the box. The tip of the sucker stick was color coded to correspond with questions about “How to prepare for a disaster”. Participants answered the question and then received a prize that went along with the color coding. Information on “Emergency Preparation for your Pet”

was given out to pet owners. Brutus was the star of the show!!! http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/pets.html

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EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT TRAINING

The Scotts Bluff County CERT team trained at Valley Ambulance on August 19th on setting up the Scotts Bluff County Communication trailer. The team was trained in setting up the tower so that in an emergency the CERT team would be able to set it up. The trailer has radio equipment and repeaters so that if the county would lose their radios the trailer could be set up and the radios would be up and working again.

The class was taught by Randy Meininger of Valley Ambulance.

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ICS-100 TRAINING

September 2, 2008: ICS -100 training was held at Jerry Bretthours office in the Administrative building in Gering in the basement. The daytime class started at 9-12 and the night class was from 6-9.

SEARCH AND RESCUE DRILL September 6, 2008: Ponderosa Search and Rescue Team held a drill in Chadron. CERT was invited and civil air patrol helped train everyone on how they work from the air.

KIDS SAFETY DAY Gering High School sponsored a Kids Safety Day on September 20th. CERT team was invited to set up a booth with information on disaster preparedness.

CERT CLASSES Bob Hessler, Randy Olson and Randy Kleager taught a new CERT class on Sept 12-14 up in Chadron. They also taught classes in Sidney and Alliance. Class was held at the Harms Center in Scottsbluff on Oct 10-12.

TRASH PICKUP The final trash pickup along highway 26 was held Tuesday, September 16 at 5:30 pm . Thanks to all

members that participated during the year.

M O R E C E R T A C T I V I T I E S

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PROPANE TANK WARNING……………………………………………….contributed by Randy Kleager

Meth cooks are getting the propane tanks from the exchanges at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Lowes, etc. and emptying them of the propane. Then they are filling them with anhydrous ammonia (which they now have a recipe for by the way). After they are finished with the cylinders, they return them to the store. They are then refilled with propane and sent back for you and me to buy. Anhydrous ammonia is very corrosive and weakens the structure of the tank. It can be very dangerous when mixed with propane and hooked up to our grills, etc. According to the National Propane Gas Association, you should inspect the propane tank for any blue or greenish residue around the valve areas. If it is present, refuse to purchase that one.

For more information go to this website: https://secure.propanegas.ca/FileArea/PGAC/C3Alert_0605_18%20PropaneCylinders_CrystalMethAlert.pdf

The Ponderosa Search and Rescue Team was formed in the summer of 2004 with 13 members after several individuals attended a workshop on how to train horses to use their natural air scenting instinct to locate individuals and decided to form a team. They now have 20 members certified in different categories, such as horse handling, dog handling, foot or four-wheeler patrols and heliops flights. Their team includes members from Crawford, Chadron, Hemingford, Sidney, Alliance and Marsland—all CPR and basic first aid trained—as well as five dogs and six horses, all certified in air-scenting. The above pictures were taken during the search for Mr. Fertig.

Ponderosa Search and Rescue Team in Action