SCARES Members Needed for
Full-scale CERT Exercise Saturday, July 17th

From: Christy Adonis, Disaster Preparedness Officer, Belmont - San Carlos Fire Department

Hello CERT and SCARES members,

Did you miss the weekday exercises of Silver Dragon and April EOC exercise?

Well for those of you who were unable to make the early morning weekday exercises, here is an opportunity to participate in a full scale CERT exercise on Saturday, July 17th.

The Saturday July 17th CERT Full Scale Exercise will allow us to practice all of our skills and additionally assist several Belmont Neighborhoods to get the word out on CERT, preparedness, awareness and National Night out. Pizza Lunch will be provided.

WHAT IS IT:
On Saturday, July 17, 2010, members of the Belmont – San Carlos CERT will participate in the “Full Scale Exercise” in conjunction with the Emergency Operation Center at the City of Belmont.

During this exercise, CERT members along with SCARES’s (South County Amateur Radio Emergency Services) members will test radios and deliver National Night Out/CERT information to
residents of several Belmont neighborhoods.

The purpose of this exercise is to test the team’s ability to set-up an Incident Command Post (ICP), team deployment and proper documentation, team organization utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS), functionality of our Emergency Response Trailer, operation of our Portable HAM Radio and the ability to relay critical information to and from the City of Belmont EOC to the CERT Field ICP.

The goal of this exercise is to enhance coordination between all participants in communications and response plans, and to identify additional resources that may be needed by CERT members in an actual disaster.

As team members you will be testing your communication skills with FRS and HAM radios, plus we will test other skills that you learned in your initial CERT course. In order to facilitate some training for all participating CERT members and to learn from our exercise, CERT members will be given scenarios to review decision making based on CERT curriculum. This is a great way to build relationships between all participants and to get preparedness information out to our community.

The schedule of the day’s exercise is as follows :

• 0900 to 0920
  CERT and SCARES members arrive at Barrett Community Center for check-in “Room C”
  
  
• 0920 to 0945
  Incident Briefing and Team assignments
  
  
• 0945 to 1000
  Assigned HAM’s report to Belmont City Hall, EOC Radio Control Room
  CERT Field ICP and Teams receive scenarios and NNO/CERT information
  
  
• 1000 to 1130
  CERT members distribute NNO information/test communications and work through scenarios
  
  
• 1130 to 1145
  All participants report to Barrett Community Center
  CERT Field ICP take-down and clean-up
  
  
• 1145 to 1215
  All participants sign-out, exercise de-brief and a Pizza Lunch.

CERT Members RSVP:

If you are interested in participating in this exercise, please RSVP no later than July 14th to
christya "at" bscfd.org <==== substitute @ for "at"
Minimum participation needed, 25 team members.

SCARES Members are invited to participate regardless of your city of residence. It’s great training and your help is greatly appreciated!

SCARES Members RSVP:
If you are a SCARES member and would like to participate in this exercise, please contact
John “Tuck” Watkins, W6TUK
jcwatkins "at" odikia.com <==== substitute @ for "at"
650-572-8361 (home)
650-504-0474 (cell)