Burnet County CERT Resource Center

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Local government prepares for everyday  emergencies. However, during a  disaster, the number and scope of  incidents can overwhelm conventional  emergency services. The Community  Emergency Response Team (CERT) program  is an all-risk, all-hazard  training. This valuable course is designed  to help you protect  yourself, your family, your neighbors and your  neighborhood in an  emergency situation.
 

CERT is a positive and realistic  approach to emergency and disaster  situations where citizens may  initially be on their own and their  actions can make a difference.  While people will respond to others in  need without the training, one  goal of the CERT program is to help them  do so effectively and  efficiently without placing themselves in  unnecessary danger. In the  CERT training, citizens learn to:
 

• Manage utilities and put out small fires, 
• Treat the three medical killers by opening airways, controlling bleeding, and treating for shock, 
• Provide basic medical aid,
• Search for and rescue victims safely, 
• Organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective, 
• Collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts. 

Go to our About Page and click on the "Register Now" button to fill out a new member application.

Your  application will automatically be emailed to Emergency Management  Coordinator Jim Barho and Training Officer Robyn Richter.  We will get  back in touch with you as quickly as possible.

If for any reason you do not hear from a CERT member within 5-working days please call Robyn Richter (512) 567-3204

Well, it’s like paying for car insurance. You might never need  either;  you’d hope not to. But if the occasion arises, having the CERT  training,  just like having car insurance, means you’re as ready as you  can be to  help yourself, your family and your neighborhood.

1985 -

The  idea to train volunteers from the community to assist emergency   service personnel during large natural disasters began. In February of   1985, a group of Los Angeles City officials went to Japan to study its   extensive earthquake preparedness plans. The group encountered an extremely homogenous society that had taken extensive steps to train   entire neighborhoods in one aspect of alleviating the potential   devastation that would follow a major earthquake. These single-function   neighborhood teams were trained in either fire suppression, light  search  and rescue operations, first aid, or evacuation.
 

In September of 1985, a Los Angeles  City investigation team was sent  to Mexico City following an  earthquake there that registered a magnitude  8.1 on the Richter scale  and killed more than 10,000 people and injured  more than 30,000. Mexico  City had no training program for citizens  prior to the disaster.
 

However, large groups of  volunteers organized themselves and performed  light search and rescue  operations. Volunteers are credited with more  than 800 successful  rescues; unfortunately, more than 100 of these  untrained volunteers  died during the 15-day rescue operation.
 

The lessons learned in Mexico City  strongly indicated that a plan to  train volunteers to help themselves  and others, and become an adjunct to  government response, was needed as  an essential part of overall  preparedness, survival, and recovery.
 

1986 -

The  City of Los Angeles Fire Department developed a pilot program to  train  a group of leaders in a neighborhood watch organization. A concept   developed involving multi-functional volunteer response teams with the   ability to perform basic fire suppression, light search and rescue, &  first aid.
 

This first team of 30 people  completed training in early 1986 and proved  that the concept was viable  through various drills, demonstrations, and  exercises. Expansion of  the program, however, was not feasible due to  limited City resources,  until an event occurred in 1987 that impacted  the entire area.
 

1987 -

On  October 1, 1987, the Whittier Narrows earthquake vividly underscored   the threat of an area-wide major disaster, and demonstrated the need to   expedite the training of civilians to prepare for earthquakes and  other  emergencies. Following the Whittier Narrows earthquake, the City  of Los  Angeles took an aggressive role in protecting the citizens of  Los  Angeles by creating the Disaster Preparedness Division (now the  Disaster  Preparedness Section) within the Los Angeles Fire Department.  Their  objectives included:
 

• Educate and train the public and government sectors in disaster preparedness 
• Research, evaluate, and disseminate disaster information
• Develop, train, and maintain a network of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs).

1993 -

The  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decided to make the  concept  and program available to communities nationwide. The Emergency   Management Institute (EMI), in cooperation with the LAFD, expanded the   CERT materials to make them applicable to all hazards.
 

2002 -

In  January 2002, CERT became part of the Citizen Corps, a unifying   structure to link a variety of related volunteer activities to expand a   community’s resources for crime prevention and emergency response.
 

2011 -

As of November 2011, 50 states, three territories and six foreign countries are using the CERT training.

The Burnet County  CERT Board will act as the representative group  for all of the Burnet County  CERT volunteers and will contribute to  effective and efficient operation of the CERT program of the Burnet  County Texas Office of Emergency Management.