Island CERT continues training
CERT team members had a training exercise on April 20. All three teams participated under the Supervision of Fire Chief David Bradley and Training Coordinator Birg Anderson. Cert teams reported to their assigned fire stations as they would on a emergency call-up. At the station, each team received orders to report to a designated site in their area, using hand-held radios and cell phones for communication. As a member of CERT team one Bokeelia, I and two other team members, Dave Reinagle and Manuel Soares were ordered to gather in one vehicle and report to a intersection in north-east Bokeelia. There we were to locate a white bucket that contained a white envelope that contained further orders. It sounded simple enough. We got out our Pine Island Map and headed for that location.
I’ve lived on Pine Island for 21 years now, but had never traveled to that portion of Bokeelia. Once we left Stringfellow road everything went downhill. The roads there are unpaved and full of potholes and areas were flooded from recent rains. Worse yet, there are no road signs and after making a few turns we had no idea where we were. This area is definitely old Florida, with a combination of farmland and palm groves and numerous, but isolated houses scattered throughout the area.
We were in Dave Reinagle’s vehicle and fortunately he had a GPS. Using the GPS were were able to locate the designated intersection and found the bucket containing the envelope with further orders. The orders consisted of a scenario that a severe storm had occurred and a nearby house had been severely damaged and contained people in need of assistance. We were to evaluate the situation and report to The CERT coordinator with our assessment and call for the necessary assistance. This was done via cell phone. Our mission fulfilled, we reported to Station one for debriefing.
What I learned on this exercise was that I needed a GPS, our portable radios need some work, and all need to carry their cell phones. There are many isolated areas on Pine Island that could be hard to find in a emergency and we’ll work on that. More exercises are planned as hurricane season approaches.