June 2023

The Season is Changing. Are you ready for the heat?

It looks as if we are finally leaving the wind, rain, and cold behind us. Which means we need to think about the upcoming fire season. We also need to remember to keep ourselves safe and healthy during the hot summer days. So, a few reminders for you to look at:

Visit the Fire Safe Council of Santa Cruz County for lots of ideas and reminders about protecting your home and community from fire.
Here is a great tip sheet for dealing with the heat from AmericaCares.
Finally, some advice from the CERT Auxiliary's Safety Officer, Dr. John Hanley. He reminds us that, "keeping the COVID transmission rate low depends on people’s behavior. The COVID emergency is over but COVID has not gone away." He also gives us updates on RSV and the dangers to babies and adults. You can read more here.
Curious about CERT training? Is beautiful Santa Cruz County your home? Learning basic survival skills for responding to disasters such as the CZU Lightning fires, atmospheric river floods, power outages is essential to CERT. You are invited to join "What, Why, Who is CERT ?" on Wednesday 6/21 7pm-8pm, presented by Mary Edmund, Executive Director of The Santa Cruz County CERT Auxiliary. Email: laselvabeachCERT@gmail.com for the Zoom link to the La Selva Beach CERT Community meeting.

First responders are also preparing for the upcoming summer season. On Friday, June 2nd, I had the pleasure of participating in the CALFIRE Wildfire Functional Exercise - EOC Activation Exercise. While CalFire was simulating a fire in the Santa Cruz Gardens Neighborhood, staff from the Office of Response, Recovery, and Resilience (OR3) had activated the Emergency Operations Center. Staff from different areas of responsibility including Health Services, Logistics, Planning, and Sheltering, including Red Cross staff, walked through what they would face if this was a real activation.

Joining me were two members of Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES), Roberta Roberts and John Gerhardt, both also CERTS. Our practice mission was to connect with a Firewise community overseen by Susan Tatsui-Darcy (another CERT as well) who was communicating with her group via MURS radios and with the EOC via both Ham radio and MURS. Susan says, "This was a well-executed attack fire drill with CalFire and EOC. I reached 14 Micro Community leaders, who later joined the MURS calls or email strings. I left messages for 12 who later communicated with me via email and text. I sent a report to Dave Reid at the OR3, per his request. Great organization and applause to all of you for making this happen!"

Stay safe out there.

Joyce Smith, editor

Perimeter Monitoring for Active Shooter Training

Once again this year Active DSW CERTs are needed to assist with County Law/Fire active shooter training. Using MURS radios to communicate, CERTs are assigned positions outside the training zone to ensure that people do not stray into the area. We have MURS radios we can loan you for the event. Great situational awareness and radio practice!

When: July 10 - 15

Who: County First Responders, CERT, and ARES

Active CERTs will receive an email with the location and sign-up link within the next few weeks.

August — Tentative County-Wide Drill

Plans are being made for a CERT drill in August. SAVE THE DATE!

Date — Saturday, August 12th

Time — 1 to 5 PM

Location — Mountains & Flatlands

Focus of the training -— Triage and equipment practice

Afterwards — get together and share some pizza. :)

This is drill is still in the planning stages. Interested in helping plan the day? Contact Bill Monroe, CERT Operations Chief.

Goodbye CodeRed

Hello CruzAware!

The County of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz Regional 9-1-1 are thrilled to announce the launch of CruzAware, an innovative and comprehensive community alert and warning system designed to keep residents informed and safe.

CruzAware represents a significant upgrade over the previous system, CodeRED, and introduces a range of enhanced features to ensure effective communication during both emergency and non-emergency situations. In additional to providing vital information during emergencies, CruzAware includes a robust messaging platform for residents in unincorporated areas that goes beyond emergency alerts and gives those residents the option to receive non-emergency notifications regarding roadwork and other neighborhood-level disruptions and information.

To facilitate a seamless transition, all existing CodeRED users will be automatically enrolled in CruzAware.

Email messages will come from (cruzaware@genasys.com) and be addressed to you, phone calls will display Caller ID with a local area code, and text messages will use the sender ID 65513. We recommend you create a contact on your phone with this information.

For more information, Click Here

For FAQs, Click Here

En español

CERT Basic Training — The Time to Prepare is Now

We will be moving our classes around the county a bit this fall. One goal is to have a class in Watsonville with the support of the Watsonville Fire Department. We also plan to return to the San Lorenzo Valley in October/November.

Our next class, beginning August 31st, will be focused on supporting the residents of Seacliff Park in Aptos. Priority registration will be given to residents of the Park, with a wait list for other county community members.

This class will run for 4 Thursdays; August 31, September 7, 14, 21 at the park, and Sunday, September 24th 9am–4pm in Live Oak.

For more information and to sign up for CERT Basic, CLICK HERE. Then choose the tab for the In-person August/September. Remember to sign up as a park resident or on the waiting list for non-park residents.

Something is also changing on the instruction end. We are inviting CERTs to join the instructors as actors or helpers during the final afternoon simulation. CERT instructors and CERT actors/helpers can SIGN UP HERE.

Interested in Becoming a Ham Radio Operator?

ARES is gathering names to see if folks would like to attend an Amateur Radio Technician License class. Are you one of those folks? If so, SIGN UP HERE. ARES will reach out to you with details IF there is sufficient interest.

We could not continue to offer CERT Basic training, advanced trainings, Stop the Bleed classes as well as maintain our activation equipment and supplies such as popups, portable lights, battery power supplies, medical gear, and traffic cones if it were not for the generous donations of local foundations, businesses, organizations and individuals.

Because of funding support,. each new CERT receives a pack full of emergency equipment, a CERT safety vest, hard hat, gloves, goggles, and so much more. Each of these packs costs about $90.

We would like to acknowledge the funding received this spring:

The Rotary Club of Santa Cruz - $1500

The Santa Cruz Chapter Omega Nu - $2000

The Monterey Peninsula Foundation - $10,000

Thank you so much!

Looking Back — Our April Radio Training Exercise

At the end of April, 139 participants including CERT team members, Firewise communities, and neighborhood communication groups as well as ARES members and neighborhood communication teams participated in a County-Wide Communication Exercise. Active CERTs were to check in on their MURS radios. CERT teams participating included Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Felton Area, Aptos, Seacliff, La Selva Beach, and the City of Santa Cruz. Thank you all for being there!

Want to Get More Involved?

Wanted: a CERT with interest in non-profit management.

Great experience for anyone interested in non-profit organization, management, and grant writing.

Send contact information to certauxiliary@gmail.com.

Wanted: Can you help with the Auxiliary website? Our webmaster Ken Braly seeks an assistant to help maintain the site, santacruzcountycert.org. Familiarity with WordPress and HTML desirable. If you’d like to consider this, contact Ken at ken@kenb.com.

Please note: these positions are unpaid, as are all of us.

The CERT Auxiliary of Santa Cruz County is dependent on grants and donations to keep the program running. Please consider a gift to help us fund these classes. We thank you in advance.