CERT Team Continues To Train To Serve

CERT members took vehicle training this week in an effort to give them additional resources in a time of need. (submitted photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Developing skills to enable a better team was the reason for emergency driving instruction being given to Mahaska County CERT members this past week.

The afternoon course included both in-class instruction and time spent behind-the-wheel, to learn how to drive a vehicle in an emergency situation and operation.

Jamey Robinson, Mahaska County Emergency Manager, said that the class was held to improve the members’ understanding of emergency services. He also mentioned that it won’t be used by CERT members except in the most extreme of circumstances.

Emergency Management guidelines specify that all CERT members are to obey all traffic laws in place while utilizing the CERT squad. The current CERT car is a retired sheriff’s squad, Crown Victoria, that was donated to Emergency Management.

The class helps those who utilize the vehicle to have and obtain better driving skills when utilizing emergency vehicles like the CERT squad. CERT members utilized that vehicle extensively during the flooding situation this past year in New Sharon, helping to deliver bottled water to residents who were unable to leave their homes.

The CERT team is an all volunteer group that help augment emergency services in the county. They help provide traffic control, community events, search and rescue to name a few things they have been called up to help assist with.

“These volunteers, take the time out their life schedules to take this training and get an understanding of it, (emergency vehicle operations), so they can go help these resources when they are needed,” added Robinson.

“We started out with just a few and we keep getting bigger,” said Robinson. “It’s just a huge resource to utilize in the event something happens.”