This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 25, 2011 - Homeland Security efforts are often associated with professional firefighters and police — those trained to be first responders. But a program available across Missouri offers training for ordinary citizens to react affirmatively to emergency situations.
Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) have been set up across Missouri and around the country. The program is under the umbrella of a Homeland Security program called Citizen Corps. The goal of CERT and other Citizen Corps programs is to supplement professional first responders in a natural disaster, crime outbreak or medical emergency.
Citizen Corps programs received $267,000 during the state's last grant cycle, a much smaller number than other Homeland Security grant programs. That money went to counties with CERT programs, as well as other Citizen Corps agencies training volunteers in fire, police and medical communities.
CERTs have popped up in urban areas like St. Louis and rural regions like Webster County in the Ozarks. In St. Louis, the program trains ordinary citizens to respond to a natural disaster. In rural areas, CERTs can be an important stopgap for communities without a lot of resources to respond to a tornado, flood or earthquake.
Like most Homeland Security grants, the money for Citizen Corps affiliates, such as CERT, is taking a hit compared to the 2010 budgetary year. And it's an open question whether the decline in resources will lead to the program's demise.
Some say the program will survive since the program is more oriented toward education and training; it's not resource-dependent and doesn't require a lot of equipment or manpower. But others involved say the program is danger of "fizzling" without enough money.
CERT volunteers, though, would be of little use in a terrorist attack. While CERT training includes some terrorism awareness, it is more focused on natural disasters. Those who go through the training are explicitly told to call authorities if terrorism is suspected.
Nick Risch, the chairman of the Franklin County Citizen Corps Council, said CERT members are explicitly told not to get personally involved in a terrorism situation.
"It basically gives them an awareness of what the potential is out there," Risch said. "It does not give them any direct knowledge on how to handle a terrorist,” because we don't want a CERT member to get involved."
Under The Umbrella
The idea behind CERT predates the Department of Homeland Security. It started in 1985 in Los Angeles as a way to train residents to respond to a major disaster, such as an earthquake.
As Jaci McReynolds of the Webster County's CERT program pointed out, such training keeps helpful citizens from hindering the efforts of police and firefighters.
"The problem is, when people were coming to help and they were untrained, they were actually injuring themselves or putting more at risk the people they were trying to help," McReynolds said. "So the L.A. County Fire Department saw there was a need to make sure that there's a trained group of what we call here in Webster County neighbors helping neighbors."
McReynolds added, "It's a trained group of ordinary citizens for when something happens and they do come to help, at least they have a basic skill set that tells them how to protect themselves and how to protect others."
Although the focus of the training varies from place to place, it usually involves classes on what to do — and what not to do — in an emergency. After people complete a certain number of classes, they can be provided with ID cards, vests or helmets.
CERT was eventually placed under the Citizen Corps umbrella, which according to its 2009 annual report was created to "identify ways 'to support and enhance the efforts of the American public with respect to preparedness and volunteerism in the war on terrorism.'"
The report went on to say: "Mindful of the increased risk of terrorism, as well as vulnerabilities to natural disasters, hazardous materials, and public safety threats, the resulting strategic policy was an all-hazards approach to citizen preparedness and participation."
In addition to CERT, Citizen Corps includes:
- Fire Corps, which steers volunteers to assist local fire departments in non-emergency roles. This includes, according to Citizen Corps' website, fire safety outreach, youth programs and administrative support.
- USAonWatch, a repackaged "Neighborhood Watch" program. Although this endeavor was originally set up to reduce crime, the program expanded its focus after 9/11 to disaster preparedness, emergency response and terrorism awareness.
- Volunteers in Police Service, which according to Citizen Corps is "for citizens who wish to volunteer their time and skills with a law enforcement agency."
- Medical Reserve Corps, a group of volunteers to supplement emergency and public-health resources. Members may also help with blood drives and immunizations.
The last Missouri grant cycle for the Citizen Corps program, which includes some funds from the 2009 fiscal year, totaled $267,000. Allocations ranged from a $1,500 grant to Douglas County to start a CERT program to a $39,500 allocation to Greene County for a "citizens' preparedness initiative."
According to the Citizen Corps website, Missouri has 66 CERT programs, 47 branches of Volunteers in Police Service, 32 Medical Reserve Corps and 26 Fire Corps throughout the state. Missouri also has 17 county councils and 12 local councils that help oversee Citizen Corps-affiliate programs and initiatives.
Alan McCurry, a member of the steering committee for George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute, formerly served as the former chief operating officer of the American Red Cross. When he left that organization in 2007, he said he felt a "deep understanding of the lack of preparedness for the average American."
"And we could never put our finger on why not," McCurry said. "People in general, families in general, businesses in general don't do things they need to be prepared. So organizations like CERT in my view, anything that raises the visibility within a community, within a family, within a school district ... anything local I see has great benefit."
He said programs like CERT help first responders treat the people who need the most assistance by giving trainees the power to help themselves and those around them.
"It's my observation that families that are prepared or organizations that are prepared can take the routine while the first responders in the medical and the police and fire and rescue and all those can focus on those truly in need, rather than those who did not think ahead," McCurry said.
Active Presence In The State
St. Louis, Franklin County, Jefferson County, St. Louis County and the Metro East all have active CERT programs.
Sarah Gamblin-Luig, a program specialist for the St. Louis Emergency Management Agency, said the goal of Citizen Corps programs such as CERT is to educate volunteers so "communities are safer and stronger and more prepared to respond" to threats.
In particular, Gamblin-Luig said if something happened in a neighborhood or workplace that affects CERT trainees directly, they could "address a situation." In 2011, she said close to 200 people were provided with CERT training.
"For CERT, it's to enable citizens to have the skills to be what would truly be a first responder on the scene of an accident or a disaster or some sort of event and start to carry out some of the critical functions until the traditional first responders arrive on the scene," Gamblin-Luig said.
Situations could include a natural disaster, such as tornados that hit the St. Louis metro area earlier this year. But it can also involve less dramatic activities.
Abraham Cook, director of the Franklin County Emergency Management Agency, said his county's CERT program has about 250 participants. Volunteers assist with the Washington Town & Country Fair and hand out pamphlets on "preparedness activities"
"We have not had that many deployments, per se," Cook said. "But I guess that's a positive thing."
Cook said CERT participants have used their training to assist people in immediate distress, such as a high school student having an asthma attack. But he added that the training could come in handy in the event of a natural disaster, such as a flood of the nearby Missouri River or a tornado.
"Notable activations are limited because we haven't been hit with immediate needs. And a lot of time it goes unnoticed," Cook said.
Still, Cook said the CERT program is valuable and goes a long way toward making Franklin County prepared for disasters.
"This program makes us more prepared," Cook said. "It provides a sense of preparedness to the citizens and also gives an educational aspect. If nothing else, if somebody is in an earthquake out here, and CERT teams are able to shut off gas lines to houses and shut off the electric, that's going to make us a little safer."
But he added the program has limits when work needs to be done by professional first responders. During a tornado this past New Year's Eve, Cook said professionals were on scene and it wasn't practical to bring in CERT volunteers.
"There are times and places where professionals are in there and they need to do what they need to do," Cook said. "And the CERT teams don't need to get in their way."
McCurry, who survived a tornado in Kansas when he was younger, said ordinary citizens need to be prepared.
"These programs heighten and develop interest," McCurry said. "And I would hate to see that interest lost because who and when and where the next disaster's going to strike is an unknown. I always used to chide my people: We know when hurricane season is, [but] tell me when earthquake season is. So you've got to be ready; you've got to be thinking about that stuff."
Terrorism Awareness, Not Action
But when it comes to preparing for terrorism in particular, Gamblin-Luig said CERT training focuses on awareness — not on action.
"The CERT program is very specific in what a CERT team member is expected to or should involve themselves in, and very specific about what they should not involve themselves in," Gamblin-Luig said. "So any terrorism information is more of awareness level of if you see something that is a terrorist incident, the only thing that you would really do is to alert the authorities and then distance yourself from the situation."
According to a manual on the program's website, CERT volunteers should "treat possible terrorist incidents as a stop sign."
"CERTs are not equipped or trained to respond to terrorist incidents. Professional responders will need specialized equipment and personnel to respond to a terrorist incident," the manual states. "In addition, it is important to remember that terrorism incident scenes are also crime scenes. CERT members should avoid taking any action that may disturb potential evidence."
The manual does note that alertness has been effective in the past.
"On May 1, 2010, street vendors in Times Square noticed a smoking SUV with its blinkers on, engine running and no one inside. They decided to say something to a police officer," the manual said. "Thousands of people were cleared from the area while the bomb was dismantled."
Rural Use
For McReynolds, Webster County's CERT program is more than just a supplement.
The 56-member team's mission, which according to McReynolds is to "fill the gap in a disaster until traditional first responders can arrive on scene," is similar to other CERT programs. But she said the southwest Missouri county's rural nature can make the program more necessary.
"Because we live in a very rural community, our county only has a population of about 38,000 people, our first-responder resources are very low," McReynolds said. "We have mostly volunteer firefighters in the community, and we have very few law enforcement officers. So our program is utilized more frequently than a more metropolitan team because it assess risks of things that may be more routine for other communities."
In addition to assisting with recovery in Joplin, McReynolds said CERT participants have helped with two missing persons cases and with traffic control at parades.
"A lot of things that we do may not be within the typical CERT response but certainly contributes to our community," McReynolds said.
According to documents from the Missouri Department of Public Safety, most Citizen Corps grants for the CERT program have gone to rural areas. Webster County, for example, received a $4,500 grant in fiscal year 2010 after putting up a $500 match.
Mike O'Connell, a spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety, said in an e-mail that Citizen Corps volunteers from Christian, Lawrence and Greene counties have assisted in response and recovery efforts in Joplin.
"Missouri OHS has found the program to be useful and well received," he said.
Tom Roy of the Stoddard County Public Health Center said one facet of his county's CERT program is providing emergency training to teachers.
"We're turning these teachers into first responders for their school districts," Roy said. "So there would be a set number of people who would take the class and they would be their own little team for that school district. And if anything were to happen — be it earthquake, tornado — [the teachers] are going to be the first responders."
Roy said the program, which received a $5,500 Citizen Corps grant in fiscal year 2010, has provided training for about 200 people since its inception about five years ago. And preparing for an earthquake is a key element.
The New Madrid fault line runs along the Missouri bootheel, as well as parts of Arkansas and Tennessee. Stoddard County would almost certainly be affected if a major earthquake occurs.
"When we get to that earthquake chapter, it's something that we concentrate on," Roy said. "We spend extra time talking about earthquakes and more specifically talking about the New Madrid earthquake and how it's going to affect us directly."
Such training not only could help Stoddard County residents in their homes but also in their workplaces or if they are en route to home from work. The training's importance, Roy said, comes down to priorities.
"Here is Stoddard County, we are very, very aware that we have 30,000 residents," Roy said. "We realize that the ratio between our emergency personnel and our residents is not good. So that's where our residents are going to have to step forward and take care of themselves, take care of their neighbors and take care of others."
"Being in Stoddard County, we've got bigger cities around us," Roy added, pointing to Poplar Bluff, Cape Girardeau and St. Louis. "And if an emergency like the New Madrid earthquake were to happen, we know we're not going to be at the top of the list. We're going to be far down that list as far as the nation responding. The nation's going to respond to St. Louis, they're going to respond to Memphis, they're going to respond to Cape Girardeau. But they're not going to respond to us, at least not initially. We're going to be way down that list and therefore, that's where CERT comes into play."
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Like other Homeland Security grant programs, the amount of money available for CERT and other entities under the Citizen Corps umbrella is shrinking.
About $9.98 million is available for Citizen Corps grants in the most recent Homeland Security grant allocations, a figure that decreased from $12.48 million in the 2010 fiscal year. That means Missouri will lose about $47,357.
St. Louis' CERT program and other Citizen Corps programs receive funding from the Urban Area Security Initiative, a grant program that provides money to cities to prepare against terrorist events and other major disasters.
John Whitaker of the St. Louis Area Regional Response System said in an e-mail that $143,689 has been budgeted from the 2010 UASI grant for Citizen Corps equipment and training regionwide.
"Not much of that has been spent yet," Whitaker said. "The grant has a three-year life cycle."
Steve Swift of STARRS told the Beacon in an e-mail that $29,867 in 2010 UASI funds were budgeted to the St. Louis CERT, while $19,000 was budgeted to the Franklin County CERT.
The St. Louis region has seen its share of UASI funds decrease in this budget year, while the Kansas City area's money from that program was eliminated. There is an ongoing debate within Congress about whether to concentrate the money on bigger cities like New York and Chicago or include smaller ones such as St. Louis or Kansas City.
Gamblin-Luig expects to see less money for the CERT program in the coming years. But she said since the program isn't dependent on a lot of resources, it could continue without UASI funding.
"I definitely don't think the city's CERT program is in jeopardy of being lost because of loss of UASI funds," Gamblin-Luig said. "The CERT program existed before UASI funds, and it will continue to exist afterward. Certainly it's a little easier to know you're going to get something from UASI as far as planning. The good news is we've got some CERT equipment that we can use for exercise and response already in our possession that has been provided by the grant funding."
"Really, the main ongoing cost is the costs of continued training," she added, also saying that classes can be conducted in public buildings for free.
But others interviewed by the Beacon aren't as optimistic. Cook, for example, said declining funds will "definitely make things more difficult."
"However, I hope we're able to sustain through the harder times," Cook said. "I think that we will be able to survive. I hope we will be able to through the community outreach. And with some of the volunteers within the Franklin County area, we'll be able to sustain a good CERT team and Citizen Corps council."
Roy said it doesn't take a lot of money to teach classes. He added that his time is basically donated and that some equipment doesn't need to be replaced every year.
"As the funding does dry up, it'll be hard," said Roy, adding he can sustain the class for the next few years. "But eventually down the road, that money is going to be so small, either you're going to have to start teaching fewer classes or you're going to have to be working with equipment that might not be the best."
"I'm sure as the funding keeps fizzling down the road, so will the program," he added.
Jason Rosenbaum, a freelance writer in St. Louis, covers state government and politics.
