Drills Continue ~

Roseburg emergency team responds to mock drill

DD Bixby
The News-Review

Brenda Eifert, left, and Ginger Suhrstedt, right, assist Dawn Conormon during a mock disaster event at the Melrose Grange Saturday. The mock disaster was part of the Community Emergency Response Team training for new members.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN/ The News-Review

So you know ...

Umpqua Valley CERT begins a new training series June 5 in Reedsport. The training will last several weeks. Participants do not need to become CERT members to take the training. All CERT training is free.
The local group is also seeking interest in a youth CERT training program. Those younger than 18 may participate with parent permission, but couldn't be activated for an emergency before reaching 18.
Information: 541-464-3867.
Website: citizencorps.gov/cert.

ENLARGE BUY

Myrna Judd, Ginger Suhrstedt, Edward Eifert and Brenda Eifert work to free a trapped training dummy as part of the Community Emergency Response Team training for the studying recruits. MICHAEL SULLIVAN/ The News-Review

MELROSE — flashlight beams pierced through smoke filling the old Melrose Grange hall Saturday morning.

"Is anyone there?" shouted a man. "We're here to help. If you can hear me, walk toward my voice."

"HELP! What are you guys doing, I'm here," 20-year-old Ray Baker yelled from behind the stage curtain.

Brie Hinke chuckled at the Roseburg man's frantic voice, while watching other rescue workers bring her handy work out to a makeshift triage station.

"He's doing a good job — he's getting nasty," she said at Baker's ever more aggressive shouts as the simulated exercise to train new emergency responders continued. "People in emergencies, whether they're hurt the worst or not, want to be helped first."

Hinke, an Oakland resident, is a certified member of the Community Emergency Response Team and was one of the team's makeup artists Saturday who went through oodles of Stage Blood, Thick Blood and Bottle of Blood to set the stage for their victims and recruits.

Ten CERT hopefuls tried to make sense of the mock earthquake situation that included head injuries, broken bones, skewered limbs and bodies.

The CERT program — first implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department in 1985 — educates people on disaster preparedness and basic emergency response skills like fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.

"I don't expect to be called out very much, I just want to be trained enough to take care of my family," Philip Moore told the graduating class before the drill began. "I may not get in there fighting fire and saving someone and getting all the glory, but we're not in it for the glory, we're there to help."

Umpqua Valley CERT is a fledgling chapter that has accumulated roughly 30 members over the last six years.

The team is loosely connected with local fire departments and law enforcement and has been called in to help with incidents like the Roseburg High School shooting in 2006 or then-presidential candidate Barak Obama's campaign speech at RHS in 2008.

Members have also helped relieve law enforcement officers by directing traffic and parking at large events like air shows.

The group is trying to gain more traction, training new members and increasing its presence in the event that a disaster, like the predicted West Coast earthquake or a tsunami, strikes.

"You might not be able to get out and help other people, but you can help yourself and your neighbor," said Kathy Glockner, of Roseburg, a five-year member of the local CERT. "If we can get people trained, that's less people we have to help."

Despite his robust hollers, Baker's character didn't make it.

"They determined I was dead while they were trying to save me," he said, smiling, a faux-stake protruding awkwardly through his fake blood-stained T-shirt. "I didn't know I was dead."

• You can reach reporter DD Bixby at 957-4211 or by e-mail at dbixby@nrtoday.com.
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