Blog

by Jessica Fullmer

What a great day, HUGE thanks to Everyone, those that were helping before and from afar.

Some details and action items:

We had several hundred came to the booth, some took flyers, some wanted more information on CERT Classes ect.

200 wanted sunburn spray, the word got around, a lot of thank you’s.  Some are coming immediately to classes/meetings.

Thank goodness Craig had organized the Cache at CYB, our items were in labeled boxes to go over to the Saratoga Car Show. We learned we have to create a LIST of Materials (and Processes) for all Events and Check against it as we come back from an event or leave the Cache for each event, E.G. we are missing the Ham signs.

Alameda  is donating some Body carrying boards for Togo and incidents.

Decide if Saratoga stays as two’s going out (even is it isn’t a DSW covered event).  It’s a Thema regulation for official events.

Several incidents, we learned from each, one written up here: 

Thanks to Chuck for the first leg search, Gary (from the Chamber) who went with me to meet with the Deputy, then help write up this lessons below:

-Create a Report sheet on Public Event Incidents

-What happened, the Chamber notified us that a child was vomiting, near The Basin (not accurate) 

-JF warned the Deputy from the Sherriff’s (we thought) that we would get more details and report back

-Couldn’t find the child. Called back to  update the Deputy on the FRS radio that we were given in the morning, we thought it was the Sherriff, found it was a CERT person has the phone. Because he didn’t answer it bounced to our booth.

-Went the Chamber person and I went to talk with the Deputy and found, the FRS only had static each time.

-He recommended for other events use our cells, call 911, they will sort out if its Fire (health issues) or Sherriff’s (some kind of disturbance) 

-he also said only use those phones for low level (non-life threatening/crime) not if you need help right away

-We need a certified medical person at each event in our booth (another person cut themselves deeply) a suggestion Mon was to have a partnership with Medical students, where they get credit for assisting CERT.

-For Each Event Need numbers/contact info for All those responsible (E.G. Chamber)

Thanks for all the EXTRA items the Chamber did to assist as the day progressed.

Also, Crystal for all the printing, Bill for hauling all the items from CYBase TO the Event and BACK.

And a HUGE shout out to the rest of the team, all were friendly, responsive and recruiting ( :

      Jack Griswold 

      Chuck Rader 

      Brad Silveria 

       Steven Wong 

      Lorna Yamaguchi (and husband)

       Debbie Ellis     

      Tim Ellis

      Bill Brooks

      Jeff 

Jessica Fullmer

Event & Membership Chair

[from City of Saratoga July Newsletter]

As part of PG&E’s efforts to reduce wildfire risk, PG&E has announced their Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program. PG&E is expected to shut off power on days with a high risk of wildfire, and they suggest preparing for outages that could last longer than two days. Outages can impact any PG&E customer, regardless of whether they live in a high fire-threat area.

Before a PSPS, PG&E will aim to provide customers with 48 hours advanced notice via phone call, text or email. However, weather conditions can change quickly, and PG&E may be unable to fully execute their noticing protocols. After the extreme weather event has passed, PG&E will conduct inspections and any necessary repairs before power can be restored.

Visit www.saratoga.ca.us/PSPS to learn what you can expect and how to prepare. You can also attend PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Open House on August 7 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the History Club of Los Gatos, 123 Los Gatos Boulevard.

[reprinted from ARRL ARES E-Letter – 17 July 2019]

[This article is from the July 2019 issue of the FEMA Individual and Community Preparedness Newsletter.]

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members know that communication during an emergency is vital. Don Lewis of the Alexandria Radio Club in Virginia wants CERTs around the country to know how Amateur Radio can help.

Amateur Radio is a useful tool. Lewis, who is trained in CERT, explained that ham radios are more powerful than regular radios. They aren’t incredibly expensive, and they have a wide range of uses.

Sometimes CERTs may need to work together throughout a large area. They need to be able to report things that they have found. They sometimes even need to request medical support. Using a radio is easier, safer, and more efficient than sending a person back with messages, says Lewis. Ham radios enable a CERT to communicate over much greater distances than standard radios. This can improve the level at which a CERT can coordinate. CERTs already use ham radios in exercises and they have extended their range and effectiveness.

The City of Berkeley, California’s CERT has already begun using ham radio in city-wide disaster drills. In the winter of 2018, they held a 24-hour mock disaster where they practiced their ham radio skills to better prepare their city. They were able to maintain communications in the whole city for the entire 24-hour exercise. This allowed them to relay critical information to citizens and disaster crews. They were also able to use hams to aid the city during a blackout in November of 2017. The CERTs used solar powered batteries in their ham radios. This allowed them to function even when power and phones were down.

Amateur Radio protocols are also built into Pasadena, California’s emergency management system. The area experiences earthquakes several times a year. The quakes can destroy cell towers and phones lines in an instant. Amateur Radio can be a huge asset during a disaster like this, so Pasadena has a network of radio operators trained to provide communications at any time they need. They can contact hospitals or fire stations to better serve their community. Ham operators can even aide families in contacting one another once a disaster has passed.

Are you interested in learning how to operate a ham radio of your own to serve your community? Then the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) may be for you. They are a group of radio operators who volunteer for various disasters and public service events. They can provide guidance for training, equipment, and licensing.

In attendance: Chuck Rader (Cox Division), Davina Morgan-Witts, Ray Froess, Betty Froess, Susan Schwaderer, Leland Mah, Marion Yager, Robert Yager, William Brooks, Sally Suckow, John Suckow.

Most of the group met at 6.20 p.m. at Bill Brooks’ house so as to review the contents of our division cache, and how to get into it.

The group reconvened at 7.00pm for the main meeting:

• We briefly reviewed upcoming training opportunities. These are updated and detailed in the monthly newsletter sent by City Manager, Crystal Bothelio. Please a) look out for the newsletters, b) read them, c) sign up for training/volunteer opportunities that are relevant and of interest—with the aim of attending three or more a year, so as to keep your skills fresh. And, please do not wait until the last minute to sign up because training sessions may be cancelled if there are insufficient attendees – which is what happened with the shelter simulation workshop which should have taken place recently—2 weeks before the event, 15 people had signed up but 18 were needed to run the exercise, so it was cancelled.
  
  
• Under new business, Chuck Rader (Cox Argonaut captain) spoke about the three-day CERT conference he recently attended in San Diego. Some of the take outs from this are:
  
  
  • California governor Gavin Newsom is very enthusiastic about CERT – as shown by the fact that 425 participants (including Chuck) were fully funded for the 3-night conference, including hotel accommodation.
    
    
  • The vision at the state level for CERT is that each county will have an organization similar to Orange County’s, which regularly makes use of their CERT volunteers—for example, during the recent wildfires, CERT members were tasked with providing food etc. to the firefighters (obviously at a safe distance from the active fires), thus freeing up the emergency services to focus on the core matter in hand.
    
    
  • There is a movement to standardize equipment, training, forms etc., across all CERT in California, and to better link the many individual city/county groups, so that CERT members could be efficiently mobilized to work in other parts of the State, if a need arose. The model here is Florida.
    
    
• Chuck Rader led the training element of our meeting, discussing the key elements of the division level Emergency Operation Plan (EOP), including:
  
  
  • Activation: We must wait to be activated by an official channel such as Alert SCC, City of Saratoga emergency responder telephone tree, or emergency broadcast radio communication; but this does not prevent us assessing our immediate areas as concerned neighbors (but until activated, we should not be wearing CERT vests, etc.)
    
    Please make sure to have fresh batteries in your radio and keep FRS radios tuned to Channel 11 as communication will likely come down from the central emergency operations center (EOC) to the licensed ham operators and then to the members of the division by FRS. (FRS back up channels are 10 and 12; if your radio has a code option–the little number to the top right of the larger number on some radios–set it to 0.
    
    
  • Setting up and operating a field CERT Incident Command Post (ICP) and Overview of CERT communications:
    
    Our default meeting location is Bill Brooks’ house, where the cache is located (address removed for public minutes), but the reality is that the location of the incident command post in an emergency may need to move close to where the emergency is—which is why it is important to be able to communicate by radio (on the assumption that mobile communications could be either out of action or overwhelmed).
    
    Chuck encouraged us as a group to follow Cox division’s lead and hold regular FRS radio check-ins to make sure that we know how to use the radios and understand how to relay messages from person to person, thus enabling messages to be passed across a wider distance.
    
    Optimally, we should have more hams in the division. Currently there is just Ray and Betty Froess, Bill Brooks and Davina (Madelyn Lipford is also a ham operator but is traveling for the foreseeable future).
    
    If you are interested in becoming ham licensed – contact Davina for information – in addition to the one day “ham cram” that many take with a test at the end of the day; there are plentiful resources online, including YouTube video talks and interactive test papers to help you learn in your own time, and then you can take the quick multiple choice test on any of the many testing days.
    
    
  • Establishing, staffing and operating a field medical treatment site, including how to best utilize spontaneous unaffiliated/untrained volunteers (SUVs)
    
    Chuck asked us to consider how we would function as a group and in teams during an emergency, and how we could best utilize unaffiliated/untrained people if they volunteered their services.
    
    Some of the considerations for a field medical treatment site include: the need for one centralized site vs. multiple decentralized locations. Also, the site(s) should be easily accessible by ambulances and/or other emergency vehicles, and should provide for rapid expansion, if required. Leadership of a field medical treatment site takes special knowledge and skills in closely managing attending personnel in a dynamic, high-stress environment. Head-to-toe assessments should be conducted expeditiously (and always with permission when the person is conscious); and, optimally, always by two CERT members working together, both to ensure a thorough examination and to avoid harassment claims. Documentation of incoming patients and their ongoing status while under treatment or observation is a critical element in exercising leadership of a field medical treatment site.
    
    Spontaneous, untrained/unaffiliated volunteers (SUV’s) may provide an additional source of manpower to assist with post-disaster response, but there are some key caveats associated with their use. They must be “locally vetted” to ensure they will not be put in a position that exceeds their knowledge or skills. They must be closely monitored in execution of any assigned duties. They should be provided a clear, concise briefing of what CERT expectations are of their use. Finally, it must be remembered that they are not covered under the liability protections of the DSW-V program, unlike CERT members, so they must never be placed in positions where their safety and health are at risk.

Reposted from Santa Clara County ARES/RACES Mutual Aid Communicators (MACs) digest:

AUXFOG and NIFOG on your phone
From: Walter Underwood
Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2019 20:33:25 PDT 

Homeland Security has made mobile-friendly versions of the Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide (AUXFOG) and National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG). Here are the info pages at DHS, but they don’t have links to the stores.

https://www.dhs.gov/safecom/eauxfog-mobile-app

https://www.dhs.gov/safecom/enifog-mobile-app

To get the apps, search Apple’s App Store or Google Play for eAUXFOG and eNIFOG.

Updated DSW Card Process 

Crystal informed the meeting that going forward she will be responsible for issuing disaster service worker (DSW) cards, and that it will be possible to get a card either by emailing/calling her (cbothelio@saratoga.ca.us / 408-868-1269 ) for an appointment, or by emailing her a current photo ID card and she will be able to create a DSW card from that – details of the revised process should be posted on the website soon and will be announced in the June or July newsletter.  The new cards will carry no expiry date. 

Graduation Update 

Due to a scheduling error, Craig was not able to provide backpacks to all the new graduates at the recent Saratoga CERT Academy.  Brent will reach out to all the new graduates to welcome them, connect them with Craig for equipment, connect them Jessica for membership/event scheduling, connect them with Crystal for DSW, etc.  Their names have already been given to their division leads. 

Division updates

• Chuck reported that Cox division is holding monthly meetings and radio checks, and is on part 3 of the EOP training – last meeting minutes are at http://saratogacert.org/2019/05/23/meeting-minutes-cox-cert-divisional-meeting-monday-evening-13-may-2019/
• Vineyard reported that Thomas Schmidt will be the division’s new logistics lead – welcome Thomas!
• Nothing to report from Argonaut. 
• Chuck gave brief update on West Valley/Quito which was that regular meetings are happening

Summer Social 

Ron reported that the Saratoga Amateur Radio Association (SARA) will be hosting a potluck family picnic in August – date to be determined, most likely at the Warner Hutton house, noon to 4pm (drop in). Saratoga CERT agreed to collaborate and make this a joint social event. 

Brainstorming 

Most of the meeting was dedicated to brainstorming on how to take Saratoga CERT to the “next level”, given that we finally have leads for all the necessary organization positions and have 4 divisions in place and active.  Many tactical issues keep coming up:

• How much training to plan? how much new training should we expect members to take on? what outside groups/efforts should we cross train with?
• How much effort to grow Saratoga CERT – what venues (car show, blossom festival)? what groups (neighborhood watch, religious institutions, schools, PTAs)? 
• How to encourage/support additional CERT leaders
• How to manage drilling/practicing with Saratoga EOC, with our ham colleagues in SARA, with Santa Clara County, and with neighboring CERTs?

It was agreed that we will review our existing mission statement and, once agreed, we can use it as the lens through which to prioritize the many activities/goals available to us.  Between now and our next meeting we will assess candidate mission statements – original, or “borrowed” from other CERT groups, or FEMA suggestions. At the next meeting, we plan to: (a) create/confirm our mission statement, and (b) prioritize our activities/goals.  Details will follow via our newsletter.   

We also added to the end of our “to do” list the goal of exploring formal non-profit 501(c)(3) status. 

Saying Good Bye to Michael Taylor 

The final item of business was to celebrate Michael’s upcoming retirement from the City of Saratoga – we all thanked Michael for his dedication to and support of Saratoga CERT – and we welcomed Crystal as our new contact with the city – and then we ate cake!  

Michael will be in his job for the next week or two, so please reach out to him to wish him well if you were not at the meeting (mtaylor@saratoga.ca.us)

From Don Steinbach:

This was a City/County ARES/RACES drill.

We had nine licensed ham participants — not bad for a Saturday morning given all the other things going on:

• Peter AA6PM
• Lyle KB6OKO
• Jeff N6ADE
• Stan AB6SR
• Davina KM6YEP
• Paul KM6YEO
• Larry KG6GMN
• Jack KM6ZWR
• Don AE6PM 

We started Saratoga checkins at 1000 and almost immediately got wrapped up with the County since they started taking message traffic instead of continuing with city checkins. All communication was via voice, no packet. Fortunately the folks in the field stayed with us until the logjam broke at about 1015. I made it a point to keep them informed as to what was happening while Peter dealt with the County and that likely helped keep us together. 

Once again we proved that we need two, preferably three, people at the EOC. Not everyone needs to have a license since there is always a “control operator” present, so an unlicensed person could be operating one of the radios. Something we should keep in mind in the future to possibly augment our resources. 

We conducted comm checks between the EOC and (1) Saratoga Retirement Community (2) Sub-Acute Saratoga Children’s Hospital (3) Prospect Center (4) Prospect High (5) Saratoga High and (6) Saint Andrews. All were successful as expected. We didn’t test the EOC-to-EOC radio. The last test was May 1. 

Lessons learned:

• We need to kill the voice status feedback from the Kenwood TM-V71. It kicks in whenever we switch modes and causes unnecessay delay and adds confusion
• It’s unclear that the frequencies programmed into the Kenwood TM-V71 at the primary EOC is the same as what’s at the alternate EOC. The two EOCs, Saratoga Retirement and (now) the trailer(s) should be identical IMHO. Memory channel and frequency.
• It didn’t occur to me to power up both two-meter radios, so we were using the Kenwood TM-V71 for both the County and Saratoga. Bad mistake on my part. Again, a second operator would have discovered that immediately. 

Peter did a great job running the show while I tried to keep up with the paperwork and tracking. 

That’s it. Don – AE6PM

From J Oberhofer KN6PE via Santa Clara Count ARES/RACES:

https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/public-safety-power-shutoff-faq.page

City of Saratoga Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

Cox CERT Division

Meeting Minutes

Meeting held on Monday, 13 May 2019 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. at the home of Lori Stafford.

Saratoga Cox CERT Division meeting attendees were the following:

1. Debbie Ellis
2. Jack Griswold
3. Kevin Marques (19 May 2019 CERT Academy graduate)
4. Peter Melhus
5. Chuck Rader
6. Brad Silveria
7. Lori Stafford
8. Lyle Topham
9. Jeff Walker

Discussion items:

• The results of the Monday, 06 May 2019 Cox CERT Division FRS radio check-in drill were discussed. A total of three divisional members were successful in establishing direct two-way communications with the simulated CERT Incident Command Post (manned by Chuck Rader as drill Net Control) at Kevin Moran Park. These were Tom Baker, Peter Melhus, and Brad Silveria. Three members checked in via relay through Peter Melhus. These were Jack Griswold and Debbie Ellis in Saratoga Woods, and Kevin Marques in the central Brookview neighborhood. Peter was initially located for relay at the intersection of Titus Avenue and Bellwood Drive. He then repositioned to Titus Court.

The next monthly FRS radio check-in drill will be conducted on Monday, 03 June 2019, at 7:30 p.m. Brad Silveria will act as Net Control for the June drill, and will again be positioned at the simulated ICP in Kevin Moran Park. To further experiment with FRS relay operations, Peter Melhus will position himself at the intersection of Miller Avenue and Brockton Lane.

• A review was conducted of all upcoming CERT-related training, refresher courses, and exercises. 
  • The Saratoga-sponsored CERT Academy is still in need of credentialed Saratoga CERT members to assist with the Academy “final exam.” Volunteers should report to the Joan Pisani Community Center at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, 19 May 2019.
  • Planning is just about completed for the upcoming joint City of Campbell Hamann Park CERT Division/City of Saratoga CERT six-hour field training exercise. Specifics of the exercise were discussed. Isabel Barrios, the lead exercise coordinator from Hamann Park CERT, is asking all prospective Saratoga participants to sign up ASAP on the Eventbrite event sign-up/RSVP posting.
  • The two SCCFD CERT Refresher training courses scheduled for June 2019 were discussed. These are: HAZ MAT and Terrorism on 04 June 2019 (7:00 to 9:00 p.m.) at the Quinlan Community Center Social Room in Cupertino; and CERT Damage Assessment on 20 June 2019 (6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) at the Saratoga Prospect Center Grace Building.
  • The American Red Cross Shelter Operations Simulation exercise is now “hard scheduled” for Saturday, 22 June 2019. The simulation will be held at the Saratoga Prospect Center Friendship Hall building from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The exercise will build upon the training that a large number of Saratoga CERT members underwent in the earlier ARC Shelter Fundamentalsclass. As the exercise extends over the lunch hour, participants are asked to bring a “brown bag” lunch to the event.

• Training was continued from the Cox CERT Division Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Training topics included:  
  • CERT apparel, identification, and personal protective equipment
  • CERT incident command: what it means and the responsibilities of the CERT Incident Commander and Deputy CERT Incident Commander
  • The establishment and operations of a CERT incident command post.
  • Additional staffing requirements to fully man a CERT incident command post, and the responsibilities of these other ICP members.

Training topics for the next monthly divisional meeting include:

1. Post major-magnitude earthquake field triage
   1. Establishing, staffing and operating a field medical treatment area/site.
   1. CERT and spontaneous unaffiliated/untrained volunteers (SUV’s)
   1. CERT interaction with vulnerable community memberes

ACTION ITEM(S)

• Chuck Rader to meet with Crystal Bothelio in regard to the benefits and actions required to secure 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizational status for the City of Saratoga CERT program.

• Chuck Rader to talk to Michael Taylor/Crystal Bothelio about setting up a “special time” for upcoming Saratoga CERT Academy graduates to get their Disaster Service Worker – Volunteer (DSW-V) identification cards prepared and issued by Lori McKenna, City of Saratoga Building Division Office Specialist.

• Chuck Rader to talk to Tom Baker, Uma Challa, and Reshu Jain about the need to assess the status of the high-voltage electric transmission lines along the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way as part of their post-major magnitude earthquake neighborhood assessment. Extreme care should be exercised when carrying out this task.

• Chuck Rader to work with the other Saratoga CERT divisional leads on a one page “next steps” document for dissemination to newly-graduated Saratoga CERT members having completed a SCCFD-sponsored CERT Academy course.

• Chuck Rader and Brad Silveria to work together to identify the best date and time for a Cox CERT Division member “meet and greet” with newly graduated Cox Division Academy members. The location is presumed to be in Kevin Moran Park.

CARRY-OVER ACTION ITEMS FROM THE FEBRUARY DIVISIONAL MEETING:

• Chuck Rader to research the role the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner and federal DMORT resources have in addressing the deceased after a major-magnitude earthquake.

• Chuck Rader to research the possibility of using Church of the Ascension Catholic Church and Congregation Beth David Jewish Synagogue as inclement weatherCERT medical treatment sites.

• Chuck Rader to continue discussions with the City of Saratoga on establishing a “subset” cache of immediate response CERT materials and equipment on the grounds of Kevin Moran Park.

NEXT COX CERT DIVISIONAL MEETING:

        Wednesday, 19 June 2019, from 6:00 p.m. to approximately 7:45 p.m.

        location: TBD – Anticipated to be the Saratoga Prospect Center Grace Building

          meeting room

From Chuck Rader:

This is the Eventbrite sign-up/RSVP posting for the upcoming American Red Cross Shelter Operations Simulation exercise to be conducted on Saturday, 22 June 2019, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the City of Saratoga Prospect Center Friendship Hall facility.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/american-red-cross-shelter-operations-simulation-tickets-61906159991

There will be two ARC facilitators for this simulation exercise.

If any prospective participants have completed the advanced ARC Shelter Supervisor/Manager curriculum and desire to carry out these responsibilities during the simulation, please let Chuck know via e-mail.

FYI…The venue/location and time of the simulation have changed from what was posted earlier.