Each year a number of communities fall victim to some emergency. This may be in the form of a hurricane, Nor'easter,
tornado, ice/snow storm, flood or technological hazard.

Catastrophic events:

• Severely restrict and overwhelm emergency response members, resources, communications, utilities, and transportation.
• Leave many individuals and neighborhoods cut off from outside support

When we hear about this or see it on the news, it always seems to be happening to someone else but:

What Do You Do When It Happens To You Or
To Your Neighborhood?

Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) helps communities mitigate disasters during the first 72 hours following a disaster when flooded roads, disrupted communications, emergency demand outweighs local emergency services, etc., may restrict access by Professional Emergency First Responders. The purpose of CERT training is to provide citizens with the basic skills that they need to handle virtually all of their own needs and then to respond to their communities needs in the aftermath of a disaster.

The CERT program is designed to be practical, interesting, and fun. While the program is interactive,
there are no special physical requirements to participate in the program. Everyone is welcome to participate!

CERT is sponsored by the Township of Plainsboro Police Department. All classes are taught by Emergency
Services instructors. The CERT program is an official Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program.
Certificates of Completions are issued to participants at the end of the program.

What does the course involve?

The course consists of ten weeks of training one night a week. (Each clsss is about 2 hours)
Classes are taught by trained emergency personnel, including firefighters and paramedics.

Course Objectives

1. Upon completion of this course, the participants will be able to:
2. Describe the types of hazards that are most likely to affect their homes and communities.
3. Describe the functions of CERTs and their role in
   immediate response
4. Take steps to prepare themselves for a disaster.
5. Identify and reduce potential fire hazards in their homes
   or workplaces.
6. Work as a team to apply basic fire suppression strategies, resources, and safety measures to extinguish a pan fire.
7. Apply techniques for opening airways, controlling bleeding,
   and treating for shock
8. Conduct triage under simulated disaster conditions
9. Perform head-to-toe patient assessments.
10. Select and set up a treatment area.
11. Employ basic treatments for various wounds, and apply
    splints to suspected fractures and wounds.
12. Identify planning and sizeup requirements for potential
    search and rescue situations.
13. Describe the most common techniques or searching
    a structure.
14. Work as a team to apply safe techniques for debris
    removal and victim extrication.
15. Describe ways to protect rescuers during search and
    rescue operations.
16. Describe the post-disaster emotional environmental andthe
    steps that rescuers can take to relieve their own stressors
    and those of disaster survivors.
17. Describe CERT organization and documentation requirements

Registration

If you are interested in taking the Plainsboro CERT (Community Emergency Response Training),
please fill out the following on-line .pdf formatted application.

You may drop the completed application off at the Township of Plainsboro Police Department or
mail it directly to:

Township of Plainsboro Police Department
Attn: CERT Coordinator
641 Plainsboro Road
Plainsboro, New Jersey 08536