Volunteers respond to soggy simulation

By Elizabeth Perry
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:15 AM CDT


Saturday morning was rainy and cold, but volunteers still gathered in O'Fallon Sports Park to play victims in a simulated plane crash.


They were part of a Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, exercise. CERT volunteers have checked on people whose utilities went out during an ice storm and have sandbagged during floods.

During this exercise, CERT volunteers were to locate and safely move victims and give basic first aid. CERT volunteers also were learning to contain a disaster scene, so people didn't wander in and disrupt lifesaving care.

Volunteer Karen Conner-Hatcher applied gory makeup to the "victims." She is not a professional makeup artist, but it is a high compliment to say her work looked ghastly.

Conner-Hatcher said the more realistic the makeup, the easier it is for CERT members to get into the event.

T.J. Miles, 11, of O'Fallon had a puckered slash on his face.

"I like wearing the makeup. It's fun," Miles said. "Some of the people here are really messed up.

"Miles mentioned a girl with sugar glass sticking out of her forehead. The girl, Hannah Puckett, 11, is a Central Elementary student whose mom is a CERT volunteer.

Puckett had posed as a victim for CERT trainings five times. On Saturday, her role was a fan of a celebrity also on the fake flight, played by 17-year-old Samantha Simms.

Puckett clutched a Photoshopped picture of Simms standing with "Twilight" film star Robert Pattinson. In the scenario, Puckett tried to get an autograph from Simms just as the plane was crashing because the pilot was drunk.

Miriam Hannibal, 17, and Jaime Nardi, 16, played siblings separated from their father. Nardi spoke little so she wouldn't disturb the burn makeup on her face.

Hannibal said they had taken their roles so seriously during previous CERT scenarios that people thought they'd actually been injured.

Both want to become actresses, and they got into character imagining what it would've been like on the plane before it crashed.

"It's just a matter of opening your eyes as a victim," Hannibal said.

The victims piled into a junked plane and sat on the ground covered in blue tarps. Their corn syrup blood pooled in the rain as the actors cried for loved ones. About 11 a.m., organizers called the victims back, few CERT volunteers were in sight, and the victims were in real peril of hypothermia.

"We would have been dead already. The plane crashed at 6:50," Puckett said.

O'Fallon police Detective Sgt. Robert Kendall said the weather brought the training to an early close, between 1 and 2 p.m.

Plane crash situation sharpens response of crews

March 30, 2009
O’Fallon
by Kris Kolk

On Saturday, March 28, a simulated airplane crash appeared near the soccer fields at the O’Fallon Sports Park. Aircraft wreckage, fire, flares, and “victims” showing a variety of wounds, scattered the grounds. Other “passengers” waited a couple hundred yards away—hoping to be found and then rescued. Further, a debris pile trapped dummy victims.

The site seemed surreal. Amidst the “blood” and screaming, there was an eerie sense of calmness. This was, after all, a choreographed simulation intended to test the capability of the St. Charles County CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams), emergency responders and mutual aid providers.

St. Charles County W.O.R.L.D.S. was fortunate that O’Fallon Police Officer Diana Damke introduced us to Norman Nieder from Cottleville CERT.

Nieder explained that this exercise had been planned since November, following a drill in September. An assessment period allowed participants and planners to determine what went right, what to do differently and how to make an environment more challenging.

Nieder showed us into a staging area where participants portraying victims were getting into their roles. The group was a mixture of children and adults, with fake injuries ranging from a gash on the cheek to compound fractures.

Volunteers included some method-acting Thespians from Timberland High School, sporting full blood and injury make-up.

We were then led down to a pile of rubble under which life-sized and life-weighted manikins were trapped and where Cliff Smith, CERT Instructor, manned the pile. Smith described a procedure called “cribbing.” Using a combination of levers, braces and fulcrums, a cribbing team was to carefully move pieces of the pile, making sure to keep as much pressure off those trapped by the rubble.

Smith, from the not-for-profit corporation, People Helping People, Inc., showed much enthusiasm about the project. He said that in a classroom environment, there may be simulation exercises using tables and concrete blocks, but nothing to this extent.

An exercise of such scale gives participants an opportunity to refine emergency procedures, so that responding almost becomes second nature.

An emergency responder may think “I remember I did this one time in the practice session and now it’s the real thing,” Nieder said.

The event did present an unscheduled actual emergency when one of the participants seemed overcome by cold. An ambulance responded to this coinciding, real-world incident.

Planned as one of the largest full-scale drills organized among all previous exercises in the St. Louis/St. Charles metropolitan area, the exercise was cut short due to cold, rainy weather.

St. Charles County disaster response participants include members of CERT groups from St. Charles City, Cottleville, Dardenne Prairie, O’Fallon, St. Charles Community College, St. Charles County, St. Peters/Central County, Weldon Spring and Wentzville.

Also participating was the region’s first TEEN CERT. This exercise was the first time the teen responders were deployed alongside adult CERT teams. Other participants were to come from Maryland Heights, Creve Coeur, Town & Country, Eureka, Black Jack and Crestwood.

O’Fallon Police and Fire Department, St. Charles County Ambulance District, American Red Cross, Crider Center for Mental Health, and the St. Charles County Department of Emergency Management were all anticipated to participate. Other municipalities on scene included Independence Fire and Washington University EMT as well as other mutual aid organizations.

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O'Fallon looking for citizen responders

By Elizabeth Perry
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 3:13 AM CST

For the first time, the city of O'Fallon is developing its own Citizen Emergency Response Team.

The team is composed of resident volunteers willing to help the police during crises.

O'Fallon Police Officer Andy Stowers said the class should appeal to anyone who thinks people "need to be able to take care of ourselves."

Seven people have signed up for CERT classes. Stowers said he hopes for 25 participants.

Many other communities in the county have CERT programs, and Stowers said officials who run those programs were resources for him.

"Everybody has helped me," Stowers said. "I couldn't do it without community support."

Shalom Shoaf, the CERT coordinator for the St. Charles Fire Department, was one of those people in the community who provided support.

Shoaf said she and Stowers talked about necessary paperwork and how to gain support for the program.

Shoaf said CERT has been around since the late 1970s, forming after an earthquake in Mexico killed 800 rescuers who were trying to clear a building. The idea is to train volunteers to increase their chances of survival and make them more effective in emergencies, Shoaf said.

Shoaf said her team is utilized more than any other in the county.

"We deploy my CERT team in the city quite a bit," Shoaf said.

Volunteer team members went door to door in St. Charles during an ice storm a couple years ago to see if residents needed help. Shoaf said her team of volunteers has safely evacuated nursing homes.

"We have to be out there ready to help our neighbors," said Phillip Yocum, an evidence officer with the Wentzville Police Department and a CERT organizer.

Stowers said Yocum also advised him.

Yocum said he was impressed by the spirit of volunteerism among his team. There is a waiting list for volunteers who want to take part in Wentzville's CERT program, he said.

Wentzville will also be conducting CERT classes for Wentzville residents Jan. 26 with CERT classes for teenagers starting Feb. 19.

Jim Sease, a volunteer who started Dardenne Prairie's CERT team, said he was glad to help with the formation of O'Fallon's team.

"I am personally excited to see O'Fallon get a program," Sease said.

Sease said the two cities are like a zipper, with O'Fallon families and Dardenne Prairie families interwoven.

Volunteer programs like CERT are important because the federal government is not always available to help right away in emergencies, Sease said.

Sease said CERT is important for another reason.

"There are times when the first responders become the victims themselves," Sease said.

First Community Credit Union donated $580 and Peoples Bank donated $500 to the program in O'Fallon, which does not have government funding yet, Stowers said.

The class has a $25.00 per-person fee to defray the cost of the program, Stowers said.

Stowers said the program is good for anybody interested in disaster services or emergency management.

Residents will learn how to be prepared for a disaster by packing kits containing, food, water and extra medication to keep them going for at least two days.

They'll learn fire safety, first aid, how to safely lift heavy objects and how to help others coping with disaster.

Search and rescue will also be covered in the three-day class.

Participants who take the class will get a backpack full of survival gear and supplies.

If you go:

WHAT: O'Fallon's Citizen Emergency Response Team Course
WHERE: 100 N. Main Street, O'Fallon
WHEN: Feb. 20 - 22
CONTACT: Officer Andy Stowers, 636-379-5686

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.ofallon.mo.us/PO/CERT

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CERT trains students in disaster response

Sunday, August 19, 2007 7:30 AM CDT

The first Teen Community Emergency Response Team in St. Charles County has been established in Wentzville. On Aug. 3, the program graduated its first four selected area students, and will be offered on a wider basis during the next academic year.

The Teen CERT program is based on the CERT concept. CERT educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills. Using their training and skills, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an emergency.

Teen CERT will teach students how to identify the types of disasters and hazards most likely to affect their homes and communities.

"The goal of Teen CERT is to better prepare the community at an earlier age and offer positive extracurricular activities to the youth of Wentzville and St. Charles County," said Mark Rosenblum, coordinator for the Teen CERT program.

Even though the program is designed for youth 12-18, students can begin taking the training in as early as third grade, with parent consent. The first four Teen CERT graduates are students at Peine Ridge Elementary, and include Mikayla Bryan, Austin Dettmer, Emily Rosenblum and Emily Hagen.

Visit www.teencert.org or www.citizencorps.gov/cert or e-mail to Rosenblum at mark.rosenblum@juno.com for more information about the program.