Preparing to Strike Back at Disaster

Carole Stanley can lift a refrigerator off a trapped victim in a disaster such as an earthquake. She also knows how to search for and rescue people from a damaged building, the proper way to shore up an unstable wall and how to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

The retired electrolysis technician learned those skills through a new Anaheim program that trains residents to respond to disasters and emergency situations, right along with police and fire officials.

“I know now that I can keep my cool under pressure and help . . . during a crisis,” said Stanley, 57, a recent graduate of the Community Emergency Response Team program. “You’d want me nearby when the Big One finally hits. Trust me.”

The program, known as CERT, was introduced in the county by Huntington Beach in 1991 after a tornado hit two mobile home parks there. The damage overwhelmed emergency services and started officials wondering how they would handle a disaster on a larger scale.

“We thought, wow, here’s this little tornado that hit two neighborhoods, and our police and fire personnel were totally impacted by its wake,” said Glorria Morrison, the city’s emergency services coordinator. “We knew we needed to do something to help increase our response time and our manpower.”

The city’s CERT program takes residents through eight weeks of training in emergency preparedness, medical aid and disaster psychology. Huntington Beach firefighters have trained 2,400 volunteers--one for every 80 residents--and get hundreds of applications a month from people who want to sign up.

The program costs the city only $6,000 a year and is offered free to its residents and employees.

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In an emergency, CERT volunteers would organize residents, tend to the injured and give city officials regular updates. They would also relay reports from emergency teams, calm victims and help traumatized children.

First aid gear, food, water, and other emergency supplies are stored in the homes of volunteers, who know how to start triage and treat multiple victims at once.

CERT also enlists amateur radio operators who would volunteer their skills and equipment if telephone and other communication lines were down, a likely scenario in most disasters.

Morrison said Huntington Beach’s proximity to both the Santa Ana River and an active fault line makes the city of 190,000 particularly vulnerable to flooding and earthquakes. “When I see the floods happening in Northern California, I thank God that we have these,” Morrison said of the volunteers.

The program, which won Huntington Beach national recognition from the American Red Cross, has been expanded successfully to Anaheim and some other cities.

Brea started a similar course that residents pay up to $100 to attend, and Irvine police and fire officials give free disaster training to Neighborhood Watch groups.

But efforts in Santa Ana and Fountain Valley were not successful. Officials put part of the blame on lack of interest.

“We tried, we advertised, we had articles in the paper,” said Kathy Williams, emergency preparedness coordinator for Fountain Valley. “Six people showed up. We tried again; three people showed up.”

Williams said disaster training is now given only by request.

Officials say the most valuable aspect of CERT is that it teaches residents how to sustain themselves during a crisis. In most disasters, people won’t see a police or fire official for 72 hours, said Marc Martin, Santa Ana fire chief.

“I have 66 firefighters on duty at any given time,” he said. “During a large-scale disaster . . . that’s like spitting in the wind.”

Such concerns inspired Bob Berg, Anaheim’s emergency services coordinator, to organize CERT and to request $10,000 from the city budget to keep it alive. Though 500 residents are now taking classes or have completed training, Berg sees that as just the beginning.

“On any given day in Anaheim, we have 63 firefighters and 35 police officers working,” Berg said. “That’s less than 100 initial response people to assist up to 400,000 residents and workers. How effective is that? How could we do it?”

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Just in Case

The curriculum for Community Emergency Response Team training includes eight four-hour classes on a variety of topics.

* Disaster preparedness: What threatens cities and how officials would respond; how to get homes, families and neighborhoods prepared for emergencies

* First aid: Common injuries resulting from earthquakes; creative first-aid solutions; how to start triage and treat multiple victims

* Damage assessment and communication: Evaluating structure damage to determine if buildings are safe to enter; setting up security teams; using amateur radios if phones are out

* Fire extinguishers and utilities: Home safety and how to prevent fires; how to shut off damaged or leaking utilities, secure water heaters and furniture to prevent injuries after an earthquake

* CPR: American Red Cross course in cardiopulmonary resuscitation; how to deal with choking, shock and heart failure

* Care and shelter: How to set up outdoor-indoor shelters to care for displaced victims and care for emotionally distressed victims

* Light search and rescue: How to lift 1,000 pounds using simple leverage techniques; searching for trapped victims; shoring up unsafe structures; moving or carrying victims; search and rescue drills

* Command post operations: Managing a neighborhood, school or business disaster team; setting up a command post; coordinating with police and fire officers

Source: Huntington Beach CERT program; Researched by BONNIE HAYES / For The Times