Weekends of August 6-8 and August 13-15 Introduction to CERT training at the Holley-Navarre's Fire Station #45, 8618 Esplanade St., Navarre, FL 32566. (Behind the Winn-Dixie shopping center on US 98, near the Navarre Bridge). More info here, or go directly to the registration form.

Requests for Our Assistance at Community Events Please do not make any commitments for Navarre CERT to "work" any community events. All such requests must be brought to a board member. We have a form for requests for our assistance. There is a link for it on the navigation bar. The purpose of the form is to gather information that we must have in order to effectively decide whether Navarre CERT will participate, and information that we need for creation of a solid operations plan for the event.

Meeting schedule: team meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month and board/staff meetings on the second Wednesday, both at 6:00pm at the Senior Center (unless otherwise noted in the Coming Events section above). Each team meeting includes advanced or refresher training. Please me an effort to attend. Any Navarre CERT member may attend board/staff meetings as a guest. Dates for 2010:

H1N1 (Swine flu) information can be found at this CDC web page.  Thorough hand washing is a must to prevent spread of disease.  See these instructions from the CDC.

Immunization Recommendations for Disaster Responders from the Center for Disease Control

1. Tetanus : In accordance with the current CDC guidelines, responders should receive a tetanus booster if they have not been vaccinated for tetanus during the past 10 years. Td (tetanus/diphtheria) or Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis) can be used; getting the Tdap formula for one tetanus booster during adulthood is recommended to maintain protection against pertussis.
2. Hepatitis B : Hepatatitis B vaccine series for persons who will be performing direct patient care or otherwise expected to have contact with bodily fluids

Food, Water and ... NOT ice. In case you weren't aware, the State of Florida won't be supplying ice after a disaster. Read the entire newspaper article. Santa Rosa County doesn't plan to, either. We'll have to rely on stores and ice machines with generators if the power is out.

What Is a Cyclone? Just an interesting bit of information from NOAA.gov: The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone". Where you'll find each:
Hurricane : In the northern Atlantic Ocean, the northeast Pacific Ocean east of the Internation Dateline, or the southern Pacific Ocean east of 160E
Typhoon : In the northwest Pacific Ocean west of the international dateline.
Severe tropical cyclone : In the southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E
Severe cyclonic storm : In the northern Indian Ocean
Tropical cyclone : In the southwest Indian Ocean                             
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Second quarter 2010 newsletter can be found here.

Amateur Radio Club: 10 of Navarre CERT's 30 hams participated in ARRL's Annual Field Day, set up at Navarre Park. This is a 24-hour event demonstrating the emergency communications capability of amateur radio and encouraging other people to become operators. 444 contacts were made, by voice, Morse code, and digital radio, with stations from Hawaii to Canada to Maine. See Club News on the Communications page for more. 

National Exposure for Navarre CERT: The search at Navarre Beach last April received national publicity on the National Citizen Corps CERT "CERT in Action"  web page. Remember than training at our July 28 meeting is on the subject of K9 and e-Search, and find time to attend. Santa Rosa County Emergency Management considers us its primary ground search team. We all need to be well-prepared, beyond what we learned in Introduction to CERT.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Currently, Navarre CERT is not actively engaged in clean-up work, which is being done by trained, paid employees. For comprehensive information from Santa Rosa County, visit www.santarosa.fl.gov/oilspill/. For information on what volunteers can do, click on the Volunteer tab.

Navarre CERT Vehicle Sponsorships If you know any business or organization who might like to have their logo or name displayed on our trailer or other Navarre CERT vehicles, please try to sell them on it. We will provide "advertising" for a donation.  Prices depend on the size of the logo or name and range from $250 to $1000.
Vehicle Sponsorship Form

First Quarter 2010 Navarre CERT Newsletter is here.

Changes at the National Hurricane Center
The National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center have made several changes that we, as CERT members, should be aware of, and share with family and others. Please visit the NHC's website to review the summary of changes.

The Amazing Chase was a success! We owe a lot of thanks to the committee: Lenore Nicholson, Nancy Morgan, Nancy Sandler, and Chris Arnold. The first prize of $500 was won by the team of Susan Cook, PJ Danneker, Ceil Holley and Sue Hufstader.. The second prize sunset sailboat cruise was won by the team of Jaye Lycan, Terry Parton and Shirley Luke. Many Navarre businesses and organizations contributed to the event.  Acknowledgments to sponsors and donors are here.

Newsletter covering May through December 2009.

12,199 volunteer hours! That's Navarre CERT's total for 2009. But the number of people volunteering for events has been dropping off recently. That means fewer people working more hours.

FYI  This is a section of this home page with interesting tidbits of information. Recently added is a list of the 2010 dates for board/staff and team meetings.

2010 members of the board of directors, section chiefs, and other staff members are listed on the About Us page. Please be aware that the bylaws of Navarre CERT, Inc., are available through that page as well.

Interested in becoming an amateur radio operator (ham)? How about upgrading from your tech license to general? Navarre CERT Communications Coordinator Steve VanDenAkker will coordinate a class and testing if there are enough people interested.  To let him know you are interested, submit our ham class form.

Navarre CERT's first full-scale activation occurred on Saturday, April 26, 2009.  Unfortunately, it was to search the Navarre beaches for a 17-year-old swimmer who had not been seen since 1800 the previous day.  42 Navarre CERT members turned out for service between 1 and 9 hours during the day.  A few spouses and friends turned out, along with five NJROTC cadets and nine members of Santa Rosa County Search & Rescue  Professional first responders were very impressed with our turnout and capabilities. 

Another way to help the Navarre CERT treasury Subscribe to the Navarre Press (the print version, online, or both) now, and you'll lock in your subscription price for three years. Check Navarre CERT as your favorite non-profit and 50% of what you pay will be placed in a reserve for Navarre CERT to use on advertising! Navarre Press subscription page

Recycle for CERT! Yes, you can be "green" for the benefit of Navarre CERT. Bring your empty inkjet printer ink cartridges and old cellphones to the next team meeting and put them in the recycle box. We will be able to redeem them for money to be added to the Navarre CERT treasury. Can't make it to the meeting but you've got a bunch to recycle? e-mail us and we'll figure out how to get them from you.

State of Florida Disaster Reservist Program If you are interested in being part of disaster response and recovery in Florida, beyond the CERT program, this program may be of interest to you. The Division of Emergency Management does not have sufficient numbers of trained disaster specialists to manage and recover from a major or catastrophic disaster, and has initiated a Disaster Reservist program to quickly provide additional human resources to support the states' actions in a disaster. An activated reservist is reimbursed for travel expenses and also receives payment. In times of disaster, reservists who are called to active duty must have the ability to commit a minimum of 15 consecutive days of service. Reservists must also be able to deploy to other areas of the State and may be required to work non-traditional hours (including holidays and weekends). There are training requirements, some of which CERT members have probably already completed. LEARN MORE.....

CERT forms are now available on the "Downloads" page. One file has all the forms that are covered in class. Another is just the Damage Assessment form.

Photos of Navarre CERT "in action" We're always looking for photos of us at work at a festival, information distribution, parade, Caring & Sharing, or other event at which we provided support. If you have any please e-mail us and attach the .jpg files. If the photo needs to be scanned, let us know and we'll arrange something.