was a warm beautiful day and the
excitement in the air was the the Battle
of the babe between the two baseball
teams the Giants and the A's
my family was sitting down to dinner
with the television on to watch the
World Series game and then the
earthquake started the television
blacked out there was noise everywhere
all of a sudden the ground was shaking
the walls were shaking it's like being
on an ocean liner that's hit a huge wave
a storm at sea the fire in Oakland is a
major fire a large fire nearly half a
block Long Bay Bridge has been
it was the scariest thing I've ever been
through and I think the worst thing
about it was not knowing what to do
after in 1989 when Loma Prieta
earthquake hit our department went to
Los Angeles to get the cert curriculum
the Community Emergency Response Team
program our primary goal is to make sure
that the residents that live here are
ready for anything
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Mart is a small town there's only about
2,000 people who live here so what's
unique about the cert program here at
Maher is a number of things one it's all
teenagers all of us are in high school
it's also taught as an actual class here
it affects our GPA the teen Start
program is crucial to Mars because we
don't have EMS we don't have those types
of first responders Waco would be called
first and it takes them at least 30
minutes to get here so we really are the
first line of defense
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as the town's needs change our studies
change our community needs not just the
cert curriculum but we add to that with
EMT curriculum
I don't think adults give teenagers in
general enough credit for what they can
and can't do we kind of undermine what I
think they're capable of so if you teach
them to rise to that expectation they
will and they'll be able to handle it
Marlon is in Falls County 20 30 minutes
away the water system completely failed
last year so the townspeople were
without water for approximately 10 to 12
days we kind of just immediately jumped
into action and knew exactly what to do
the thing that they did the most was
consult people it was very traumatic for
the whole community so to be there to
give assistance really helped us feel
like we were making a difference with
some people we've been prepared so well
that whenever we're put into these
situations we don't think about can I do
this we do it because we've had the
training and we know that we can
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we teach people confidence the
confidence that should a situation arise
that you have the capabilities to react
to that situation so one of the
scenarios that we have is what to do in
the event of either being in a submerged
vehicle or coming upon one in the right
leg for me meant survival and how to
survive in the wilderness because at
that time I thought this was wilderness
we were big city kids from New York City
so we never even thought about
hurricanes it's just beautiful here all
the time but when a storm comes
everything changes our cert members
played a huge role in hurricane Matthew
we were a part of opening a shelter here
in our region and our cert members were
the ones that came to the rescue once
again and manned that shelter they made
sure that everybody had what they needed
we could not react as an emergency
management division without them there
that integral of a role everybody who
can be as short member everybody brings
a skill that's the type of city we have
so the next earthquake we know what's
gonna happen within 30 years we know
we're gonna get a big one we have no
idea when it's gonna occur but we have
to be ready we've had a lot of people
that felt like they needed to do
something after the earthquake
today the cert program is stronger than
ever we care about our community so we
sign up and show up this is my first
citywide drill where I get to apply the
skills I've learned we assess the
building from outside to see what we
notice you are always assessing your
situation to make sure that you react
quickly and proactively I've also
learned many different skills like being
able to assess structural damage in a
building look for gas leaks and do a
little bit of triage our job here is to
train our cert volunteers to be on your
own for at least three or four days
we're so used to calling on resources
that are readily available to us and
during the time of an earthquake those
resources just aren't going to come so
you really have to rely on your
neighbors and the people that are around
you
I am not afraid anymore if another
earthquake happens or another disaster I
have some skills that I have learned and
so the fear and the terror is not there
it's really empowering to know that
you're what's going to be there first
you're what's going to comfort the
people because of the cert training we
didn't lose hope we actually became
proponents of you can't survive no
matter what I think what I like best
about the program is just feeling like I
am part of San Francisco and in case of
an emergency I feel prepared
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