CERT stages disaster drill to supply emergency clinics

Loading, unloading and cataloguing boxes and boxes of medical supplies underneath the hot afternoon sun may not sound like fun, but 31 local Community Emergency Response Team volunteers appeared to enjoy the action in a two-day training program Thursday and Friday at the Green Valley Fire District headquarters on Camino Encanto.

Taught by retired South Tucson firefighter Henry Vega, Jr., who designed the training program, the volunteers joined forces for classroom exercises and outdoor, hands-on truck-loading and unloading training geared to teach the basics of organizing supplies for the medical emergency clinics that would be set up by Pima County in the event of a terrorist attack, flu pandemic or other major emergency.

The training for Green Valley and Sahuarita CERT members, conducted by the South Tucson Fire Department, was a pilot program, the first in the state, said GV CERT Coordinator Bill Kerr, who added that the county hopes to train about 250 volunteers to receive, sort, inventory, load and ship medical supplies in specially designated county trucks. The supplies come from the Strategic National Stockpile and would be shipped to locations around Pima County which request help during an emergency. The county determines which supplies and how many boxes go where, Kerr explained

The federal Strategic National Stockpile is utilized when a state experiences a catastrophic emergency during which county and state medical supplies have been exhausted and additional l supplies are desperately needed, said Vega.

These supplies can be delivered within 12 hours to to states whose governors request them, even without declaration of an emergency, he said.

Plans call for the states to deliver these supplies to the counties where volunteers, such as the CERT folks, will sort and ship them to locations requested.

In addition to the manual labor involved in loading and unloading the trucks, the training involves learning a designated set of procedures and completing a paperwork and computer trail for inventory and quality control.

There’s a system volunteers are asked to follow, Vega explained. For example, those supplies needed by the greatest number, as determined by the county, are loaded last so they can be unloaded first.

The supplies are referred to by the feds as “12-hour plus packages,” each of which weighs over 50 tons, but packages are broken down into smaller boxes to make lifting and loading easier.

Friday, Vega divided volunteers into teams, then put them through their paces in each phase of the operation, including the loading process, inventory management, quality control and entering information for a computer printout.

Supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile include antibiotics, chemical antidotes, vaccines, antitoxins, anti-virus medications, life-support meds, IVs and IV administration sets, airway maintenance systems, and other medical and surgical items.

South Tucson City Manager Enrique Serna praised the local volunteers Friday, following a Mexican bufffet at the fire station provided by the city.

“Your community has long been recognized as the poster child on how things are supposed to be done. We view Green Valley as a gathering of professionals who are dependable, stick to it and who bring a wide range of expertise to any emergency, he said, noting that South Tucson has a contract with Pima County to conduct the clinic supply training.

Kerr said the 31 CERT volunteers were from Green Valley and Sahuarita plus another person, a non-CERT member from Green Valley, who wanted to help out.

For more information on CERT, call Kerr at 399-1234.

Kathy Engle is a freelance writer who lives in Amado. You can contact her at kdengle@earthlink,net.