CERTainty of response
A year ago, I wrote a column with the title “Everybody has a plan … until you get punched in the face” — How do businesses plan ahead for recovery from disasters? (https://www.times-standard.com/2019/04/28/ business-sense-everybody-has-a-plan/). Wow! How times have changed in a year’s time? This COVID-19 thing, a couple of prolonged power outages — who would have known? And the effects on everyone in business are so different. Of course, Humboldt County will prove to be as resilient as ever but until then a lot of businesses are suffering today.
As a business community, one of the keys to resiliency (definition: recovering from adversity; elastic; rebounds readily) is being able to independently evaluate how to best respond. If you are like me, I keep checking the media during times of disasters; it is almost addicting and paralyzing. So how do I keep current, keep prepared? How do I avoid the fake lemming response — rushing to buy six months of toilet paper or testing whether I am infected by holding my breath for 10 seconds or falling for the scams evil people promote during times of crisis? And how can I have some certainty that I will rebound when disaster strikes?
It should be no surprise that during a disaster our first responders are overwhelmed by the increased number of calls for help. It is therefore pertinent that we each learn to take care of ourselves, our families, our businesses, our communities in times of need.
I recently became involved in the Humboldt County CERT — Community Emergency Response Team (https://www.humboldtcert.com/). The CERT program “is part of a national network, under FEMA, that educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, which allows them to focus on more complex Through CERT, the capabilities to prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters is built and enhanced tasks (https://arcatacert.org/). CERT has been involved in this current crisis by assisting in distributing needed supplies to essential services
throughout the County, coordinating facility use if needed during COVID-19 response, and compiling resources of essential supplies and local business’s operating hours.”
Undertaking the training ahead of time and being connected with current information from emergency responders can make sure you have
some certainty that you have the correct information to respond accordingly. Training is available online at the links provided above. And, if you have already taken the CERT basic course, please consider becoming involved in one of the several community CERT teams in Humboldt County.