CAPTAIN'S MESSAGE: DRILL NOV 7

On Saturday, November 7, at 8;00 A.M. our team will meet in the card room of our Town Center for a briefing and radio distribution prior to our drill.

Please bring the following equipment and wear your team shirt, CERT vest, ID card, whistle, pen and writing paper. Wear comfortable shoes. Sandals are not recommended. Wear a hat,(CERT hard hat optional, shorts are OK).

Bring drinking water, and wear sunscreen. We will be away from the Town Center for the drill, you may wish to car pool to the drill area once the briefing is completed. We should have a little fun, and sharpen our skills. The entire days activities, including a de-briefing back at the Town Center, should be no more then 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

This drill we take the place of our previously scheduled Nov. 19Th meeting.

MONTHLY MEETING TURNS INTO A MINI SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATION

There was a regular meeting of the VeronaWalk CERT Team on October 15. The meeting, as usual, was at Town Center, and was well attended.

A demonstration involving our radios was planned, however the TEAM received word shortly after 7:00 PM that there was a child lost in the community. "Little Billy" became the teams focus, and the radios were given an excellent test.

An "Incident Commander" was quickly identified, and he dispersed teams to conduct a "search and rescue" operation. We even went to the Car Wash looking for our subject. It took our well trained team less than thirty minutes to find the missing child. In this case "Little Billy" was a sheet of paper, in a plastic covering, which served as the teams ultimate clue.

On top of successfully finding the missing child the team also identified one defective radio. You never can tell what practice drills will reveal. Bottom Line: A very good night for our TEAM.

CAPTAINS MESSAGE

The next VeronaWalk CERT team meeting will be held on Oct. 15, at 7:00 PM in our Town Center.

We will conduct a mini search and rescue drill at this meeting. This will be a prelude to an upcoming Saturday drill. All team members are requested to bring their vests, flashlights, and helmets, plus a pen or pencil and something to write on. You do not need to bring any additional equipment.

We welcome anyone interested in joining our team to attend that evening.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT TOUR

On Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009 several members of our V.W. CERT Team toured the Emergency Management Command Center. The building is located on Lely Cultural Dr, behind the library. It is easy to recognize as it is the tallest building in the area.

The building is a multi million dollar state of the art structure built to provide citizens of Collier County the best emergency management. It is said to be able to withstand a category five hurricane, and function for several days on its' own power source.

It is good to know that in the event of an emergency our County is well prepared.