Rogers County Emergency Management Agency
219 S Missouri - Room B113 Claremore, OK 74017
918.341.4233 - bobby@rogerscounty.org - Fax: 918.341.4611

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)

What is the C.E.R.T. program ?

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is designd to provide training of a very basic, but effective nature to a substantial number of citizens who would inevitably feel the need and desire to take action during the first chaotic hours after a disaster or catastrophe.

Through basic training, these citizen volunteers become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. They learn to minimize the safety risks to which they subject themselves while maximizing the benefit that they can bestow upon other citizens who have become victims of the event.

C.E.R.T. training and operation is at a relatively basic level. C.E.R.T. members do not respond to emergencies; they respond to disasters and catastrophes. C.E.R.T. members do not provide emergency medical assistance; they provide disaster medical assistance.

While the safety risk that C.E.R.T. members will encounter during actual service cannot be entirely eliminated, it can be minimized.While C.E.R.T. members can neither rescue or save all victims, as in Los Angeles and San Francisco during the earthquakes, they have demonstrated that they can make a significant, indeed often a life and death difference.

Equally certain is the public's desire and need to help itself. When public safety response is enevitably delayed, both the need and the desire of the public to take action is intensified. Untrained and unmanaged this inevitable public action can and frequently does result in further tragedy and loss.

The Claremore/Rogers County Emergency Management Agency training course consists of two nights a week for approximately 4 weeks. All classes will be taught by trained emergency personnel, including firefighters and paramedics. Any one who is interested in this training course contact the Claremore/Rogers County Emergency Management Agency at 918-341-4233 for class start dates and times.