Trinidad CERT reviews training, emergency trailer and community outreach

Co‑leaders of Trinidad’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) gave the council an annual update on volunteer training, equipment and deployments.

Larry Goldberg and Jeff Austin said the volunteer team has roughly 20–23 registered members with about 15 active volunteers. The team completed a basic CERT course, performed drills and a realistic disaster simulation (moulage) to exercise triage and field‑response skills. Goldberg summarized outreach activities that included a community block party and participation in a county emergency expo.

CERT leaders described their 23‑foot emergency trailer — now a city asset — equipped with generators, lights, radios, first‑aid supplies, MREs and other gear to serve as a forward command post in local incidents. They highlighted radio and communications work (GMRS and ham radio), and said they plan to add a repeater on the firehouse to improve county‑wide connectivity in disasters.

The group activated in July for a tsunami advisory and deployed a checkpoint and volunteers who staged with the Rancheria; they emphasized that volunteers arrived within about 30 minutes and set up to assist with evacuation readiness.

CERT leaders recommended clarifying standard operating procedures and written insertion points for CERT in the city’s emergency plan (evacuation, shelter‑in‑place, traffic/crowd control) and requested continued city support for radio equipment and integration into drills and planning. Council members commended the volunteers and asked staff to include CERT in future emergency planning updates.