So, you want to be a hero?

If you want to be a hero, maybe the first step is to take CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training. I am.

Okay, for those of you who know me, you can stop laughing now. The idea of me being a hero is a bit laughable, and in reality, CERT training will not make you a hero, even though if you complete the seven week/one-night-a-week/2.5-hours-each-night course you do get a certificate suitable for framing. Hey, even Superman never seemed to have a certificate. Of course, in his league, a certificate might not mean much.

All humor aside, CERT training will help you be prepared in case of an emergency. It is not meant to make you part of a volunteer civilian core that will get called out in the event of a natural disaster, technological met down, terrorist attack, or even a three-car pileup on the Interstate.

It is meant to help you be prepared, and with that, help your family be prepared (if you have a family nearby), and even help out your neighbors should it be necessary. In short, the training is to help you be a little more self-reliant in the event of an emergency. That emergency could be the power going out in the middle of the coldest snap in winter. That emergency could be needing to leave your house in five minutes due to a tanker truck overturning nearby and the truck is carrying a chemical that reacts with water or air to create a poisonous gas. The emergency doesn’t have to be a tornado pulling up houses in your neighborhood as if they were petunias or flood waters rising high enough to whisk your car slip-sliding away.

I hope to post some information on what I learn in the coming weeks, but by no means take what I write as the be-all end-all of information. I would think a better place to start finding out the be-all end-all of information is a place like http://knoxtnlepc.com/getready or http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/.

The idea started in Los Angeles, CA in 1984, after people in that city government visited Japan to see how a similar program they had worked. Those officials proposed a program much like the one today to the LA city council, which turned it down, saying good idea but it costs too much. Then the 1987 earthquakes in California happened, and they decided maybe it didn’t cost too much to invest in such a program. Not as much as earthquake damage, anyway.

Since then, the idea has moved across the U.S. CERT training was adopted by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) in 1994, and was given more importance after 9/11. It has been in Knoxville/Knox County since 2004, spearheaded initially by the Knoxville Police Department. Now, almost all emergency response agencies in Knoxville/Knox County participate in some way to provide training. The most notable exception is the Knox County Sheriff’s Department.

Why? I don’t know. Maybe one of the Knox County mayoral candidates who is was sheriff at the time can answer that question.