Take It To The Board with Donna DiMaggio Berger
Take It To The Board with Donna DiMaggio Berger
CERTified Safe: Empowering Community Associations with Dr. Jesse P. Spearo
Can ordinary citizens become heroes during a disaster? Discover how Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) help everyday people play essential roles in emergency situations. Join Take It To The Board host Donna DiMaggio Berger and guest Dr. Jesse P. Spearo, the Emergency Management Administrator for Miami-Dade County, as they share insights into how CERT volunteers provide critical support, from coordinating community events to distributing supplies during major incidents.
Donna and Dr. Spearo delve into the activation and organization of CERTs through Emergency Operations Centers, illustrating how trained volunteers are mobilized to support first responders and assist community residents until first responders can arrive on the scene. They discuss their crucial duties, including distributing food and water, conducting damage assessments, taking preliminary life safety measures with the injured and handling specific regional hazards like hurricanes, flooding, and heat emergencies. Listen to compelling stories of how CERTs have made significant impacts, including the success of Teen CERT initiatives and the integration of these programs into school curriculums.
In their conversation, they explore the structure and operations of CERT teams, highlighting the Incident Command System (ICS), leadership roles, and the importance of continuous training. They also touch on the legal protections and medical coverage provided to volunteers under the Good Samaritan Law. Wrapping up, Dr. Spearo shares his journey into emergency management and offers practical advice on supporting emergency efforts. Tune in to learn about future trends in the field and how you can get involved in making your community more resilient.
Conversation Highlights Include:
- Types of emergencies or disasters CERTs typically respond to
- Volunteer training and costs
- Key roles within a CERT team
- How CERT members are deployed during an emergency
- Communication channels used by CERT members
- How CERTs integrate with professional emergency services
- CERT members and liability in Miami-Dade
- CERT equipment
- Steps for a condominium or HOA interested in setting up a CERT
Related Links:
- Podcast: Surviving the Storm: A Journey Through Hurricane Ian and Beyond with Joseph E. Adams, Becker & Poliakoff
- Podcast: Keeping Cool With Jane Gilbert, Chief Heat Officer, Miami-Dade County
- Resources: CERT Training Information
Hi everyone. I'm attorney Donna DiMaggio-Berger and this is Take it to the Board where we speak condo and HOA. How many of you know that the acronym CERT stands for a Community Emergency Response Team? Even for those of you who knew what a CERT is, do you know exactly what these volunteers do, and have you ever considered the benefits of implementing a CERT in your community association? Have you ever considered the benefits of implementing a CERT in your community association?
Speaker 1:Today, we're diving into the world of CERTS with a special guest who knows what it takes to keep a community safe in the face of an emergency. Joining us is Dr Jesse P Spiro, who is the Emergency Management Administrator for Miami-Dade County and a public safety professor. Dr Spiro has worked as a successful public safety practitioner for over 20 years, having worked in the private sector and at all levels of government, including federal, tribal, state, county and municipal. He is the author or co-author of more than 50 emergency management plans and publications, and regularly presents his findings at national and international conferences. In 2022, dr Spiro was appointed as Assistant Director at Miami-Dade County Department of Emergency Management, where he is responsible for the preparedness and resiliency efforts for one of the most populous and vulnerable areas of the country, that would be Miami-Dade County. Additionally, dr Spiro is an adjunct professor at several institutions, including Florida International University and Georgetown University. I'm excited to be speaking with a true expert in turning chaos into calm today, so let's dig in. Dr Spiro, welcome to Take it to the Board.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much, donna, really looking forward to today.
Speaker 1:We are too, especially because, as we're taping this, it is July 19th, so hurricane season in Florida has already kicked off. I'm actually taping this in North Carolina. The weather here has been strange. We've seen some erratic weather patterns throughout the country, but I wanted to start out with some basics. So what are CERTs and why do we need them?
Speaker 2:So great question. So, donna, the community emergency response team is a concept that's been around for many decades and it's really designed to empower citizens to be that basic first responder. Because we have our law enforcement, we have our fire rescue, our public safety professionals that are there. That's commonly referred to as your first responders, but the common person is the initial responder. That's there. They're the people that are going to be there to help somebody that's injured, hurt in an accident, fallen. There's a disaster, an emergency it could be a fire, a flood, hurricane, tornado, whatever it is. That's the first person there. So the CERT program trains these individuals how to respond and empowers them to take action and feel comfortable in that decision-making process. And that's really what the CERT program is designed to do is empowerment.
Speaker 1:So what kind of emergencies, Dr Spiro, would CERTs be trained to respond to?
Speaker 2:So there's all sorts of things that we train in the CERT program but basically, once you're part of a CERT team and you're a volunteer with that program, in that given jurisdiction, you have the opportunity to assist that jurisdiction with various events. That might be a community 5K, that might be a sporting event, that might be a larger incident like a festival or something even larger than that. They have the ability to assist the first responders by providing rehab for the responders and rehab is usually food and drink and keeping them calm and safe during these activities that they're performing long hours on or to help those that are attendees at these various events with minor injuries, such as triage of what that injury is. At these various events with minor injuries, such as triage of what that injury is, could be handing out bandages, ice packs, referring them for additional services. They could hand out water. They could also support other entities for that event as well. Now for the emergency situation. So let's back this up and say we have two classifications of incidents and how we kind of direct our resources. We have blue sky days, which is those events that we can go and assist on, and then we have our gray sky days, which is the emergencies fires, floods, hurricanes, pandemics, you name it. Oh my, there's a lot that's out there. So if you're part of an organized team and program, you have the ability to be deployed to assist in various emergency operations that might occur at the local emergency operations center, providing EOC support for them. That might be anything from being a scribe to assisting in a phone bank, to helping with the food unit that feeds all the responders that are associated with that given incident. You also might be deployed out in the field to assist in that response.
Speaker 2:We would oftentimes, in hurricane situations, implement what's known as pods or points of distribution. These pods are designed to give resources to the public after a large-scale disaster such as a hurricane. We might hand out kits of food, water and other necessities like toiletry kits or safety kits or anything else. In a line they would be the ones that are doing that, so they're really a force multiplier. They could also be doing other things, such as damage assessment. They could be in the volunteer and resource unit, where resources come in from community members wanting to volunteer to assist others that have been displaced by the disaster. They can organize the supplies that come in and then they can help to distribute those kits out to individuals within those communities. Come in and then they can help to distribute those kits out to individuals within those communities. There's really a wide range of opportunities for CERT programs and it does vary by jurisdiction.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to touch on the pods, the point of distribution. So I had my partner, joe Adams, on the podcast a couple months ago talking about his personal experience in Southwest Florida during Hurricane Ian. They were stranded, he was on Fort Myers Beach. I remember him saying that the military had come in and they were handing out water and emergency supplies. Florida during Hurricane Ian. They were stranded, he was on Fort Myers Beach and I remember him saying that the military had come in and they were handing out water and emergency supplies. So do these CERTs coordinate with the military, with local government, in terms of what they'll be doing versus what other governmental agencies or the military might be doing in the aftermath of a massive catastrophe?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So I did work in Southwest Florida for a number of years as the Emergency Management Division Manager for the city of Cape Coral and we responded to Ian and our CERT team actually helped and assisted in points of distribution, as well as in the panhandle after Hurricane Michael, in which we did damage assessment and a lot of other support up there. But the team in Southwest Florida for Ian as well for Irma, they actually assisted that process with the National Guard. So what happens is those teams are activated through the Emergency Operations Center. Those individuals that are part of that team are given phone calls, emails or a call tree to report into the EOC for a given period of time. Those that can volunteer that time and assist are then allowed to be part of that activation and they're given basically marching orders.
Speaker 2:As to this is what the situation is. These individuals, these communities need this help or we need this resource. Your job during this timeframe is to help do this and then they would go and help support and hand out that food, the water, hygiene kits, emergency supplies. So they're given a very specific mission and that also varies by how those certs are organized in that individual jurisdiction. Some have very large teams that are countywide, some may be smaller teams that are associated with a city and there may be even more micro teams that might be neighborhood-based and they may be tasked with doing damage assessment or wellness checks on the residents on their street or block or neighborhood.
Speaker 1:But it sounds like the first responders actually welcome this kind of assistance, not as if they're saying we've got it, we're the professionals you can stand down. It sounds like they're actually welcoming the assistance that the certs can provide. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right. First responders today overwhelmingly, for the most part, welcome certs to help be a force multiplier and augment their response. You know, volunteers are great and needed for any incident, any emergency and disaster, but CERT members are particularly valued because these law enforcement professionals, these fire departments, emergency management departments and most communities know that these individuals have gone through trainings, they are experienced in operations of disasters, they know the process, operations of disasters, they know the process and they have gone through. When it comes to the individual teams for response, they've gone through background checks as well. So we know that we are getting a good force multiplier that's coming into assisting with the disaster response operations.
Speaker 1:Now I have to tell you one of the things I love about doing this podcast is the information I learn from experts like you. You mentioned the blue sky days. So I had two years ago Jane Gilbert, miami Dade's chief heat officer, on the podcast and talking about the climbing temperatures that we're seeing around the country, and she had some great advice about what to do and when to know. You know when to know when you need to take a break. Then I also had Dr Jason Mansour, who's the chair of emergency medicine at Broward Health.
Speaker 1:I am not a CERT member, but the more I hear you talk, this actually came into play because one day my postman and I'm almost never home, but I was home and he pulls up and I thought I'll go out. There was very hot, I'll go out and I'll say hi to Dan. He literally fell out of the vehicle and he was. He was having heat stroke or potential heart attack and I brought him in and then I remembered what they had told me. You know ice peas under the arms and here in the groin and get it in, get them in air and get some water going. You know it's freeing. So it was amazing to me, I imagine cause you talked about the blue sky is that you've got certs who are trained now to treat heat stroke. Correct, can you tell me what the training consists of?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. It's about a 25 hour course and this is set up from a FEMA standard that's been around for a number of years. So in this class and the class also varies on how it's offered and here in Miami-Dade County we offer several of these classes throughout the entire fact we actually have more people that want the training than we have trainers to actually do the training, and that just goes to show that there is a supply and demand challenge. That's there, which is good. We want to see that. We want to see that people are eager, interested to get involved in this process and learn these critical skills. So it's divided into nine units. You can do this over the course of nine weeks. It can be a three hours a day on a Wednesday afternoon. You can actually put it onto two weekend classes where you might have a class on a Friday, saturday, sunday and then another class on a Friday and Saturday. You might do a hybrid style where you'd have the first couple of units would be virtual and you can log in that way and then do the other half of the course in person, more hands-on. So there's lots of opportunities to do this, but the nine classes that make it up is in the first unit we talk about disaster preparedness. So this really sets the stage for the individual to know about what they can do in disaster situations, the basic fundamentals of disasters, disaster response, and we really teach people about the hazards that they are going to face in their individual given communities.
Speaker 2:So Programs in the West Coast of the United States have a different risk hazard threshold than we do in southeast Florida. They have earthquakes, they have wildfires. We don't really experience that down here. Well, let's hope we don't experience those down here. Ok, I'll set that out there right away. So they teach, they'll do some focus modules on those individual hazards themselves, do some focus modules on those individual hazards themselves. Down here we have a particular focus on flooding. So we cover all the basics that are in the fundamental FEMA program that we have and then we add some with the flooding events that we can see, the hurricane situations that occur and then this increase of these heat emergencies. So we train these individuals on how to recognize these threats and hazards. So that's the first unit. It's a very great and exciting unit.
Speaker 2:Second unit we go into CERT organizations. So how are basic CERT programs designed, organized, run, managed in blue skies and, in gray sky situations, disaster medical operations. So this is pretty cool because you actually get a first look into how those EMS personnel EMTs and paramedics and fire rescue personnel encounter various emergencies from medical emergencies, from heart attacks, strokes. There could be broken bones, lacerations. So we give you those high level overviews of identifying and recognizing those injuries and what you can do to mitigate exposure to that, provide first aid and assistance, and how to recognize what can be done to help aid them and then call 911 as well.
Speaker 2:We get into disaster psychology as well when we move on to the fifth unit. So in disaster psychology, disasters really change up how we have our normal daily life. So it disrupts those routines and that is a challenge for a lot of people. A lot of people are used to waking up in the morning, having a cup of coffee or going getting it at the coffee shop and they have routines that they get into and they're comfortable in that. But when you disrupt that there's a lot of psychological impact. So we talk about psychological first aid, how to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress that are related to emergencies and disasters and what you can do to aid others and also be mindful of your own personal health and wellness. That's a very important unit now that we're. You know we have so many things going on today in our individual lives and out there in the community, in the world, so this is a good way to really help kind of bring a little bit of calm to these emergency situations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I wanted to ask you, before you move on to the next units, what about the psychological impact on the CERT volunteers themselves? Because there have to be a number of judgment calls these people need to make when they're triaging, when they're deciding. You know when to call 911, what to do until the first responders can show up. You know how do you deal with the different judgment calls that volunteers may make, and I would imagine some get it very right, but some maybe don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is where it comes down to each individual's comfort level as well. So everybody is covered by the Good Samaritan Act. So the Good Samaritan Act allows you to provide assistance. Render that aid to what your level of training and comfort is. So there are people we have 88-year-old grandmothers that take this class and program and absolutely love it and they can provide assistance to whatever their physical and mental capacity is to do. So Then we also train them Like, if you're not able to pick someone up or crib an injury with the proper material that you have around you, we give them those skills and those points as to what they can do Call for support, call 911, document the situation, get assistance etc. So there's, you know, a person doesn't have to automatically assume that I'm cert trained so I should go out there and be this initial first responder out there. That's really not the intent. The intent is to kind of build that foundation of knowledge and that comfort level with at least responding in the initial phase to help support somebody. So I'll give an example here.
Speaker 2:So I had a CERT member in a program that I oversaw, that recently had taken the class and he was a former law enforcement officer of 25 years.
Speaker 2:He had retired, he hadn't worked for nearly 10 years but he was still active in the community and wanted to volunteer.
Speaker 2:So he took the CERT program as an opportunity to re-engage with the public and brush off his skills. It wasn't more than a week after they had graduated the program that they were down at a nice restaurant on the beach on a Sunday morning enjoying the beautiful view when somebody had had a heart attack right in front of them. He had recently gone through the program and he took part of the optional course, which is the CPR course, the AED training, and he knew automatically what to do based off of that recent training he had. First thing he did was point to someone, say call 911. You document what I'm doing, sir, are you OK? You know, go through that process of asking if that person needs assistance and then performing first aid and CPR on that individual, and then that individual ended up having first responders come and take them to the hospital and they end up surviving that incident. So that individual responded in the capacity that they were trained in and were comfortable able to perform.
Speaker 1:And had a comfort level with it. But if I'm hearing you, it sounds like you know a wide range of people could be eligible to serve on certs. I imagine you don't take children, so 18 or older is one threshold.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. There are successful teen cert programs across the country and if I could wave my wand and make this a requirement in schools today, I would have teen cert program be an elective in high schools because students can really learn these lifelong skills to help them to help themselves, their neighbors, their families and their communities in the future. We recently partnered with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue on their junior lifeguard program. It's a lifeguard program, it's like a summer camp program where they take students of teenage years so between the ages of 12 and 18, and they put them through a junior lifeguard training for a summer and they get lifeguard training and they get, you know, they talk about rip currents and it's a, I think, a three or four week activity to go through. We recently added the teen CERT program to that, so that's what they did in the afternoon. So we just had a group of these young men and women graduate from their first teen CERT program through the Junior Lifeguard program.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fantastic. Do you find a lot of enthusiasm, dr Spiro, from teens, from young people, to get engaged?
Speaker 2:We do, they're actually more receptive than some of the adults are. So I'll put it this way I've been an emergency manager for over 20 years and I find that the most engaged population I meet with are students and those that are younger, Because for us to really as emergency managers, for us to get the message out about preparedness and community safety I can talk all day long to everybody in the street, but they got a lot going on in their lives. When it comes to even our elementary, middle school and high school students, they're more receptive to that information when they hear it from a trusted expert. They bring that information home to their family and they talk about that. They share that information. Then the parents and the aunts and uncles and grandparents get interested in as well, and that's how we turn a new generation on to preparedness and community resilience.
Speaker 1:I hope whoever needs to hear your message about adding that to the school curriculum hears it and maybe acts on it. So we left off with psychological unit. What comes after that?
Speaker 2:After that is fire safety and utility controls. So this is where you get to learn how to properly use a fire extinguisher.
Speaker 1:So I need that training. I'm going to say I need that training.
Speaker 2:Is it because of your cooking in the kitchen on Friday nights? Is that why, Donna?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I cook. I'm Italian, so I'm cooking all the time, and I really should know this. Ok, I'm listening.
Speaker 2:So we so not a lot of people have pulled the pin on a fire extinguisher and know how to properly use it. So we teach you those skills. We also teach you a little bit about fire science knowing and understanding how fires work and how they expand and how they contract and the different types of building material and how the fuels go into fires and how they expand. So that's like a little bit of a science class. So this is where you know Bill Nye, the science guy, would come in and talk about this, and so this is a kind of a cool little aspect and we typically have a lot of our fire rescue department personnel teach this because they're the ones that live and breathe this every day.
Speaker 2:But that's the module we get into and it's pretty exciting. A lot of programs gets to use live fire. So there is like a fire pan. It's a controlled fire module, a simulator that they can actually put out a fire, put out a fire. There's more virtual ones where we have electronic versions and then there's basic ones in which we basically will just walk them through the whole muscle memory of using a fire extinguisher. But the basic building skills of fires is a big part.
Speaker 1:So important, so important. I don't want to embarrass myself, but I have an electric grill just for this reason.
Speaker 2:That's all right. That's all right. It could be worse. It could be worse, donna, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:After that we just got a couple more units left and we do light search and rescue operations. So we teach people about some light search and rescue that they can perform at their home in their community if something happens. So if you've been the unfortunate survivor of a disaster like a hurricane or a tornado or a severe weather event and your roof gets blown off, your neighbor's house is damaged due to flying tree or debris, this is an opportunity for you to safely go in and assess tools and lifters and do all this stuff. But we're teaching about the fundamentals of how to properly leverage and move various items to navigate for life safety purposes. So that's a very important module that we do.
Speaker 2:And then our last things that we do is we kind of wrap the course up with our terrorism module. So we look at the impacts of weapons of mass destruction module. So we look at the impacts of weapons of mass destruction, we look at signs of recognizing possible nefarious actors and terrorism. So this builds that capacity for individuals to recognize suspicious behavior that could occur in their communities and then what to do in those emergency situations. Say, if there's an active shooter, there's a hazardous material incident, there's something that goes on and they have to take action. So, once again, if you can inform people, teach them about these concepts and the options and opportunities they have to keep themselves and others safe, they're going to be able to the mass shootings, because we've actually taught classes to community associations on active shooters, Because that hasn't happened in a condo or an HOA yet.
Speaker 1:But you never know and there are certain principles I understand that if you follow you know, you increase people's chances of success.
Speaker 2:So absolutely.
Speaker 1:This sounds very comprehensive. Nine units, is that over sequential? Sequentially nine weeks.
Speaker 2:Dr Sphera. So you can do it over nine weeks. So I've been part of programs in which we've done it over nine week periods. I've been part of programs in which we do it over the course of two weekends. I've done it where we've broken it up into three weekends. It's all. It all depends on the jurisdiction and the interests associated with it.
Speaker 2:But after you're done with those fundamental modules, we do a course review. There's a final exam. Don't worry, there's no blue dots that you have to put through a Scantron and you have to pass fail. There's a good opportunity for you just to know what your level of your skills are at that point and then at the end of that level of your skills are at that point. And then at the end of that there's a disaster simulation in which you actually get to apply these concepts that you've learned over the course of the weeks of the program. So you do some cert formation, building your team and some leadership within a cohesive unit in a neighborhood. You do some light medical triage. You do a little bit about fire safety operations and light search and rescue. So you have a chance to actually apply those skills. So this is where you get to see it, you get to read it and then you get to do it.
Speaker 1:You've got me sold. I'm serious, I want to take this training. Is there a cost associated with the training?
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. It is all free. It is all part of your ability as a community member to go and take part of these programs.
Speaker 1:Amazing, and is any part of it online or is it all in person?
Speaker 2:Dr Spiro. So FEMA recently launched a new online version of this in which you can take a couple hour class. It's a CERT fundamental class, so that is not a substitute for the actual nine week or the nine module in-person class, but this is kind of like more of the introduction to that program. It's available free online through the FEMA Emergency Management Institute, or FEMA EMI as we call it, and it has a course number associated with it. It's got materials and links associated with it. So that's just one of the opportunities. So if you're not able to go in person at your local jurisdiction to take part of this, at least you can take the online class to have a little bit of a background on these concepts with CERT.
Speaker 1:Just a little dipping of the toes into the CERT pool. So the T in the acronym CERT stands for team. So let's say I have a homeowner's association and they say this sounds great. Is there a minimum number of people they need to create a CERT?
Speaker 2:So that's another good question because it's different for everybody.
Speaker 2:But this is what we say is we don't need for you to be part of the CERT team to be a member.
Speaker 2:Getting the CERT training itself is the benefit that keeps on giving. When we have the CERT team component, which is organized, you can have a formally organized program like we do in Miami-Dade County or the city of Miami or Miami Beach. They have very well organized and run organizations but you can actually be CERT trained in your area and bring your friends, neighbors with you to take that training as well, and then you can have your own neighborhood CERT and you can do these own activities well, and then you can have your own neighborhood cert and you can do these own activities yourself. You can host regular, you know coffee shop meetings with your cert members that have graduated and gone through the skills. You can share disaster related information with one another. So you don't have to be part of, like the formal process or that formal team with that county or that city entity. You can have your own little neighborhood association in which you meet up on a basis that you determine and you collaborate on these safety and resiliency concepts.
Speaker 1:Assuming you're part of a larger CERT team, though, is there a hierarchy, dr Spiro? Are there different key roles among the team members?
Speaker 2:There are. So we apply what's known as the ICS concept. So that is the incident command system. So this is the FEMA standard that we utilize for all of our first responders, all levels of government, in the private sector. So you have your what's known as command. Those are those individuals that are responsible for setting the priorities and objectives for the organization, and then you have your general staff. So general staff would be like a planning section chief, an operations section chief, logistics, admin, finance, and then there's what's known as various branches and directors.
Speaker 2:But I can get into ICS, fema talk and people might I might be losing people at that point.
Speaker 2:It's simpler for us and it depends by jurisdiction, but for us we've actually gone through the process of revamping our CERT program, but we would have CERT leaders that would be organized into these CERT teams and then they would also have various individuals with assigned roles that they might be a pod unit leader, they might be a food unit leader, they might be a logistics unit leader. A part of that team there may be individuals that do damage assessment operations or administration or scribing, and there's typically a couple of layers to that hierarchy. You find that those that have more background or experience or more interest might be in more of the leadership roles, and those leadership roles do change to typically rotate by people getting that experience in them. Leadership roles do change to typically rotate by people getting that experience in them. They may be those that are the leaders within those individual neighborhoods or those associations or in that county or city organization and they may have members that are just there to be part of it and aid where they're asked to go.
Speaker 1:After the initial training, is there ongoing training that needs to be renewed?
Speaker 2:It doesn't need to be renewed. But what we say is we encourage our CERT members to get involved in advanced and refresher training. So what does that mean? So we offer a number of advanced and refresher trainings here in Miami-Dade County. It's everything from carbon monoxide awareness we recently launched a severe weather awareness campaign that we've been doing. We've been giving community presentations about the three big threats that we see here in Southeast Florida and we call it our trifecta of hazards. It is flooding, heat and hurricanes. So we go out as emergency managers and teach the community members about these. But we also have CERT members that come and sit in on these trainings, as well as certain members themselves delivering these trainings. Some other advanced and refresher trainings that we give is recognizing stroke, stop the bleed campaign, cpr, aed, special needs awareness, mass care and points of distribution. So those are just some of those opportunities that individuals can take part of.
Speaker 1:So how does the CERT team get?
Speaker 2:deployed. So how we do it in Miami-Dade County is this last year, with Hurricane Adalia, the Florida Division of Emergency Management gave our program a call. They called me up and said hey, jesse, we're looking for a good CERT team to go and be deployed up to the Western part of Florida that's been impacted. Are you able to muster up X number of volunteers for X period of time? I said let me give you a call. So I rounded up the various members that we have that had interest and availability and then what happened is they were given a mission number, which is basically marching orders from the state to deploy, with our Department of Emergency Management personnel to an area to provide assistance. So we deployed I believe seven members of our CERT program along with got flooded, help, tarp roofs, deliver food and water supplies to the communities, and they had some specific marching orders that were necessary.
Speaker 2:But it was all very organized and we had a team leader, a member of our staff. We have a great CERT manager for our program, jessica Sandoval, that's been doing this for a number of years. That led that effort out there. So they had a marching orders. I believe they're out there for about 10 days. Their efforts were recognized high and wide, not only by Dixie County the neighborhoods that they served, but also Florida Division of Emergency Management, volunteer Florida, as well as our county mayor and county commission for their efforts.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. I'm going to drill down, though. Did you tell these folks here's where you need to be and they transport themselves, or were they transported there?
Speaker 2:We transported them there, so we gave them a time in which we would need them to report to our emergency operations center. They showed up with their supplies, so they had CERT backpacks and supplies necessary for a period of about two weeks in order to respond out there. We provided them extra resources and aids, such as some food, some water, some extra batteries, radios, any other equipment that we thought that they might need, and then we transported them out there as part of the Miami-Dade County deployment out to Dixie County.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the Good Samaritan Law a little while ago. You know, in terms of protecting these volunteers if they're assisting and then something goes wrong or they're not able to help somebody. What about if the volunteers, if the CERT members, are injured or harmed in some way? Are they entitled to workers' compensation or anything else in terms of resources from local government if that happens?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. If you are part of a mission-deployed asset, so you've been tasked by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, through the local jurisdiction, to respond with that CERT team, you would get deployed and you would be covered under that state mission. So you'd be covered medically if something does happen with you. And there has been incidents in which some volunteers have been injured. So I was part of another program before in which one of our CERT members, on one of the first days running shelter operations up in the panhandle after Hurricane Matthew, was injured and he got first aid there at the scene. After a few days he came back to the jurisdiction and he was a vet that wanted to actually use the VA instead of using that jurisdiction's insurance and going through that process. But if he didn't have the VA then he would have been covered underneath that jurisdiction. Now it does vary by jurisdiction as well, so but if you are part of a deployed resource mission from the state to the local jurisdiction and you're part of that team, you're covered.
Speaker 1:You know you mentioned in Miami-Dade specifically flooding, heat and hurricanes, but there was no way to prepare for Champlain Towers South and the collapse and we've talked about that a lot on the podcast, because this is, take it to the Board. We're talking about community associations. We've talked about how the laws have changed to require older buildings to be inspected more frequently to make sure these communities are reserving funds. Were any of your CERT teams deployed to Champlain Towers after the collapse?
Speaker 2:Yeah, during that time we utilized some of our CERT members to provide rehab to the responders as well as to the community members as well. So those that were displaced, those that are working there at the scene, so they provided that assistance to them. So this is an opportunity for individuals that want to volunteer and assist but they don't know how. When you're part of a CERT team and a CERT program, you really have that direct link to giving that very specific, direct assistance when needed and when necessary, and there's never enough volunteers that are out there to assist. So we're always welcoming new members to take part of this program, because we don't know when the next disaster is going to come or how big it's going to be, and the assistance that the individual can provide on any of these from a building collapse to a hurricane is really really well appreciated and supported by individuals in communities.
Speaker 1:Do CERT members get a kit? Do they get the bleeding control kit? Are there certain resources that you say here you go, take this home with you, and when we deploy you bring it with? Or I'm just wondering you know what kind of resources are given to these certs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of times jurisdictions once members graduate and they're part of the team and they're members of that team and that also varies by that jurisdiction as well, like what constitutes a member on that team. Typically there might be a couple of refresher trainings throughout the year or a couple of meetings to attend. That keeps them like an active member, and then what happens is that's how they get access to, like these feet, these cert kits, which are backpacks, which has hard helmets in it, gloves, bandages, it has a pry bar, flashlight, battery. It's basically your basic rescue kit. Is right there. Those are typically distributed and that varies by jurisdiction.
Speaker 2:But also the more somebody is involved in the program, the more access they get to these tools to help them if they were going to be deployed to an incident or they were impacted by an incident as well. So the opportunity is there to get these resources to help support them. But also we help to teach individuals how to get those resources, source those locally, from a home. A lot of people have a lot of those supplies sitting around their house that they didn't know can be used for an emergency situation. So it's what we call the go kit.
Speaker 2:You can walk around and find the drunk drawer that's got extra batteries in the extra flashlight. Here's some bandages, some tape, some ice packs, here's some canned goods, here's some water bottles. You put that into a box. That's your kit, right there, that's your go kit if something happens. And then what happens is the more involved you are in the program or the more you want to be prepared. There's things that you can go out and source yourself to build up that kit further, and we actually help, give you tips and tricks on how to pull that together.
Speaker 1:I have a law partner who's a very dear friend of mine and he's always talking about having a go kit. He's like Donna, do you have a go kit yet? So now that I've heard it twice, I think I better look into it. It's time. This is probably time. Can anybody get kicked out of a cert? Like what if you got deployed and you said I'm not going? Is there any way that a cert ever gets loses their credentials? Or a particular cert member may be told you know what no more, you're not a good fit for the team. Does anybody ever get kicked out?
Speaker 2:No, because it's a volunteer program. So it's your volunteer and your time and I don't have the most recent number associated with a volunteer hour, but I think that the value of a volunteer hour is approximately $28 an hour. So if we get a team of 10 people volunteering five hours a day, 10 days a week, 10 days a week, well, that's a long week, seven days a week for a disaster. You know what we can actually do. We can take that volunteer time, we can calculate the dollar value associated with it and then that goes to the match that would be required for us for a federal disaster declaration. That's a whole nother story, but they can actually help save these. These volunteer hours can help save that local community money in the recovery process as well.
Speaker 2:But it's all voluntary. We're not gonna kick you out Now. There may be times in which we have volunteers that might not be the best in some emergency situations and we have leaders that are part of these teams that can recognize that hey, maybe this disaster might not be right for this person or this emergency or this situation. You know there might be a conflict that comes up, there might be a stressful situation, a psychological stressor that emerges in them. You know we are trained as emergency managers to recognize that, help diffuse that and provide other avenues and opportunities for them to be in which is a little bit more safe and controlled, in which they can still provide that support and volunteer.
Speaker 1:So, dr Spiro, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got involved with emergency management? First of all, were you a Boy Scout? I was, I knew it.
Speaker 2:And my mom was a troop leader too.
Speaker 1:Okay, does not surprise me, so tell me like were you a serious kid oh no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:My teachers would say no, and my catechism teachers, the nuns.
Speaker 1:They would say they tried to kick me out okay, actually that's a whole different podcast, because I went to catholic school too and, uh, not for not for very long.
Speaker 2:So I'll tell you about my background. So I'm from Northeast Wisconsin and both my grandparents, my father's grandfathers they were both veterans. One was from World War II, he was part of the Army Air Corps, which was a forerunner to today's Air Force. And my other grandfather, my maternal grandfather, was in Vietnam and he was in the Marine Corps. So we already had a sense of patriotism and community safety and resilience. So that was already baked in. My mom worked for the sheriff's office for 15 years as well. Community service and engagement was just always in my blood.
Speaker 2:I went to college for criminal justice and political science and I was fortunate enough to get an internship with the United States Marshal Service and I was all excited to be Tommy Lee Jones from the US Marshals and the Fugitives. So if you're old enough to know those movies, that's who I wanted to be During that time. That was right around and right after 9-11. Well, in federal law enforcement they were doing a lot of this emergency management stuff and the chief marshal at the time in a meeting said to me Jesse, if anybody can figure this emergency management stuff out, they're going to do really good in the marshals. And that was a light bulb that came on for me. So what I did is I explored where can I go to get a master's in emergency management to build my capacity and skills.
Speaker 2:At that time, over 20 years ago, I was only able to find three programs in the country. There was a University of North Texas, there was North Dakota State University or there was Lynn University in Boca Raton, florida. I chose Boca Raton it wasn't because of the beaches, that was just I was going to say is it the weather?
Speaker 2:No, it was a positive attribute to that, but what it really was is the diversity that exists and the hazards that southeast Florida and Florida is exposed to. I figured, if I wanted to be the best public safety practitioner I could be, I need to be with diverse populations in diverse hazard situations so that I can serve those populations better. And then what ended up happening is the 04-05 hurricane season came along. And then what ended up happening is the 04-05 hurricane season came along. So those that remember Hurricane Charlie, Jean Francis, Wilma, all of those I just cut my teeth in it and just ended up staying in emergency management ever since.
Speaker 2:And then I've been able to navigate various organizations and elevate myself to a leadership position in one of the largest emergency management departments in the entire country. But also along that way I said you know, I'm getting this great experience. I'm helping the community, there's still more that I can learn and there's still more that I can do. So then I went on and got a PhD in emergency management. Very few programs are available as a doctoral program in emergency management and I'm one of that few individuals in that first phase that came into this profession that not only has this experience in it, but also has the degree of emergency management, professional and doctorate.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you've seen the industry, the emergency management industry evolve over the time you've been involved in it. Where do you see it heading in the next couple of years?
Speaker 2:So I'm part of a great organization. This organization here in Miami-Dade County recently became its own department. We used to be a division of the fire department for over 20 years. Our mayor, mayor Daniela Levine Cava, elevated emergency management from a division to a department, a standalone department. She gave us a larger budget, she gave us 19 new positions, because she knew that there are emerging threats and trends that are impacting our community in Southeast Florida and that emergency management needed a stronger platform to address those.
Speaker 2:So emergency management has changed quite a bit in the 20 years that I've been part of it and it's changing a lot more. So as a new profession, it was typically occupied by retired firefighters, police officers and military people. Today it is a very diverse, multidisciplined profession with people with backgrounds in ArcGIS, education, marketing, chemistry, you name it. They are all part of this and they bring a lot of skills. So where I see emergency management going in the future is emergency management, and this is our mission in Miami-Dade County is we are there for all your hazards and emergencies. We are there for the flooding events, the hurricanes, the fires, the floods, the cyber incidents which we had today as well a global cyber incident. We are part of that tip of the spear that is there to help plan for, respond, to recover, mitigate and become more resilient for these hazards in the future to your mayor, levine Cava.
Speaker 1:she seems to be a real visionary. By the way, I don't live in Miami-Dade, I live in Broward, but I will tell you, between what she's done with the chief heat officer's role and what you just explained, she's done in terms of making emergency management a standalone department. I think it's an example of how visionary she and her administration has been.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. She is very forward-leaning on this and this is what is very important and critical is you have to be forward leaning, knowing about these hazards and disasters, and she recognized that. That's why she has a chief heat officer the world's first. She has a chief bay officer working on water quality issues with Biscayne Bay. She has a chief resiliency officer and a standalone department of emergency management. So this is what I tell my students when I teach them Emergency management is a lot like an insurance policy you don't want it until you need it, and if you don't have it, it's too late.
Speaker 1:So for those of us who are not members of a CERT and we don't think we're going to become members of a CERT, how can we still?
Speaker 2:support emergency management. So this is critical that everybody have a plan, have a kit, be prepared, be informed and be involved. So those are five little steps that you can take along the way. So part of that process is having a plan, having that kit, knowing what to put in that kit If you're going to evacuate where are you going to evacuate?
Speaker 2:To Knowing the threats and hazards that exist. We have three. We actually have three hazard seasons right now that are all overlapping one another. It starts off with our flooding season and our heat season and then rolls right into the hurricane season, all within about a six week period. So community members just need to be aware of the hazards that they're more likely to face given that period of time, given where you are.
Speaker 2:So if you are up in the Carolinas, you have different hazards than we do down here in Southeast Florida, just like in the Midwest, just like out West as well. So just know those tools, those tips, those hazards that you face. That helps to get you more prepared for what can potentially happen. So if you know that you are in a wildfire risk area or you're in a area prone to riverine flooding or in the evacuation zone due to hurricanes. Have a plan on what you're going to do if that does happen. Most of the time when these disasters occur, a behavioral analysis study is done and the majority of people say that I didn't think it was going to happen to me, I didn't think it was going to be this bad, I didn't think about what I should have done.
Speaker 1:That's great advice. Listen, you're talking to somebody who, when I get on an airplane, I count the number of rows to get out makes my kids crazy. So even after this episode, I can see I'm going to be sharing it with them and they're going to be like mom, please enough, but I'm the one who's counting to say you know, we need to know how to get out of here. We need to know, you know. So you're preaching to the choir a little bit with me. Do you have any particularly memorable success stories that you could share with our listeners in terms of certs?
Speaker 2:I do, and it's a recent example from Miami-Dade County here. So our team was asked by the state to deploy to Dixie County and we deployed up there and we provided assistance to residents that were really in need of it. They had lost their roofs, they have lost their homes. In some circumstances they lost their belongings.
Speaker 2:Across an individual that her husband had recently passed and he was a veteran, and she had lost a lot of the contents in her house due to, you know, the roof being damaged and the windows being blown out, a lot of water intrusion, so a lot of her personal belongings had been damaged.
Speaker 2:That didn't bother her as much, as the flag that was in the front of the house that was flying was blown away and found yards away all tattered up. So our team took it upon themselves to go down to a store that was open somewhere across county to buy a new American flag, to put the flagpole back up, and then they did a flag raising ceremony for that disaster survivor. She was so eternally thankful for that just kind gesture that we went out of our way with to help her with, and that is a memory that she will keep with her forever because one we didn't need to do that. Secondly, there was other things that were probably more pressing than that in her life, but she was really wrapped around that thing and our team recognized that and we I really want to throw my hat off to you know, jessica, and the rest of the Miami-Dade County volunteers that went and assisted in particular with that individual circumstance- Well, what you just described is a level of empathy that made a real impact on that person.
Speaker 1:I do want to thank you and your department and your staff for what you do. I think it's amazing. I hope people listening will want to, you know, think about either joining a local CERT or creating one in their community Towards that end. Where can our listeners, dr Spiro, find out more information about CERTs?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So individually within your given jurisdiction, it's going to be different everywhere. So, individually within your given jurisdiction, it's going to be different everywhere. So, but for us in Miami-Dade County, you can get information about CERT by going to miamidadegov, slash orgorg, slash DEM, or you can email us at CERT C-E-R-T at miamidadegov, or you can search online through your given search engine tool CERT, fema.
Speaker 2:So that is for Community Emergency Response Team and FEMA, and that opens you up to a network of a lot of great resources that are across the entire country and you get to learn more about those valuable programs and those flagship programs that exist. And just to let you know, donna, there are over 2,800 local CERT programs across the country. If you don't have a CERT program in your community and you want one, call up your local emergency management department, call up your local fire department and say, hey, I want to get involved, I want to give back. Can we get this program? In fact, that has recently happened in my hometown of Gibraltar, wisconsin. They had a severe weather incident occurred in which there was power loss for several days. People were snowed in. Now they've decided to create and fund a CERT program for Door County, wisconsin, based off of that incident so they learned from it. There was cries out there for people that they wanted to have that program and now it's going to get implemented up there in Northeast Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:Well, dr Spiro, you've inspired me. I'm going to take the training. I'm going to do it probably in Broward, though Probably not going to drive to Miami We'll see but I'm going to take this training, so maybe you'll come back on after I take the training?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I'll even come on up there and say hi to you as well. Thank you so much for your time. It's been my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us today. Don't forget to follow and rate us on your favorite podcast platform, or visit takeittotheboardcom for more ways to connect.