MTV CERT City-Wide Exercise 10/21/17

Our Fall 2017 city-Wide CERT Exercise was held on Saturday, October 21st in perfect weather. Because it had been so successful in 2016, this year's exercise was planned for Fire Station Engines to again visit Neighborhood CERT Command Posts. Ten neighborhood CERTs signed up to participate. That was all before the catastrophic Northern California wildfires broke out, killing 42 people and destroying over 7,000 homes and buildings. Twelve of Mountain View's fire crew, and some engines, were among the thousands of fire, police, and military deployed to fight the blaze. Our department was stretched to the limit, and we thought of dropping the requests for visits. Fire Management discussed the situation, and decided to stay the course. We were honored and humbled as Engines made their way to eight of the ten Neighborhood CERTs. A hearty thanks and much appreciation for the wonderful crews of the Mountain View Fire Department.

Thanks also to our Ham Radio Emergency Coordinator (EC) Phil Henderson and all of the Hams for providing 24 Hams to staff 10 Neighborhood CERT Command Posts and Net control at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 1000 Villa. They maintained a communications net with all of the CERTs, and transmitted ICS 213 Damage Assessment Summaries to the EOC using both voice and packet radio. Packet messages were automatically displayed on the large screen in the EOC showing the count of fires, hazards, building damage, people injuries and road problems in each Neighborhood CERT.

A big thanks also to about 70 CERT trained and volunteer individuals participating in the ten neighborhoods. We all learned, and hopefully get better, with each exercise. So enjoy the pictures of a very good Mountain view CERT day!

Original Engine Visit Schedule

Engine	CERT Neighborhood	Location	Time	Contact
51	St. Francis Acres	1019 Mountain View Ave.	1315	Leslie Dean
51	Gemello Park	Gemello Park, Marich and Solano court	1350	Sophia Volkel
51	Old Mountain View	Mercy street – at Frances behind Landels School	1430	Sherril Brennan
52	Cuesta	Barbara Ave at Leona Lane. Follow the asphalt path toward Bubb School to a green trailer on the right.	1315	Hugo Penafiel
52	Cooper Neighborhood	Cooper Park, old Snack Shack & Tennis court	1350	Kathy Suri
52	South Mountain View	Christian Science Church 221 Bryant Ave., back parking lot	1430	Pat Noyes
Rescue	Sylvan Park/New Frontier	325 Sylvan – near Clubhouse	1315	Tom Wilkins
53	Monta Loma	460 Thompson, North parking lot of Monta Loma Elementary School	1330	Tim Slattery
54	Ada Park	217 Ada Avenue, by the swimming pool	1315	Robin Banks
54	Wagon Wheel	cul-de-sac at the end at 248 Walker Drive (accessed from N. Whisman)	1350	Susan Goodis

If you'd like an original of one of the pictures (these are 800 x 600, while originals are more like 1.5 MB), email me with the caption and picture number.

Here's your link to other CERT activities: http://rvm1.org/cert/.

Thanks, Rick Van Mell.

Ham T-Card Assignments	Gemello Park ...	Command Post ...	Leader & Ham ...	Planning section ...
hard at work.	St. Francis Acres ...	Command Post ...	Ham operator ...	and antenna ...
gets Engine 51 ...	crew discussion ...	with the team ...	includes map ...	Incident Commander's table
Search team debrief.	Cuesta Park CP ...	meets Laura ...	big map ...	Rudy at Ham station ...
spooky!	Engine 51 arrives ...	at ...	Cooper Neighborhood ...	Net Control ...
Map and ...	leaders ...	with fire crew ...	Laura too ...	team members ...
and big turn out!	South Mountain View shed ...	Commnd Post tent ...	and Ham radio ...	get arriving ...
Engine 52 ...	meet with IC ...	and team.	and review gear.	Slyvan/New Frontier CP ...
Ham radio ...	map and ...	great team ...	with Laura.	Great signs for ...
Monta Loma CP ...	sign in ...	you bet ...	Ham radio ...	well covered ...
Laura checks in for ...	table top exercise ...	good map ...	Damage Assessment ...	team participation.
Old Mountain View ...	Assessment team calls ...	Net Control ...	(great antenna)	with Damage Assessment ...
posted on map ...	with Incident numbers ...	great stickers ...	IC & Laura.	Back at 1000 Villa ...
debrief check-in ...	Laura greets ...	Hams & CERTs ...	new Hams ...	new CERT ...
experienced Hams ...	CERT members ...	fill the tables ...	checking notes ...	full house ...
for the debrief.	EOC Damage Assessment	Gemello's issues ...	Monta Loma's top 2 ...	Old Mountain View's top 2 ...
Sylvan's cumulative issues.