MTV City-Wide CERT Exercise 11/14/15

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

We had a very successful Mountain View City-Wide CERT Exercise under the direction of Lynn Brown, Office of Emergency Services Coordinator and Jerry Haag, Amateur Radio Emergency Coordinator for Mountain View. It was held on Saturday, November 14, 2015, using a Winter Storm Scenario. The text of the scenario is copied below.

We had at least 12 neighborhood CERTs represented, counting individuals who participated with other than their own CERTs. The six actively participating CERTs included: Ada Park; Cooper Neighborhood; Cuesta Park; Monta Loma; St. Francis Acres; and South Mountain View. Also represented by at least one individual were Appletree Area, Greater San Antonio, Old Mountain View, Slater, Varsity Park, and Wagon Wheel.

In addition, we had three Windshield Survey teams which reviewed reporting stations for Stevens Creek, Permanente Creek, and the potential Red Cross Shelter buildings. We had a total of eight individuals on the three teams, all CERT trained, and six were hams!

Jerry had rounded up 27 hams who participated, including 10 spread among Fire Stations 1- 4, 6 on the survey teams, 6 at K6MTV / MTV EOC, and the remainder embedded in Neighborhood CERTs. All this at the same time the County was holding a Ham exercise in which we participated.

City-Wide CERT Exercise 11/14/15
Scenario: Winter Storm

For this CERT exercise we will be both preparing for and simulating the response to a severe winter storm.

A severe winter storm will likely be characterized by NOAA issuing some or all of the following warnings: Winter Storm Warning; High Wind Warning; Urban & Small Streams Flood Warning; Gale Warning; or Coastal Flood Warming. These may be accompanied by Heavy Snow Warnings or Chain Requirement or Closures for higher elevations. (These may be preceded by "Watches.")

CERTs
Neighborhood CERTs will treat this as a planned mobilization with leaders announcing a time and assignments in advance. The start time will be 1300 on Saturday, November 14, 2015; the end time will be announced between 1500 - 1530; followed by a debrief at 1000 Villa at 1600.

It is suggested Neighborhood CERTs assemble teams to survey their entire neighborhood and, at a minimum, report and record the location of street storm drains and where high-voltage power lines cross streets (the ones at the tops of poles, usually uninsulated). This becomes a future resource for checking these vulnerable locations in a real storm. Since many drains are located at street intersections and there may be more than one, a report might be in the form of, "Drain at Barbara and Montalto - southwest corner." In the Location field write: "Barbara/Montalto - SW."

The companion "Neighborhood Survey Guide - Winter Storm" identifies typical storm damage and how it should be recorded on the Damage Assessment Form. The "Exercise Sighting" column can be used to simulate specific incidents for your teams to report, if your CERT chooses to use it.

For this exercise we will simulate a possible real situation where Ham Radio operators are not available to the CERTs. Each CERT will use (as outlined in the Communications Plan) its nearest Fire Station (where there will be Hams) to send at least two ICS 213 Summary forms to the MTV EOC. CERTs are to develop their own plans for getting the ICS 213 to the Fire Station, maintaining radio communication with their CP during the process for Health & Welfare purposes.

The Damage Assessment and ICS Forms, and the Communication Plan can be downloaded at the bottom of the MTV Neighborhood CERT page: http://mountainview.gov/depts/fire/preparedness/certgroups.asp

Hams
Jerry Haag, the MTV Ham Emergency Coordinator, will assign Hams to Fire Stations 1 - 4 using a planned mobilization so they will be in place by 1330 and ready to receive the first of your two damage summaries on the ICS 213 Summary Form. They will transmit it to the MTV EOC using Packet Radio and will log all reports received on their ICS 214 or 309 forms which will be collected to review how effective our back-up Communication Plan for the CERTs has worked. Your last ICS 213 Summary should be delivered to your Fire Station by 1500.



Enjoy the pictures and stand by for a Winter Storm activiation if we get a really wet winter.
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 past CERT events at the Neighborhood and City levels: http://rvm1.org/cert/.
Thanks, Rick Van Mell.

Pictures by APK/SLA - Scott Ralph (of Slater with Ada Pk.); CPR - Virginia Panlasigui; SFA - Jim Evans; SMV - Pat Nyes; and Micky Alm & Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Jerry opens K6MTV	Rick's portable ...	packet station Radio, TNC & computer	Test Results in EOC	Mike as supervisor ...
opening Resource Net	Windshield surveys set up	Windshield teams ... Sarah, Tom & Amy	Programming Radios ... Lee, Andy & Rich	Greg & Dylan
Fire Station 1 David P & David H	Antenna drop ...	Ready to send.	St. Francis Acres gathers ...	getting organized ...
lots of paper!	New generator! ...	how does it work? ...	try the instructions!	all set up ...
hard at work ...	all smiles ...	SFA field team.	CPK Field team, to ...	Cuesta Command Post ...
Eric & Hugo record ...	Page & Margaret map ...	lots to record!	Fire Station 2 ... Chris, Fish & Rudy	S. Mountain View's Jim and Pat, arrive ...
Kathleen and Jim ...	Laurie and Sally ...	deliver ICS 213 ...	Fish sends ...	Rick clicks pics.
Cooper Park sets up ...	we're going there ...	we're going here ...	OK, get going!	Now wrapping up ...
call them all back ...	most everyone's here ...	getting to work to ...	tally the DA form ...	fill out ICS 213 ...
Ready to ride ...	getting aboard ...	to deliver the 213!	Fire Station 4 Matt, Susan & Phil	Is my delivery OK?
Then off I will go ...	back to Ada Park's ...	Command Post by the pool!	Back at 1000 Villa ...	waiting for Lynn ...
it was thanks all around ...	for a job well done ...	by a really good team ...	with lots of results!