More than 150 volunteers participated in a tornado drill exercise Thursday morning at the Wildwood Community Center to establish a blueprint of how the Community Emergency Response Team will respond to a real disaster.
The drill was the largest ever conducted by the organization, according to CERT Public Information Officer Richard Cunningham.
Cunningham had first-hand experience in the Groundhog Day Tornado that violently struck The Villages in 2007. Living in the Village of Sabal Chase, Cunningham saw the tornado cut a path of destruction, leaving heavily damaged homes in its wake.
He praised the Villages’ response to the disaster, and remembers seeing a sea of blue tarps covering the roofs of homes within 24 hours. He also proudly remembers all the first responders who came out to help in the shocking aftermath of the tornado.
Village of Pennecamp resident Terry Fisher was also on duty on that day in 2007 and was the CERT member responsible for tending to people who lived in outer perimeter areas.
Prior to Thursday’s drill, CERT commander David Bussone and trainer officer Wayne Ward gave a briefing on what disaster CERT members would be responding to and described the responsibilities of every station.
At 9 a.m., the victims, most of whom wore moulage makeup to resemble realistic injuries, arrived at the building’s entrance and went through triage stations to be evaluated. Participants portrayed different types of victims, ranging from uninjured family members to victims with various physiological issues.
Areas were set up around the center to provide specific needs. The red area served major injuries and was stationed near the exit to transport victims onto an ambulance. The yellow area took care of intermediate injuries, while the green station catered to minor injuries. A part of the center was closed off to family members and incident command, which is responsible for contacting all the teams working in the facility and ambulances.
A black area was also created for the worst-case scenario in a disaster: deceased victims.
Assessing the entire drill set up and CERT members’ responses to individual injuries were members from the Villages Public Safety Department, Sumter County Health Department, Red Cross, Rural/ Metro Ambulance, and Central Florida Health Alliance.
“Quality improvement is what we aim for,” said Villages Public Safety Department Captain Kevin Ratzmann. He described the evaluation sheets and said that an “After Action Review” would take place to discuss strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions.
“All volunteers are doing a great job,” Ratzmann said.
Sue Hennings of the Village of Mira Mesa, wife of CERT founder Bill Hennings, said she knows her husband would have been so proud to see the hard work that all the participants put in to maintain CERT’s strength and efficiency.
Bill Hennings, who passed away nine years ago, established CERT in 2003 after his concern of the safety of Villagers. Although people doubted his goal to unite three counties for his mission, Sue says her husband managed to bring Sumter, Marion, and Lake counties together to successfully work with CERT.
Learn more about CERT at:
http://www.certofthevillages.org/
