BRADD reintroduces Community Emergency Response Teams to 10 counties

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Barren River Area Development District is helping area counties revitalize their CERT teams.

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Teams. The teams are made up of volunteers who support county emergency management agencies during local events.

According to BRADD, Volunteers are trained to respond to tornadoes, floods, fires, earthquakes, and more.

“The goal is to fit them in wherever there are gaps within emergency response. It’s not meant to replace fire departments or search and rescue or any of that, but it’s meant to act as a volunteer support group for those,” said Tyler Hopkins, Community Development Specialist for BRADD.

Many counties had CERT in the past, but federal funding decreased.

Now BRADD has secured a grant of about $140,000 to equip teams with life-saving training across 10 counties in the region

With Kentucky seeing more natural disasters, these teams will help communities through them.

“The number one thing that they do for me is they’re my first operational period staff for my emergency operations center. So when severe weather comes in, my CERT team, I activate 3 or 4 members of my CERT team. We come in and activate the emergency operations center, and I’ve already got people in place before the storms ever get there. So if it gets bad and we have to declare a disaster, our EOC is already up and running,” said Robert Palmer, Director of Simpson County Emergency Management.

Supplies include first aid kits, pop-up tents, protective gear and manuals will go to the Emergency Management agencies in Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Logan, Monroe, Metcalfe, Simpson and Warren counties.

If you are interested in CERT training, contact your local agency.