CENTERVILLE — Last year’s windstorm showed the devastating power of nature when homes were damaged, sidewalks destroyed, and trees were ripped up all over the city of Centerville. Within hours of the storm’s end, people were out in force with chainsaws helping their neighbors recover from the storm’s impact.

City officials were heartened by the response, but it reminded them that Centerville is just not ready if anything more major impacts the city. In the past, the city had a solid Community Emergency Response Team trained and ready across the community, that could jump in to help out the professional emergency responders. But that’s just not the case today.

“We need to do a restart on our CERT team,” City Council member Bill Ince told Mayor Clark Wilkinson and the city council in a recent city council meeting. “With a 20-year combination of aging and move outs we have not been able to replace CERT volunteers.”

“We have had emergency situations, but we’ve never had a catastrophic situation with a lot of injuries and truly serious property damage,” he added. “Those are the kinds of things that can happen and that we ought to be prepared for.”

Although the city sent out a letter seeking volunteers to all the churches in the community, response has been minimal. It’s a worrying scenario for emergency personnel.

“We have great neighbors who are willing to jump in and volunteer anytime as we’ve seen in our windstorms,” said Louisa McDonald, emergency management assistant. “But we need something that is more organized and is a more diverse training for when the big catastrophe hits, and it will hit. Right now, we just don’t have the trained personnel in Centerville to do that.”

McDonald estimates it has been more than 10 years since Centerville had a fully operational CERT program. When the program was functioning, the city was divided into five districts based on the boundaries of stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ideally, a team of 10 people for each district would be best, McDonald said. 

“You’re basically going to be helping your own neighborhood,” she said. “We need boots on the ground in the area who knows the area, who knows their neighbors.” 

Those individuals can provide information on how many elderly or infirm people are in the area who may need greater attention, for example, she said.

In a catastrophic event, CERT members can provide trained assistance in caring for people in their area, evacuating them from their homes, rendering first aid and other resources until professional emergency responders are available. Along with major emergencies, CERT teams can volunteer at different community events such as the big bike races that come through town, managing crowds, setting up barricades and on an on-call basis, McDonald said.

The next eight-week CERT training which is provided for Davis County by the Bountiful Fire Department begins Jan. 25; it costs $40. Participants receive a backpack and training materials. 

In addition to CERT members, Centerville City is looking for a volunteer with an emergency response background who would be willing to serve as director, organize the CERT teams and help provide ongoing training to them, McDonald said. The city had a fire drill on Nov. 11. If there had been a CERT team they would have been activated, she said. Anyone who is interested in getting involved and getting trained should contact Police Chief Paul Child or Council member Ince.

McDonald said the department is working with local businesses, particularly big box stores, to have trained CERT members among their staff “so that in the event of an earthquake or horrific windstorm like we’ve had they can jump into action they can know how to sweep a building, how to size up an area or to render some initial first aid if needed. 

“Volunteers are great,” she said. “We have a phenomenal community who love to volunteer; we just need to be trained.”