Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

CERT Happenings

Exciting Changes Coming to our quarterly newsletter

Huge Thanks to Sarah Russell, Talkeetna CERT for our new logo…..

Beginning with this newsletter, July, Aug and Sept. we will be increasing our newsletter outreach to the entire CERT community in the State of Alaska. Big Hairy Audacious goal but one we can reach. Be watching to see what our sister and brother teams are up to.

Thanks you to Talkeetna CERT< Glacier View CERT<Cordova CERT<Kenai CERT and Fairbanks CERT for making this possible.

STATE of Alaska CERT – Welcomes new Leader

The State of Alaska, Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management (DHS&EM) has a new state lead for CERT, Michelle Torres.  Michelle is also on the Board of Directors for the new National CERT Association.  Michelle has been involved with the CERT program for over 10 years.  Michelle is really proud of her work with the Alaska Military

Members Spotlight

By John Spitzberg

A Visit with Elizabeth (Liz) Auer

Sitting at my computer beginning to write up this interview, I realized how much incredible diversity we have in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Liz Auer exemplifies this variety of volunteers. She is a volunteer warrior who lives the CERT mission daily.

Liz has lived in Alaska since the mighty earthquake of 1964 and remembers it well. So she and another CERT member Kathy Ogsted went into action immediately after our recent quake. They went door to door in their community checking on neighbors when the tremors subsided to help if needed as CERT members trained to respond to emergencies.

She was born in the former Yugoslavia during WWII. The German Army put the women and children on a train and took them to Austria and finally my family moved to Germany where I stayed until 13 years of age. She spoke only German as a youngster until coming to the U.S.A. Finally the family settled in Peoria, Illinois and remained there

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10Youth Academy (AMYA) ChalleNGe (National Guard) Program.  The AMYA ChalleNGe Program targets at-risk youth who have left high school without receiving a credential to foster graduates with the education (high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma (GED)) and life-skills to succeed as adults.  Her idea was simple; expand upon current Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training provided as part of the AMYA ChalleNGe Program, develop continuing education and service opportunities for these students as they return to their cities, towns, and villages (often deep within the Alaska bush country), and use these students as mentors in all aspects of emergency response for other youth in those areas.  Michelle's passion for CERT did not stop there.  She did her Master's thesis on CERT. 

Along with being the State Lead for CERT, Michelle is also the Outreach Branch Chief for DHS&EM.  Michelle and her team are responsible for enhancing disaster preparedness and community resilience through public outreach and information. 

Michelle began her career in wildfire mitigation in 2009 with the Matanuska

until Liz married in 1962.

Liz’s late husband, Bob, joined the Army in 1963 and was sent to Anchorage. Liz followed almost immediately, and the couple rented an apartment in Spenard. She had been told about “break-up” and thought the earthquake was the ice breaking up in the Sound. Liz still laughs about being a Cheechako.

Three children were born in Alaska, one in Peoria. But even though they returned to Illinois after Bob’s stint in the Army, the couple longed for the Last Frontier. Two years on the prairie were enough and the family went back to Anchorage, this time to stay and make Alaska their permanent home.

Liz worked for Sea Land Company as a secretary and her husband drove a city bus. They decided to search for a spot to build a home in the early part of this century where they could live in a rural like environment. Lucky for us, they

picked Willow in the 1990’s to camp, and by 2003, they built their home where Liz lives presently. When both retired, they became

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10Susitna Borough where she taught and worked with homeowners through the FireWise program. During her time with the Matanuska Susitna Borough, Michelle began to take an active role in the emergency management and response in the Borough.  In 2013, Michelle joined the Municipality of Anchorage as their Emergency Programs Manager where she was responsible for outreach and public information for the city.  In 2014, Michelle began working in mitigation with DHS&EM.  During her time in mitigation Michelle was a project manager for multiple pre-disaster mitigation (PDM) and hazard mitigation grant (HMGP) projects.  Michelle also spent time as the mitigation planner for the division as well as the State Hazard Mitigation Officer.  In 2016, Michelle became the Outreach Branch Chief for DHS&EM.  During a state disaster, Michelle takes on the role as a Public Information Officer in the State Emergency Operations Center.  Michelle also teaches at the University of Alaska, Anchorage for the Fire Science Program.  Michelle graduated from the University of Alaska with degrees in A.A.S. Fire Science, B.S. Science Technology with a minor in Psychology and M.S. Career and Technical Education.

snow birds and spent time in Las Vegas.

A gutsy person, Liz still drives to Illinois to see her family. She takes her RV and drives the ALCAN alone. In the summers when not volunteering, she gardens on her 2 and a half acres of land followed by her Goldendoodle, Rusty.

She and Kathy O. volunteered for Meals on Wheels for nine months and brought food and good cheer to many elders in the Willow community. She volunteers at the Carnival working many hours and at the Methodist Church during the Thanksgiving Blessing. After the sockeye fire, the two women decided to take the CERT class held at the community hall in 2016. Liz is now a proud member of community responders.

Liz is a busy, busy woman who divides her time between her family and volunteering for the community. Liz is extremely modest and blushes when I write that she is a volunteer warrior. She wants people to know that she feels like she is just another woman who loves to help people anyway she can, but when this writer suggested that she remove all his snow from the premises, she politely

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

In her free time, Michelle and her husband spend time with their family. Michelle loves to spoil her grandkids.  They also spend time hunting, fishing and enjoying the great Alaska outdoors with their two dogs, Gauge and Milo. 

A HUGE SHOUT OUT “THANK YOU” TO OUR SISTER CERT TEAM IN TALKEETNA FOR FULLFILLING A LONG WISHED FOR THING…A NEW LOGO….SPECIAL THANKS TO SARAH RUSSELL

April

Learning the Science of Alaska Earthquakes,Volcanoes and Tsunamis

By Kathy Watkins

A 4 day conference hosted by the AlaskanNative Geoscience Learning Experienceand Earthscope offered a close up and personal look at the uniqueness of Alaska’sdynamic landscape. Between the hands on“Super Cool” science experiments like building your own earthquake simulator,creating and watching a tsunami you

refuse.

Welcome to the newest CERT team in the MatSu borough..Glacier View

Glacier View has already jumped into the mix by providing their team with an advanced Search and Rescue training and

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10create and a walk in the Girdwood GhostForest, learners tracked the movement ofAlaska’s plate tectonics through visiting one of many seismic, GPS monitoring Systems located at Bird Point.To choose only two amazing lessonsfrom the 4 days was tough, but my two favorite were, actually calculatingthe movement of the pacific platesubducting under the north Americanplate at an average of 2.3” each yearAnd learning that one of the mostdestructive faults in Alaska is on ourown backdoor. The Castle Mountain Fault that runs east to the northwest at Houston. This striking fault has theCapacity to produce a seismic event Larger than the Nov 30th quake..So good reason to “Be Prepared”

planning their first official outreach event at the Sutton Safety fair with the assistance of their “sister” CERT team from Willow. Great job.

News From the BoroughTalon BoeveBorough has new software called Oblique Imagery that shows the valley in 3D, 45’ view, will be used for emergency planning

Beatle Kill tress are being accepted at three landfills, Big Lake, Sunshine and Palmer

Save the DATE

July 4th parades Willow and Talkeetna

July 16 & 17 ORCA Exercise MatSu Valley

July 18th Willow CERT 5:30pm CC

July 18th COAD mtg. Willow Community Center6:00pm

Sept 9-11 Mass Care & Emergency AssistanceTraining Eagle River *****Contact Talon Beove

Sept 28 Emergency Expo Menard Center

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

Alaska Shield-PODs and CERT, How they fit together

9 members of Willow CERT participated Alaska Shield 2019 statewide emergency exercise yesterday. Our team worked with Mat Su Borough Dept. of Emergency Services, State of AK Public Health, Red Cross, Team Rubicon and many other volunteers.

Visit us on our facebook page or web page

Facebook: Willow CERT, Talkeeta CERT, Glacier View CERT

Web page: willowcert.wordpress.com

https://talkeetnacert.wordpress.com

Talkeetna helps “Sound the Alarm”

By Bill Was

Mabel Quilliam and I had fun assisting the Red Cross and the Talkeetna Fire Department during Saturday's 'Sound the Alarm' event in the Talkeetna area. We visited many households, met a lot of great folks and even watched as the Red Cross/Talkeetna Firefighters installed some free smoke detectors. And we enjoyed a great lunch from the generous folks at Twister Creek.  A huge "THANKS!" to the Red Cross and Talkeetna firefighters for giving us the opportunity to assist with this effort! All told, it seemed like a very successful project...

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

Our team had previously taken a full day CDC “Essentials of Point of Dispensing” (POD) course. The purpose of setting up a POD could be for the administration of medication or immunizations in the event of a pandemic or biohazard emergency. Because that training we felt prepared to function in the various roles we were assigned to at the POD for Alaska Shield. The simulated event was an outbreak of Pneumonic Plague, which is very contagious and has a high fatality rate, if not treated early with antibiotics. Over 200 fantastic community volunteer actors moved through the POD and were screened, treated or referred as needed. MSB Dept of Emer. Services and the Public Health Nurses did a great job organizing this valuable exercise. It was awesome to have so many groups working together cooperatively !By Brenda Mccain

Planting seeds at the Willow Health Fair

For the past 5 years, Willow CERT has been planting the seeds of CERT at our local health fair. This year was no exception. Thanks to our two newest team members, Tom and Butch who were joined by our CERT Rock, Norm, we again met with success. We have added three more names to our growing list of students for our upcoming

Cordova CERT checks in….

Congratulations, Cordova’s CERT graduates for spring 2019. What a great training program they do. Good job to Dick Groff and Joanie Behrends.

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10Basic CERT training planned for November 2019.

May

Congratulations to one of our own..

By Gary Watkins

We are excited to report that one of our Willow CERT members, Kathy Watkins was invited to Chair the CERT committee for the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC). She was invited by Kevin Reeve, Division of Homeland Security, State Lead Planner. She laughed when she told me she didn’t even know what SERC until she was voted onto it. At her first meeting in Anchorage, she appeared to be the only “volunteer” there. She admits to being nervous surrounded by so many professionals from FEMA to State to Local government officials. Her primary role will be reporting to the SERC Commission what CERT’s are doing around the state but her hope is to not only report but

Kenai CERT Checks in

By Jade Gambel

Our CERT team was activated as part of the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s 2019 Alaska Shield exercise on April 13. Approximately 30 CERT members from across the borough conducted door to door evacuation of a City of Kenai neighborhood of approximately 150 homes and set up and staffed the disaster help

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10support.

Field Trip to the Tsunami Warning Center

The Willow and Talkeetna CERT teams enjoyed our first event together with a trip to the Tsuanmi Warning Center together. 19 folks gained insight into earthquakes and their effect on the ocean and the creation of tsunami s both local and remote. Thanks to everyone who made the trip fun.

center to accommodate evacuees. The disaster help center is a “mass care” facility to provide shelter, food and coordinate other needs of our evacuees. The simulation included actors at the help center to provide a real life experience for our CERT members

Training:

In May we conducted a Defensible Space/Firewise training for our CERT team. This training was provided by the Alaska Division of Forestry and taught participants how to protect

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

June

Sutton Safety Fair Brings CERTs together

Connecting CERT’s in the Valley at the Sutton Safety Fair.

By John Spitzberg

Three CERT teams from the Mat-Su Borough joined to make Sutton’s Health and Emergency Preparedness Fair a success for residents from all points in Alaska. Led by Kathy Watkins, Willow CERT, Bill Was, Talkeetna and Dan Marchel, Glacier View, CERT members shared their expertise in emergency pre-planning with adults and children alike. The newest CERT team, Glacier view worked with Paul Williams, John Spitzberg, Bill

their homes by creating defensible space around their homes. Our members are using this knowledge to protect their homes as well as helping their neighbors by sharing information they have learned.

Talkeetna CERT Checks in

Meetings are the 2nd

Tuesday of the month

April, May, June

Earthday in Talkeetna

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10and Kathy to provide training in how to be prepared for another emergency such as the last earthquake. 27 Children were asked to identify items for their personal backpack which would be needed in an emergency such as a fire, earthquake, avalanche and any other unforeseen natural emergency. A raffle was held, and a child received a backpack. Glacier View CERT team members, Sharee Marchel and Jason Kinneen and Beatrice, participated in interacting with residents who wanted to know more about CERT and emergency preparedness. Glacier View is north of Sutton located on the Glen Hwy. and covers a 30 mile stretch of rural land. Dan is getting as much training as he can because it is conceivable that CERT will be the only emergency unit available until EMS, Fire and Red Cross can get to them in a disaster.

On April 20th Talkeetna CERT enjoyed its first opportunity to actively ‘meet and greet’ local community members during the Talkeetna Earth Day event held at the Northern Susitna Institute in the village of Talkeetna. Although the event seemed to start rather slowly it quickly picked up steam and by the early afternoon there were many folks wandering amongst the displays and tables, talking and enjoying some great food.

Talkeetna CERT had a very ‘eye-catching’ table set up employing a great conversation starter in the form of a tri-fold display detailing CERT activities and suggestions generously loaned to us by our sister team – Willow CERT. We also had numerous FEMA/Homeland Security brochures, some children’s coloring books and a CERT back with its major components displayed with the tri-fold. The display was set up by Sarah Russell with some assistance from Bill Was; across the four hour event we were joined by fellow team members Mabel Quilliam and Walter and Rocky Kloepfer

We spoke with a number of folks curious about the CERT purpose and tried to detail not just our potential role in disaster situations but also our willingness and ability to assist with ongoing events like the

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10

Anchorage UAA CERT Reports

MyPI-Alaska Begins August 2019

      Teen CERT will be the foundation of curriculum to be taught to asmany as 125 students in Alaska during the coming academic year. MyPI is anational grant-funded initiative bring readiness training to students13-19 years old. Facilitated through Mississippi State University, theprogram was offered to Alaska as the 26th state to participate. RonSwartz, UAA's Emergency Manager, will administer the program in Alaska.Local school districts will decide how to fit the classroom hours intotheir academic schedules. In some states, MyPI is offered as a summer campweek, on Saturdays, or for an hour or two each week during the semester.      Mississippi Youth Preparedness

upcoming Red Cross visit around the end of April to check on residential smoke/carbon monoxide detectors and install, free of charge, such devices as needed as well as the upcoming ‘Talkeetna Fly In’ on May 18th and 19th. We also stressed our ability to assist with crowd management, traffic control and similar during scheduled local events.

Our team was very pleased to have two local folks sign up for the next CERT basic training to be held in November of 2019 in Willow! With these two people we are now up to eleven active members of which three still need their basic training. We also spoke with the local NPR station management – KTNA, Talkeetna 88.9 – and agreed they would help promote our team and our ongoing community efforts via on air coverage.

All told this was a very successful first opportunity for Talkeetna CERT to let the local community know of our existence, our plans for the future and what we can, and cannot, do to assist the local population. Kudos to Mabel Quilliam, Walter and Rocky Kloepfer and Sarah Russell for being willing to give up a part of their Saturday to help introduce Talkeetna CERT to the community! We are planning on many more such

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10Initiative (My-PI) curriculum is25-30 hours, depending on options selected by the students andinstructors, plus homework in creating family readiness plans for thestudent and 6 other families each. The variation in time is dependent uponwhether a student elects CPR/AED certification (or demonstration only),and whether participating in a tabletop exercise vs. functional/full scaleexercise. Other components of the curriculum will include smoke alarminstallation & maintenance, Ham radio, NOAA weather radio, and careertrack options.      Instructors for MyPI-Alaska will be trained at UAA in mid-Augustfrom the Mat-Su Borough, Ketchikan, Valdez, and the State Defense Force.

Ron Swartz, MEPUAA Office of Emergency ManagementUniversity Lake Building 106E786.1149

opportunities as we work to incorporate our CERT function into the local community

Fairbanks CERT Busy Busy Busy

Currently working on a fire… will have more to report next quarter.

Lorna Illingworth

A Note from the Editor

My vision for the newsletter 2 ½ years ago was to include ALL CERT teams throughout Alaska. Never thought it would happen. This is the first of the new State CERT newsletter that will be done quarterly. Please forgive the weird format when I started the Willow newsletter back in April, this was not even on the horizon, My hope is as our newest players in this new undertakeing, the reoprts and information will only continue to grow.Keep watching as we continue to improveKathy Watkins

Alaska CERT

“Neighbors helping Neighbors”actively promoting Safety and Preparedness in the Community

WACO Sponsored April thru June 2019 edition 10