"If an earthquake or other disaster struck your neighborhood would you survive? Would you be able and willing to help rescue and provide basic first aid until emergency personnel became available?

If so please join the Skagit Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) open to any and all who would like to help.

The CERT program will educate you on personal disaster preparedness and for hazards that could impact your neighborhood. It provides training in basic disaster response skills such as medical triage and initial care, light search and rescue, fire risk and suppression, disaster psychology, terror response and team organization to understand local EMS procedures.

CERT graduates can expect the classroom training and exercises to help prepare them to provide immediate responses in a disaster for themselves and family as well as neighbors when professional responders are not available.

If willing, CERT graduates will be encouraged to continue to develop their skills at their own pace, help grow the CERT mission, participate in Skagit County DEM preparedness efforts and help in non-disaster events as able.

The Skagit County CERT mission is to strategically train and equip as many "initial" responders as funding and volunteer manpower allow before our next major disaster."

"Emergency Planning works, Not Planning does not work quite as well"