Morongo Basin Community Response Team Mbcert

We are the Morongo Basin Community Emergency Response Team (MBCERT).

• We are a non-profit Public Benefit Corporation.
• We are an all-volunteer group and all the services we offer are paid for through grants and donations.
• Our first mission of educating the citizens of the Morongo Basin Community is to teach them to be prepared to care for themselves, their families, friends and neighbors and even pets, in the event of a disaster of any type. We do this by providing free training, education, and materials to members of our community in various ways.
• For our Secondly mission, we provide assistance to the public directly when professional emergency responders are overwhelmed, or we can assist professional emergency personnel during disasters affecting our community

Education

• We train and empower local volunteers to be more prepared, more willing, and more able to help themselves and their community in the case of an emergency. The FEMA certified courses we teach in a classroom environment cover disaster preparedness, disaster medical operations, fire safety and control, light search and rescue, incident command systems, disaster psychology and terrorism awareness. We have spring, fall training academies for adults and a summer one for teens.
• Those wishing to become more involved after taking the above class, are taught how to interact with emergency professionals without causing more confusion. In addition, local emergency professionals are taught what our certified members are capable of doing. This way if the professionals don’t have the personnel or resources to do everything needed, they know they can ask us to come help, knowing what we are capable of doing.
• We have information booths at as many public events as possible. There, we provide written literature and answer questions about how to prepare for and respond to a disaster. People that don’t want to take our classes can get disaster information from us at these event  

Disaster Response 

• First, the professional emergency response people can Contact our group leaders when they do not have the enough people to do what needs to be done.
• Take the Lake Fire disaster in June 2015 for example. MBCERT volunteers manned the Pioneer Town Fire Station and kept the fire station open 24 hrs. a day for 13 days. A total of 53 MBCERT members volunteered over 1,300 hours during this   disaster. MBCERT’s primary goal was to provide comfort to the community and the emergency personnel.
• We preformed door to door wellness checks, and handed out Free face masks to people to protect their lungs from damage by the ash from the fire. We also supplied information on how to prepare for evacuation, and who to contact to provide evacuations for animals in distress
• Second, When a disaster occurs in our community our Personnel can work independently of professional emergency personnel.  In a disaster, professional responders can become overwhelmed and unable to respond to calls for help. Using our members with HAM radios to co-ordinate our efforts, we can respond in teams to areas where there are people in need of help. We can give assistance to the public as needed, until professional help can be obtained.
• Recently there was a problem with phones not getting service. During this time the 911 emergency line was down. In order to help we stationed certified people at Fire & Ambulance stations. We were to handle any phone calls that would normally have gone through 911. We were to use HAM radio operators that are part of our group to keep everyone including the hospitals keep connected. We were also told to assist with first aid if asked by the EMS personnel, or if someone came to the station while the personnel were out on a run. Luckily just as our plan was being carried out the problem was solved! However, we were there to help when the need arose.

 All donations will be used to benefit the community by

• Allowing our volunteers to be of service to the people in our community when a Disaster occures.
• Replenishing our supplies and equipment regularly, to continue our Free training and education programs, and to help people by givimg disaster aid.
• Get our trailers refurbished & loaded woth Disaster equipment and supplies. This way, certified members in the field can have ready access to whatever they need to help community members when disaster strikes.
• www.morongobasincert.org