Light Up the Bay in Martinez

Light Up the Bay in Martinez

On November 16, 2019, from 09:00 – 12:00, there will be a county-wide exercise to test our radio communication links all the way from local CERT teams to the CoCo County Emergency Operations Center. This exercise will give all of us an opportunity to practice how we would organize in a major event and how well we can communicate up and down the chain. If you would like to participate, please contact one of the coordinators listed below.

Martinez Area CERT is Participating!

Martinez CERT will activate District Assembly Points in Districts 8, 9, and 11:

District 8: Hidden Valley Park, 1810 Center Ave. Contact: Ed Morales
District 9: Parking Lot 6648 Alhambra Ave. Contact: Cliff Chan
District 11: Mt View Park – Parkway Dr. off Howe Ave. Contact: Steve Nissen

If you live in one of those three districts (what’s my district?) the choice is obvious. If you live elsewhere, please pick one of the locations to join.

During the recent Public Safety Power Shutdown quite a few of us were without power for a few days, and we learned how quickly we can lose cell phone service. Two-way radios are an alternate option, and it behooves us to learn how to use them effectively.

Overview of the WHOLE Exercise

  1. CERT members will report to a District Assembly Point to get assignments for a “windshield survey”—a simple exercise in which a pair of individuals in a car do a quick visual survey of damage in the neighborhood. (We will plant envelopes describing local damage for them to find).
  2. The search teams will report their findings to the District Incident Command Post (ICP) via FRS/GMRS radios.
  3. The District ICP will triage the messages and decide which messages would be of interest to the City and communicate that to the City ICP (using amateur radio or the legacy police department radios).
  4. The City ICP will then triage that data for relevance to the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and forward relevant information to the County. In the County EOC there will be representatives of both the County and the State Offices of Emergency Services.

With CERTS throughout the county engaged in this exercise, you can imagine there will be many messages to sort through as well as possible radio interference from adjacent activities.

Lately, there have been quite a few noteworthy news items; PG&E power shutdowns, wildfires, and earthquakes. It brings to mind what we have been trained to do and to prepare for. So join in and practice your skills.

This is important to you and your neighbors because it will provide a basis for learning and how we can improve. More importantly, this is the first exercise where the county will be participating to learn how they can improve.  In an actual emergency, the county would provide further resources to help our city and other surrounding cities.

Interested in Participating?

After contacting one of the three area coordinators listed above, sign up with the Community Warning System to get a reminder notification on the day of the exercise. This will give you an opportunity to see what a CWS notification would look like.

Step ONE: Let us know you are interested, or have questions.

Step TWO: Register with the CoCo County Community Warning System (CWS) or go to CWS website and follow the prompts to register.

Step THREE: Register to participate in this event: notification and exercise alerts, after-action survey.

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