Matthew missed us and Irma just gave us a glancing blow but who knows what this hurricane season will bring? With just two months until the start of hurricane season, it is time to start preparing. This year’s prediction has 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and of those, 3 are predicted to become major (cat 3 or higher). It is time to look at the trees around your home – do they need to be thinned out? Service your generator. Get your important documents into a carry case along with a “To Go” bag. If you have an elderly neighbor check to see if he or she needs assistance getting prepared. Lastly, watch for information about the Orange County “Hurricane Expo”. Always a good place for information and some supplies.
The Wedgefield CERT held a classroom training session at the Bithlo Park on March 26th. We studied the layout of Wedgefield, using the canals as focal, guiding tools. If a Cat 3 hits here, there would be few if any street signs left standing and without knowing how to navigate with just a map would be most difficult if not impossible. Canals would not move during a storm so the task was to learn how to follow the map using the canals as the reference points. Finding an indoor place to train has been a major effort for the team. Most teams have a community center, clubhouse or church that they can utilize for suitable training. Wedgefield has nothing. We were given a fee waiver by the Orange County Parks and the Board of County Commissioners to use the Bithlo Park for quarterly training. Our next scheduled meeting will be on June 25th.
Now, with the weather improving we have scheduled a training session in the Wedgefield Park for May 5th. Weather permitting: we will set up our complete command/medical operation.
