The Burlington County CERT Program recently completed its first Out of County Deployment, supporting the Papal Visit September 25-27 2015 at the Camden
Waterfront. Over 70 CERT members from teams across the County participated in the event, with 15 of those members from Pinelands Regional CERT.
The Pinelands Team provided leadership and key resources in the areas of Communications, Advanced Team Setup, and Command and Control. We setup the CERT command post by EM43CERT and used our trailer for logistical support. As daytime turned into night ops, there was a palpable feeling in the air. Helicopters swarmed overhead nonstop, and for hours on end the streets of Camden were empty. Eventually the crowds started to come, and CERT members were ambassadors outside of their own county walking busloads of people through the lots and streets to the train, the bridge, or the ferry as the Pilgrims went on their way to Philadelphia.
On October 11th Tabernacle Scout Troop 439 is hosting the first ever Tabernacle Community Day at Seneca High School. Pinelands CERT will be in the Touch a Truck Corral, showing off our apparatus and equipment, handing out literature for emergency preparedness, and helping with logistics and parking operations. The event was originally scheduled for October 4th but was rescheduled as Hurricane Joaquin, which thankfully turned right and out to sea, was approaching New Jersey. For a brief time, we were under a State of Emergency declared by Governor Christie.
As Fall moves towards Winter, we have more training and opportunities coming up. Our team just launched the Pinelands Regional CERT Facebook Group, a closed group for members of the team only. In this group we'll post information about the team, upcoming events, share photos and discussions - just one more way to communicate better with one another. To join, simply search on the name in Facebook or contact me.
As Always, Thank you for your service
73, John Lyons, Pinelands Regional CERT
Team Leader KD2GER