In case of disaster, Federal Way will have about 25 more trained members of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) at the end of May. The eight week basic skills course offered by the city is free. The emergency department for the city also holds additional trainings twice a month to brush up on skills and add specializations.

On Wednesday night at City Hall, students talked through how they would respond to a hypothetical plane crash into Federal Way High School. They debated the merits of military vs. standard time on search and rescue markings. They rescued several inflatable babies in various corners of the lobby. They cribbed up a table to rescue a hapless survivor from beneath a table that sometimes became an imaginary 500-pound piano at various points during the exercise.

Community members of many different ages and abilities all participated, including those using mobility aids like a walker or a wheelchair, and those with limited lifting strength.

While the exercises provided space for mistakes and some humor, instructors made sure the seriousness of the situation was felt and the participants asked thoughtful questions to ensure they would be ready if disaster strikes.

Throughout it all, the four instructors drilled down on the importance of knowing your own limits and keeping yourself and your team mates safe while you are trying to help others. They also emphasized, of course, “safety, safety, safety.”

CERT is a national program created by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The courses are standardized and the main goal is to turn civilians into a “force multiplier,” according to Kevin Pelley, the city’s emergency manager.

The course not only teaches how to respond individually to a crisis, but also teaches people the structure and protocols that are used nationally by first responders. These skills can make a big difference in an emergency when every second counts and effective communication saves lives.

Pelley explained that when civilians can relieve specialized emergency personnel from tasks like crowd control or support with vital information gathering, it can allow them to focus their skills on the life-saving actions only they can do.

Pelley took the position in 2023, and since then has been leveling up the city’s emergency preparedness with the CERT training as just one piece of the picture. While the city staff attended the national Emergency Management Institute in 2016, unforeseen circumstances led to some gaps in regular refreshers on emergency training due to COVID-19 and extended medical leaves of the former emergency manager, Roy Gross.

One goal of his for the Federal Way community is to make sure that every household is “two weeks ready.” This means having enough emergency food and supplies, including entertainment, to try to live safely and reasonably comfortable for several weeks in the case of emergencies like power outages.

CERT classes specifically offer practical skills and hands-on practice in responding to a wide variety of emergency situations. After graduating from the eight week course, outreach coordinator Sharon Green said they will have the opportunity to continue on with training and become part of the city’s CAT team, or work toward becoming instructors themselves.

The city’s CAT team is made up of about 13 people who are civilians who can be called on by the city emergency manager if needed.

Green first became certified back in 2011 and led trainings for several years. After a multi-year break, she said she is happy to be back and helping people learn how to keep themselves and their community safe.

The eight week basic course is every Wednesday evening and includes the following classes: Disaster Preparedness and CERT Organization, CERT and Terrorism and Disaster Psychology, Disaster Medical 1 and 2, Fire Safety and Utility Control and Light Search and Rescue.

While disaster psychology might not be the first thing people think about when they imagine preparing for emergencies, Green said it is an important skill.

It’s also one she uses in her other community roles. She is also a CNA, a chaplain and an ombudsman. As a chaplain, she is called to respond to emergency situations like deaths of people in the nearby mountains. She responds to provide support through Critical Incident Stress Management to the rangers who might experience secondhand trauma from tasks like extracting a body in a search and rescue operation.

Disaster and emergency response skills are increasingly important for citizens to learn, according to FEMA. In the 2022 annual national preparedness report, FEMA emphasized the “continued threat of climate change. The agency’s press release about the report summarized this aspect of their findings by saying: “Climate change continues to impact the nation and worsen existing vulnerabilities. The report found that in 2021, 92% of communities identified at least one natural hazard associated with climate change as being most stressful to emergency management capabilities in their assessments. The U.S. experienced a total of $20 billion climate and weather-related disasters.”

One member of Federal Way’s CAT team experienced this first hand. One of Chrystal Gonzales’ motivations for wanting to learn these skills comes from her experience of one of these climate-related disasters after experiencing multiple fires while living in California.

As part of her role on the team, she attends classes frequently to help demonstrate and practice and expand her skillset. She said she is also “someone who is a fond believer in education” generally and likes to educate herself on useful topics like those covered in CERT. She also said that “there is a lot going on in the world” and that “community engagement” is very important. She shared Parent Teacher Associations as another great way for people to come together and take care of their communities themselves.

Her eight-year-old son attended many of the sessions with her in the last cohort and became an honorary member of the team.

Charlene and Calvin Harris are attending the basic CERT course in order to be able to help their neighborhood and their church if they need to. Through the course, they said they’ve learned a lot of useful “little things you’ve never thought about” and have “gained confidence.”

Green said she needs about three more instructors to meet current demand and hopes to expand their programming. She also hopes to bring more disaster preparedness to schools, saying: “The youth are our future.”

One high school student from Decatur attended the class with his aunt this week. Lukas Corcoran said that much of his family already have a value around being prepared and he’s had the chance to participate in other emergency exercises in town with his family.

Corcoran’s aunt Naomi McQuade said the emergency training she has gained has helped her with practical skills that she’s actually applied in her own life. After emptying her kitchen fire extinguisher on a car fire and still seeing flame, she remembered a tip from an emergency class that she could use baking soda to finish putting it out.

As an anxious person, she said the courses have helped with that because she is “better able to assess what is actually an emergency” and also has the confidence to know she has the skills and knowledge to respond to a wide variety of emergencies.

McQuade added that she appreciates the “wealth of knowledge” brought by both participants and instructors, adding that “everybody has something to bring to the table.”

Throughout the Light Search and Rescue course on Wednesday, instructors made sure participants knew to only do what they are capable of. This can mean asking for help or adapting your technique. It can also mean knowing when not to respond to a scene that is unsafe.

Learn more

The next opportunity to become certified as an emergency responder for free will begin in September. To sign up, contact Sharon Green of Federal Way Emergency Management at 206-930-6645 or at sharon.green@federalwaywa.gov.

Students at the Community Emergency Response Team training practice pulling a survivor from under fallen debris during a cribbing exercise. This process involves wedging material underneath alternating sides of a piece of debris, little by little, until object can be stabilized and the person can be safely pulled out from underneath. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / The Mirror.

In a Search and Rescue exercise, the CERT basic training class broke up into groups on the first floor of City Hall to practice their response. Here they are assessing an injured “baby” and planning next steps.

Although we hope never to have to see them, this is the uniform of someone who has taken the CERT Basic Training course. These vests and helmets will only be donned if they are officially called out to help by the city’s emergency response team, but for now, they use them as they practice with hypothetical scenarios.