On Saturday, May 12, 2018, at Yucaipa High School, the City of Yucaipa hosted the countywide CERT training/exercise under the guidance of San Bernardino County Fire Office of Emergency Services.

Many partners came together to make this event a huge success. Additional partners included:
• Yucaipa- Calimesa Joint Unified School District
• SB County Fire
• Yucaipa Fire Dept
• Southern Baptist Disaster Relief
• American Red Cross
• Cities of Redlands, Loma Linda, Colton and Rancho Cucamonga

Nearly 100 Countywide CERT volunteers came from over 25 different CERT programs throughout San Bernardino County to participate in all day training and exercise.

Training breakout sessions included:
• Stop the Bleed
• Radio Operations Awareness
• Medical Operations
• Search and Rescue (Door markings, effective searching and patient carries
• CERT tools for Leadership Success
• Cribbing

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Organization and American Red Cross worked together to provide and serve lunch to approx. 200 people in attendance for the day.

For the exercise portion of the day – role playing victims participated from Yucaipa High School and the Law and Public Safety Academy. After the exercise – participants, evaluators and role players gathered together to discuss what went well in the simulation and which areas could be improved upon.

Evaluators praised participants for their motivation, focus and passion during the simulation and participants and evaluators alike were in agreement that this type of training is so helpful in the planning and preparation for a real disaster.

“The event was a great success and I’m so thankful for the team effort and partnerships that came together to prepare for it”, said Sherrie O’Connell, City of Yucaipa, Emergency Services Coordinator/Community Liaison.