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The Fairfax County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will sponsor the sixth annual CERT conference (CERTCON 2016) in the National Capital Region on Sept. 24 and 25.

The focus of CERTCON 2016 is “Back to Basics – Neighbors Helping Neighbors.” The goal is to expose each attendee to opportunities to refresh his or her CERT skills and techniques. An elective schedule of classroom presentations, demonstrations, workshops and hands-on sessions will allow participants to return home to their neighborhoods, businesses and CERT teams with a customized experience of refreshed skills.

CERTCON 2016 is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24, at the Annandale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community College and Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Lorton Training Site. All CERTs are invited to attend, and we especially encourage CERTs from the mid-Atlantic region to seize the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills sets, as well as be exposed to new and different techniques and tools. The objective for this CERTCON is to make us all more effective as "Neighbors Helping Neighbors." If you’re still not sure if you want to attend CERTCON 2016, check out tentative Saturday, Sept. 24 schedule of sessions:

Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States, A     Surprising History - Rick Schwartz

Controlling Utilities in Your Home - Jonathan Wood, Fair Oaks VFRC

Traumatic Triage - Dr. Dan Avstreih, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue

Blood Borne Pathogens – Capt. Pete Masters, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue

Bystander Care – Greg St. James, Montgomery County CERT

Excellence in Leadership, Phil Amtower. MO CERT I

Autism Spectrum and First Responder - Scott Campbell

Everything Duct Tape – Anita Van der Merwe, Missy Tuttle-Ferrio

Crowd Management and Community Events - Barry Feil, director,     Celebrate Fairfax

Emergency Communications in Disasters -  ARRL

Community Animal Response Team (CART), Louisa County

Exercise Design and Execution – Derek Rowan

On Sunday, Sept. 25, the conference will be capped with a full-day of exercises and demonstrations at the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue training facility in Lorton, Virginia. Throughout the day, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on refresher exercises that will challenge their skills in search and rescue and first aid.

You may register at certcon2016.eventbrite.com.

Almost 40 teams of fire, police, emergency medical service and search and rescue personnel participated in a flooded Boy Scout camp exercise in Pulaski County in August, according to Bob Marland, the public information officer for the event and a member of the Central Virginia All Hazards Incident Management Team.

The Pulaski Office of Emergency Management and other local, regional, state and federal agencies had planned the Aug. 12-14 exercise for over a year, said Lee Williams, acting chief of Incident Management Programs for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) and Aaron Kesecker, VDEM state exercise program manager.

This was practice for a major emergency response, and this was the description of the simulated disaster that responders were given: “On Aug. 12, a severe thunderstorm struck the Max Creek drainage area of Pulaski County.  The resulting flash flood caused extensive damage to the infrastructure at Camp Powhatan.  The staff village area was wiped out, with approximately 15 people missing.  A camp vehicle was returning up Max Creek Road at the time of the flood and was last known to be in the vicinity of the shale pits. Two to three people are missing, along with the vehicle.  Additionally, hikers were caught in the storm while on the Sidewinder Trail.  Part of the group returned, but two hikers are still missing.  They are believed to be between camp and the Greenwood Trail.”

The exercise was titled the 2016 Max Creek SAREX (search and rescue exercise) because it included search and rescue operations for missing people, as well as recovery exercises in the lake. Members of the Pulaski County Fire, EMS, and Sheriff’s Departments, Bedford County Fire and Rescue, numerous Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Departments, Botetourt Fire and EMS Department,  Central Virginia All Hazards Incident management Teams, Virginia National Guard  and many search and rescue organizations sent team members to assist Pulaski County response efforts.  In all, over 155 personnel were involved in this training exercise.

The live training exercise made it necessary for the responders to use all of their previous training to work through a simulated disaster that seemed real. Actors played the part of survivors that had to be rescued, and manikins (not mannequins) were pulled from the lake to represent drowning victims. A partly buried vehicle was used to portray a vehicle caught in a mudslide.

“Exercises like this allow outside agencies to respond to local disasters and test their abilities to interact with a diverse group of emergency responders to achieve a common goal of serving the citizens of the Commonwealth in any type of emergency situation,” Williams said. “This is the most realistic and intense training that an emergency services organization can receive.” VDEM’s Training, Education and Exercise Division played a major role in organizing this massive exercise.

Independent evaluators with extensive specialized training followed the response groups during the exercise and evaluated their performance. Afterwards, the evaluators met with the groups and provided valuable insight into how well they performed.

The following groups assisted throughout the exercise:

Applied Communications Products

Bedford County Fire & Rescue Special Operations Command

Black Diamond Search and Rescue

Botetourt County

Boy Scouts of America

Central Virginia All Hazards IMT

Chesterfield Fire and Rescue

Christiansburg Fire Department

Christiansburg Rescue

Dublin Fire Department

Elliston Fire Department

Fairlawn Fire Department

Gateway

National Weather Service in Blacksburg

New Bern Volunteer Fire Department

New River Dive Team

Olson Group

Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office IMT

Pulaski County Emergency Communications Center

Pulaski County Emergency Management

Pulaski County Fire Department

Pulaski County Special Operations

Pulaski County Administration

Pulaski County Board of Supervisors

Regional Emergency Medical Services, Inc.

Riner Rescue

Southwest Virginia Mountain Rescue Group

Virginia Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team

Virginia Search and Rescue Dog Association

Virginia Tech Office Emergency Management

Virginia Department of Emergency Management

Virginia National Guard

Western 14 District Task force

WSLS 10 – a Roanoke-based TV station

The annual Virginia Emergency Management Symposium will be March 21-24, 2017 in the Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The Virginia Jaycees community organization is seeking nominations for its annual “Outstanding Young First Responder” (OYFR) award.

In 1992, the Virginia Jaycees established the award to honor unselfish, life-saving contributions of pre-hospital providers.  This year, the Jaycees organization is expanding the scope of the award to include fire fighters and law enforcement officers, in addition to emergency medical technicians.

The deadline for nominations is Sept. 18. Nominees must be in the 18 to 40 age bracket and be a resident of Virginia. Nominees who become 41 before Nov. 1 aren’t eligible. The award will be presented at a banquet as part of the Virginia Jaycees fall meeting on Nov. 19 in Richmond.

The purpose of the OYFR is to promote greater public awareness of first responders and appreciation for them. The Jaycees are taking on a national initiative in the recognition of these unsung heroes.

The Virginia Junior Chamber (Jaycees) is a leadership training and community involvement organization that fosters leadership skills and personal development through projects in a variety of areas for young men and women. The organization also honors Outstanding Young Virginians, an Outstanding Young Farmer and Outstanding Future Leaders.

Nomination forms can be downloaded from:

RICHMOND – Virginia responders from the National Capital Region, Central Virginia and Hampton Roads Incident Management Teams deployed to Maryland on Aug. 2 to support that state in efforts to respond to and recover from Saturday’s destructive flooding in Howard County. The teams will be tasked with providing incident management support to Howard County and will be staffed by personnel from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Metro Washington Airport Authority, Prince William and Fairfax counties and the cities of Manassas, Fairfax, Hampton, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake.

“Virginia is ready to provide whatever assistance and resources we have to support our colleagues in Maryland manage this incident and transition into recovery,” said State Coordinator of Emergency Management Dr. Jeffrey Stern.