Longwood Emergency Response Team has Drill to Test Their CERT Training

The Longwood University Emergency Response Team (LUERT) is a group of faculty and student volunteers who are trained to respond to man-made or natural disasters. This past Saturday, Nov. 2, LUERT held a disaster response training drill which started at the Farmer’s Market and continued into a section of the High Bridge Trail.

LUERT is recognized as a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which is a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program. According to Captain of LUERT, Corey Davis, “CERT is a national program that’s unified across America. It’s a program under FEMA … But there’s none in this area of Virginia. So us being a CERT team not only serves Longwood’s campus in the event of a disaster or emergency, it serves all this area of Virginia in the case of disaster or emergencies.”

Linda Rubin from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management in Chesterfield was present to assist in the drill on Saturday. She explained how the drill was merely meant to be practice for LUERT to use the skills they have learned from their CERT training.

Further explaining the drill, Rubin said, “The scenario is people were walking and playing in the park and a storm blew up, and so they went for shelter, and the shelter collapsed. And so we have a lot of injuries and impaled objects, broken bones, scratches and scrapes. And there happened to be CERT members who were there at the time, and they’re going to try and help them until the first responders arrive.”

Volunteers played the parts of the disaster victims in the drill. Explaining where the volunteers were found, Longwood Safety Compliance Officer and Faculty Advisor for LUERT Tony Williams said, “[Corey Davis] spread the word, and I had one of the professors in our drama/theatre department … spread the word … So it was just word of mouth. I even had some of the role players’ family members.”

The victims were made to look like they had real injuries by “moulage,” which Rubin explained to be the proper application of makeup and other such things to make the actors look like they had real injuries. She further explained that moulage is a technique often used to assist in training Emergency Response Teams.

Some of the victims were made to look like they had glass shards or sticks penetrating their skin while others were burn victims or simply had multiple cuts and bruises.

“[CERT is] formulating and training more people to be there and prepared to help until the response gets there. So they can help with fist aid; they can help with triage, which is marking victims as to how badly they’re hurt, so when the first responders come they know where to go first and not waste time,” said Rubin.

Victims are marked with tags depending on the seriousness of their injuries. A green tag is equivalent to “go,” meaning they are capable of walking and moving around. A yellow tag means they need “immediate” attention. A red tag means “acute,” and these victims require the most attention. A black tag means dead.

“Our motto is safety first. Do the most good for the most people in the quickest amount of time,” said Rubin.

Members of LUERT always work in teams. Rubin explained how the teams have approximately 30 seconds to determine how badly someone is hurt before it is time for them to move on and help the next victim. After they tag the victims, a transport team is called to collect the victims.

The drill mainly tested LUERT on their skills and knowledge in cribbing, fire suppression, triage, treatment and search and rescue.

Williams said, “Right now, the team is just organized to help out the emergency manager, so in other words, from our office during a disaster … Now, we would like to move forward and do a little bit more, but there’s some hoops and hurdles that need to be overcome. We want to do emergency medical services, kind of like we want to be like a mini rescue squad on the campus.”

“Currently, we have the capabilities and do respond to any and all types of emergencies on campus. [When] the fire alarms are going off, we help with evacuations of the dorms and everything. We do standbys at the basketball games in case of emergency evacuations and medical standbys and just any and all types of events on campus,” said Davis.

He continued, “We are a very active organization … If [you] see us around in our uniforms or vehicles, don’t be afraid to ask us questions or stop by or anything.”