Longwood University is working on putting together an emergency response team that will operate on campus and be run by students, faculty and staff on the campus. The Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a nationally recognized program that is used at many universities across the nation and in Virginia, including Virginia Tech, University of Richmond and Radford University. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) started the CERT program in 1994 after using a model created by Los Angeles Fire Department.
Longwood used to have a CERT team on campus, which was known as the First Responder Team, that operated medically on campus, but fell into decline due to lack of participation.
The new CERT team is being championed by First Lady Joan Finnegan. Finnegan was a nurse for 30 years before becoming the first lady of Longwood. The individual in charge of the CERT program will be Compliance Safety Officer Tony Williams.
Director of Environmental Health and Safety and Emergency Management Jim White said, "We want to establish two things here. One is many students come who are already trained medically from back home and we have firefighters who volunteer, so we are trying to identify those who are trained, which we have already done, and organize [them] into a team."
The Office of Environmental Health, Occupational Safety and Emergency Management states in their pamphlet, "CERT training promotes partnering efforts between emergency services and the people they service. The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of the Longwood University community in basic response skills."
Those who complete the CERT training will then be integrated into working with the local Farmville emergency response team.
White said, "So far we have identified 20 students on campus and about the same amount of faculty members as well."
Williams said, "Everything will be run out of the offices within Iler [Hall] and this program will begin to put this campus back on the recovery state."
Williams continued, "Since CERT is a national program, the government will trickle money through the state to local schools. Since Longwood is a state school, it can only receive the grants by partnering with the Town of Farmville or with Prince Edward County."
Williams added, "I have gone to Price Edward County to request a grant allowing students to be outfitted with proper medical equipment and have radios that will allow them to stay in contact with the firemen, police and EMTs."
Student Government Association President Brandon Fry said, "I am a big supporter of this and have worked with White. The CERT team will be a great addition to Longwood."
CERT training will work on teaching members to supply basic medical aid and life-sustaining skills in the event of emergency where an ambulance is not immediately available.
The members of CERT work as volunteer medical, fire and rescue. Due to economic changes and cuts in jobs and time at work, the amount of volunteer fire, medical and rescue has gone down drastically over the years.
CERT members will work only as being on scene first to secure and sustain life until EMTs or the fire department can arrive. The team will not be responsible for moving any individuals from emergency scenes. White said, "A good example was when we had a young lady fall on the street and suffer a concussion, but the rescue squad was busy dealing with a shooting in town. Luckily, I was able to respond until the ambulance was able to arrive to the scene."
Williams also said, "CERT will also work during disaster situations. In the event of a fire, tornado, earthquake and other things, CERT will respond first to the scene and go in and look for injured and assist emergency management."
White said, "Finnegan has done a great job of being our spokesperson for this operation." For CERT to work, what they needed was an operational medical director (OMD). The OMD must be a certified physician in emergency medicine.
White added, "We found Dr. Maryland, who will be on call 24 hours for the CERT [members] and is the OMD for Lynchburg [General Hospital], Southside [Community Hospital] and for the emergency rescue squads in the area."
