A lesson learned is something to charish. In the case of disaster preparedness, it just may save your life or the lives of your loved ones or neighbors.
When a disaster strikes, public services that provide first-responder aid are quickly overwhelmed. This is simply a matter of fact. It's just what happens in an earthquake, tsunami, tornado, hurricane, or flood. That's CERT lesson #1 and what lead to the formation of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training back in the mid 80's.
CERT lesson #2 was that, for lack of professionally trained first responders, untrained and otherwise unskilled neighbors would spontaneously begin helping their neighbors. This is something of which, as jaded and cynical as the times may sometimes feel, we can be justly proud.
However, in the case of the Mexico City earthquake in 1985 to pick one well-documented example, this willingness to come to the aid of others lead to a terrible consequence: over 100 people who survived the earthquake, died trying to save their neighbors. They died entering unsafe buildings or doing other unsafe things that a small amount of training would have prevented. So lesson #3 was for public services to provide a minimal amount of training to citizens so that, in the event of a disaster, when public services are quickly overwhelmed, neighbors can help neighbors, and do so safely.
Now is your chance to act on these lessons by taking the CERT training classes being offered by the City of Eugene Emergency Management Department and the Eugene CERT volunteer organization. The classes start on September 26 at 6:00PM and will take place Mondays and Wednesdays through October 19th.