@allanfriedman As a former volunteer CERT instructor, I feel duty bound to provide a link where it says what CERT is about: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communities/preparedness-activities-webinars/community-emergency-response-team

Tl;dr: Imagine a scenario like: your neighborhood is in an area struck by some kind of disaster. [Imagine what you like: fire, flooding, earthquake, hurricane, tornado or whatever.] There’s no power, no phone service (landline or cell), and little if any water pressure. The street is blocked [debris, flood waters, fallen telephone poles or whatever]. It looks like smoke may be coming from a house down the street, and there’s no sign of any first responders.

Congratulations, you and your neighbors are your own first responders. Hopefully someone has takenCERT class.

A scenario like that can sound like pure fantasy — until you’ve had to face something like that it for real. Happened twice to me before I heard about CERT.

Not part of the CERT curriculum as such, but in situations like any of those scenarious, it’s is useful to organize a neighborhood “pot luck” dinner using food before it spoils. And at least one neighbor’s off-grid means of cooking.