With Kane County expected to see its first severe weather event of the spring today (Tuesday, March 15, 2016), it’s good to know that there are trained volunteers ready to take action.

That’s exactly what’s happening quarterly under the direction of the Kane County Office of Emergency Management.

OEM Director Don Bryant conducted the first quarterly joint training for emergency management and Community Emergency Response Team volunteers from across the county on March 2.

“Volunteers are the backbone of any effective disaster response and recovery program,” Bryant said. “When a disaster strikes, the emergency management community comes together to help our neighbors recover from the incident. Joint training of our volunteers help to make our response more effective which speeds the recovery process.”

More than 40 volunteers from the Kane County OEM, Batavia and Geneva Emergency Service Disaster Agency, St. Charles and Aurora Emergency Management, and the North Aurora CERT gathered to meet each other and demonstrate their disaster response capabilities.

As additional CERT programs are added, future quarterly joint training will include such topics as the disaster damage assessment process, wide area search and rescue, and shelter operations just to name a few

With these volunteers training and working together Kane County, as a whole, becomes more resilient and better able to respond to emergency situations, Bryant said.

SOURCE: Kane Count Office of Emergency Management