Napa CERT hosts a special EVC training on March 16th at the Grace Church in Napa.
Napa City CERT held a special Emergency Volunteer Center (EVC) training on Saturday, March 16th, 2019, in cooperation with the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership (CVNL). This special training was held at the gym at the Grace Church in Napa.
Berryessa CERT team members attended along with members from Napa City and American Canyon. Napa City CERT members were tasked with opening and staffing an EVC during the 2017 Atlas Fire in Napa. Their experiences during that often stressful time was a good base of information on how CERT can help in disaster situations.
Napa CERT talked about lessons learned from the 2017 Atlas Fire EVC center and as a group, we discussed ways we could make organization and deployment easier and streamline the process.
The ICS structure that CERT uses will come in handy when setting up an EVC. With our training in command structure, we can adapt those positions to run an EVC efficiently. - Shelly van Rijn, Berryessa CERT
Jim Tomlinson, from the CVNL, was on hand to guide us in the EVC process and make recommendations on best practices. His insight and leadership was very helpful.
Each of our teams may be tasked at some point to help set up an EVC as well as an evacuation center in times of disaster. By training together, our teams can give insights and mentor newer members who have not gone through the process before.