Building local capacity for disaster response: an assessment of community emergency response models in rural areas

The northwest coast of the United States is dominated by a sparsely populated landscape of steep, faulted and forested terrain. Naturally prone to earthquakes, tsunami, mudslides, fires, torrential storms and floods, this vast landscape poses significant challenges to professional responders' ability to reach victims during a disaster, making local capacity to respond effectively to natural hazards crucial to saving lives and reducing damage. This research explores strategies employed in small cities and rural areas of Western California and Oregon to prepare for and respond when natural hazards turn into disasters, with a focus on the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training model. Using an on-line survey followed by face-to-face interviews, CERT leaders and hazard-planning professionals were asked about the adequacy of the basic CERT training model when adapted from its urban origins to small cities and rural settings. Questions also explored if the process of the basic 20-hour CERT training contributed to the development of social capital between the citizen volunteers, trainers and professional responders, and was social capital strengthened if these participants continue to meet as a response team? Results illuminate deficits in the basic CERT training model when employed as a one-time stand-alone preparedness training for rural or isolated areas where professional responders may be hampered from reaching victims for hours, or even days. The CERT framework can be an effective strategy when 1) teams are developed, 2) mitigation activities tailored to an area's specific risks are added, and 3) affiliations with professional planners and first responders are robust and mutually maintained. Joining efforts between all segments of the rural population in on-going mitigation activities before hazards occur will contribute to the development of social capital, to reducing potential injury and property damage during and following disasters, and will facilitate localized recovery.