There was a Central Coast CERT meeting held at City Hall on Thursday, October 23rd. The meeting was open to the public and there was standing room only in the City Council Chambers. Members of the Newport Police Volunteers were also in attendance. The guest speakers were active duty personnel from both the Air and Surface operations components at North Bend and Newport, respectively. Lt. Jason Morgan from the North Bend Group and CWO Mark Allstott, Commander of the Newport Coast Guard Station, addressed the group on emergency procedures in rescue situations where they would be working with civilians. They presented a slide show and spoke briefly about their mission, their position in the United States and around the world, as well as Katrina-Rita, and Cascadia natural disaster response planning.
This meeting followed helicopter operations training on Saturday, October 18th, with the United States Coast Guard, Central Coast CERT and NPD Volunteers at the Newport Municipal Airport. Both events proved the vital importance of the USCG being able to rely upon trained civilian personnel in the event of an emergency.
