“THIS IS ACTUAL … THE REAL DEAL … WE ARE ACTIVATED!”
That was the heading to a priority dispatch from Morongo Basin Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, president Steve Ball last Friday afternoon. Reporter Mike Lipsitz picks up the story from there…
The dispatch went out in response to a call for assistance from the county Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Operations. Similar calls went out to area VOAD members. VOAD stands for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and includes local community and faith-based organizations. About 40 responders assembled in Joshua Tree Saturday morning to receive their marching orders from county Emergency Services Officer John Ferdon. Their assignment was to canvas the hardest hit areas of Joshua Tree assessing storm damage and addressing immediate and unmet needs of those most severely impacted. Because initially damage was underestimated, Saturday’s effort would likely not have happened, but due to persistence of individual residents and Third District County Supervisor James Ramos’ Field Rep Mark Lundquist a re-evaluation put damage estimates in the millions of dollars category and likely enough to reach the $2 million threshold for state assistance.
A county Proclamation of Local Emergency signed on Friday, along with a formal damage assessment based on the data collected this weekend, will this week go to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to determine eligibility for state aid.
