Bay County's emergency director trains Haitians on how to
prepare for disaster
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
By Josh Grosteffon
Times Writer
Paul A. Cormier gets paid to plan for emergencies, a skill he hopes can
help people in third-world countries.
Cormier, Bay County emergency services director, traveled to Haiti in
November to teach 22 school teachers, administrators and community leaders
how to handle disasters.
Community Emergency Response Training, or CERT, teaches people how to
rescue people from emergency situations, such as fires and collapsed
buildings, and how to get victims to medical services.
"What we found is that there is a larger need for these teams in these
underdeveloped countries," Cormier said.
Cormier is no stranger to Haiti. He has 10 years experience in the
region.
His first exposure to the country came during his time with the U.S.
Coast Guard. He also organized the Soleli Foundation, which provides a
free education for Haitian children.
The need for a program like CERT became apparent last summer, Cormier
said. Hurricane Jean hammered the town of Gonaive, Haiti's third-largest
city.
The storm left 250,000 citizens homeless and killed more than 3,000 as
both the violent ocean and heavy mountain rains washed over the city.
"We could have lessened it tremendously if these people knew what to
do," Cormier said.
Now, Cormier and other program supporters, including Huron County's
emergency manager Steven A. Leese, are calling for the federal government
to fund CERT programs overseas as both a money- and life-saver.
"The U.S. government can save a tremendous amount of money if we do
something ahead of time," Cormier said.
The United States spent more than $2.4 billion in natural disaster
relief in 2004, according to numbers released by the White House.
Aside from money saved in relief, the impact of large disasters - such
as the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that has killed more than 200,000 so
far - can be lessened, he said.
"The initial lives lost were mainly because of ignorance. They didn't
know how to respond to a weather event like that," Cormier said of the
tsunami.
If it receives federal support, the CERT program would educate
third-world citizens on how to prevent deaths during weather disasters and
how to care for those injured without outside assistance.
Initial efforts would focus on underdeveloped countries in the
Caribbean, then branch out to other areas of the world.
The Haitian citizens who participated in the November program were
eager to learn, Cormier said.
"It was just unbelievable how quickly they picked up this stuff when we
had the classes," Cormier said.
Cormier expects to return to Haiti again later this year.
- Josh Grosteffon is a Times writer. He can be reached at 894-9647.
