Available Training

Jefferson County Project Impact Offers a Wide Variety of Training Programs in an effort to make our Community Disaster Resistant. If you want further information about any of the programs listed here, or to enroll for any of the workshops or classes, either CONTACT US or call 304-728-3329.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Class

At the request of the Jefferson County Project Impact Counter-Terrorism Committee, the Jefferson County Red Cross will teach their Weapons of Mass Destruction Class on September 10, 2003 at 1:00 p.m. in the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Services. (Darrell Penwell’s office). Jeff Levesque, Disaster Services Coordinator for the local Red Cross will teach the 3.5 hour course. “The class will raise some very important questions that we need to ask ourselves as a community,” Mr. Levesque said. The class is free to all participants. Pre-registration is necessary and can be achieved by calling the Jefferson County Red Cross Office at 725-5015.

The Disaster Planning Class for Businesses that was taught in July is being brought back by popular demand. The class will be held for a second time on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 from 1:00-4:30 p.m. at the Public Services Facility at Bardane. This training is a project of the Public Awareness and Education Committee of Project Impact. The committee’s goals for all businesses in Jefferson County are:

• For every business in Jefferson County to develop their own disaster preparedness and continuity plan
• For every plan to be consistent with the County’s Disaster Plan (available from the Jefferson County Office of Emergency Services)
• To make available resources to assist businesses to develop plans
• To teach workshops for groups of business owners and CEOs about the importance of planning, how to plan and to provide them with resources
• To encourage businesses to educate their employees on family preparedness in addition to business safety.

The 3-hour workshop includes information about why businesses need to plan, how to get started, how to do a pre-plan assessment of the business, assessing risks and vulnerability to specific hazards, getting into the plan and sample outlines, IT security and vulnerabilities, mitigation practices that can save your business and maybe your life; employee preparedness, how to include workers with disabilities within your plan, local emergency contact list, and a resource guide. Each participant will received a certificate at the end of the workshop. The workshop will be taught by Barbara Miller, Jefferson County Project Impact Coordinator and Paul Woods, President of Business Technology Source in Shepherdstown. Pre-registration is necessary and can be accomplished by calling the Project Impact Office at 728-3329 or by emailing to bmiller@jeffersoncountywv.org

National Flood Insurance Program Training for Lending Institutions and Insurance Agents Workshops

The National Flood Insurance Program can be confusing to lenders and insurance agents, but Project Impact has teamed up with Richard Sobota of the National Flood Insurance Program to bring two critical workshops to Jefferson County. Both will be held on Tuesday, November 4, 2003 at the Public Services Facility in Bardane. A four-hour morning session will be held, beginning at 8 a.m. for Insurance Agents. CEU’s will be awarded to participants who attend the Insurance Workshop. An afternoon session will be held for employees of lending institutions who want to learn more about the NFIP. To register for either of these workshops, contact the Jefferson County Project Impact Office at 728-3329 or email bmiller@jeffersoncountywv.org.

CERT Training (Community Emergency Response Teams)

Jefferson County Project Impact is offering CERT training to residents of Jefferson County. We are currently awaiting funding for this program, but are beginning to collect names, addresses and emails of those who may be interested in taking the CERT training. Dates have NOT been set for these classes. Classes will meet one night a week for 8 weeks. You will learn about a different topic each night.

Week 1-What is a Disaster and Disaster Mitigation

Week 2: Disaster Preparedness

Week 3: Fire Safety

Weeks 4 & 5 Emergency First Aid I and III

Week 6: Terrorism Preparedness and Crime Prevention

Week 7: Disaster Psychology, Special Populations and Animals in Disaster

Week 8: Exercise.

All classes are Free and for the General Public. To register for this course,

CONTACT US.

SkyWarn Spotter Training

SKYWARN is a concept developed in the early 1970s that was intended to promote a cooperative effort between the National Weather Service and communities. The emphasis of the effort is often focused on the storm spotter, an individual who takes a position near their community and reports wind gusts, hail size, rainfall, and cloud formations that could signal a developing tornado. Another part of SKYWARN is the receipt and effective distribution of National Weather Service information. The organization of spotters and the distribution of warning information lie with the National Weather Service or with an emergency management agency within the community. Storm Spotting and Storm Chasing is dangerous and should not be done without proper training, experience and equipment. The National Weather Service conducts SkyWarn classes across the United States. The local courses were jointly sponsored by Jefferson County Project Impact, Jefferson County Office of Emergency Services and Jefferson County Communications Center.

· BASIC SkyWarn Class was held on June 4, 2002 at Bardane. Barbara Watson of the National Weather Service taught the course. The following persons were trained at the June 4^th class: Ray Adkins, Don Jones, Tina Jones, David A. Michael, Jimmy D. Pearce, Sharice Dawson, Gary Couch, David Holmes, Katherine Dunbar, Jeff Levesque, Patricia Hale, Michelle Hale, Brian Olden, Carolyn Collin, David Rickard, Dana Penwell, Darrell Penwell, Chad Rudolph, Mark J. Hafferty, David R. Will, Eugene Rice, Joyce Marken, James Hayden, Barbara Miller, John Mansoher, Curt Comfton, Jeff Lipscomb, John Sherwood, Robert Seastrom, Lynne Deming,Sarah Johnson, Michael Higgins, Judy Birdlebough, and Charlotte Tachoir.

• The November 12, 2002 Basics I SkyWarn Class had 50 participants. The Basics I Class is a prerequisite to all of the advanced classes of SkyWarn. Participants learned about the National Weather Service, the SkyWarn Program, severe storm spotting techniques, how to report to the National Weather Service and advice on other types of training. Those attending the November 12 Class were: John Anderson, Gerald Arndt, Sharon Athey, Liz Beamer, John Binkowski, Kym Burke, Lynn Carroll, Karin Christensen, Marjorie Christie, Raymond Christie, Carol Del-Colle, Stephanie Dodson, Pam Dudash, Rendell Ford, Karen Fuegi, Virginia Guynn, Keith Guyot, Barbara Heinz, Sheri Hoff, Rita Howell, Ann Kerfoot, Tom Kerfoot, Frank Markstrom, Merri McIntyre, John Metts, JoAnn Nicholson, Sandra D’Onofrio, Tom D’Onofrio, Nona Painter, Joe Plum, Jeff Polczynski, Laura Pope, Charles Rochelean, Brian Rutledge, Lisa Rutledge, Cheryl Siler, Kala Spiker, Kyle Spiker, Joe Walter, Carolyn Wright, Thomas Wright, Shannon Fultz, Thomas Lufkin, Irvin Athey, Susan Spurlock, William Samsell, Jeremy Holler, and Robyn Potter. The class was taught by Barbara Watson, Meteorologist at the Sterling Office of the National Weather Service.

· Winter Storm SkyWarn Class was held on Novmeber 14, 2002 at Bardane, thirty-eight participants learned about Winter Storm SkyWarn Training. This course taught winter hazards, winter preparation and safety, winter normals and extremes, what makes winter storms, NWS forecasts and products, and the role of Skywarn and reporting. John Margraf of the Sterling Office of the National Weather Service taught the course. Participants in this course were: Irwin Athey, Sharon Athey, Karin Christensen, Sandra D’Onofrio, Carol Del-Colle, Joseph Faber, Karen Fuegi, Keith Guyot, Barbara Heinz, David Holmes, Sarah Johnson, Ann Kerfoot, Tom Kerfoot, Lawrence Kutz, Mark Lafferty, Jeff Lipscomb, Joyce Marken, Frank Markstrom, John Metts, Barbara Miller, Dana Penwell, Darrell Penwell, Joe Plum, Robyn Potter, Charles Rochelean, Brian Rutledge, Lisa Rutledge, William Samsell, Cheryl Siler, Dave Smith, Kala Spiker, Kyle Spiker, Susan Spurlock, Dave Takarsh, Carolyn Wright, Craig Wright, Dana Wright, and Thomas Wright.

· Advanced SkyWarn Class was held on October 1, 2002 at Bardane. The following persons were trained in the Advanced Class: Darrell Penwell, Dana Penwell, Don Jones, Tina Jones, Barbara Miller, Sarah Johnson, Joyce Marken, Gary Butera, Jeff Lipscomb, David Holmes, and Jeff Levesque.

National Flood Insurance Program Workshops

Jefferson County Project Impact sponsored workshops about the National Flood Insurance Program for lenders and for insurance agencies on September 25, 2002. PI Partner-Jefferson Memorial Hospital co-sponsored the activity by providing the meeting space and providing refreshments to the attendees. The four-hour insurance workshop is approved by the West Virginia Insurance Commission for 4 CEUs for the attendees.

Those attending the Insurance Agency Workshop included: Barbara Dugan and Catherine Baer from John Midkiff’s State Farm Insurance; Teri Gunther and Connie Statler, from Fargo Insurance; Diane Dawes and Katherine Muller from Thomas Maiden Nationwide Insurance; Jim Arndt and Mandy Beam from Arndt/McBee Insurance; Gene Marrone, FEMA Region III, Rebecca Joyce, PI Coordinator Central Shenandoah Planning District and Barbara Miller, Jefferson County PI Coordinator.

Attending the Lending Institution Workshop were: Linda Stewart, Karen Hensell, Mary Bowers, Marcia Lerch and Shelly Holmes, all from Bank of Charles Town, Gene Marrone, FEMA Region III, Rebecca Joyce, PI Coordinator-Central Shenandoah Valley Planning District and Barbara Miller-Jefferson County PI Coordinator.

Business Workshop Teaches How to Stay “Open for Business”

Jim Russell from IBHS tells the group, “ A community cannot survive a disaster unless its businesses can survive a disaster.”

Mr. Jim Russell, VP of Outreach for the Institute for Business and Home Safety taught the “Open for Business” workshop on January 8^, 2003. A comment from one attendee sums up the workshop: “The people who didn’t attend this really missed something!”

Don’t fret if you missed the workshop. If you would like to have a copy of the information that teaches you how to make a Disaster Recovery Plan and other handouts from the workshop, contact the Project Impact Office at 728-3329.

Participants learning what they can do to reduce losses in the pre-disaster time frame.