"The Hamden Community Emergency Response Team,(CERT) sponsored by the Hamden Fire Department, graduated the first class of students in April of 2004."
Hamden’s CERT Members have assisted our community during fires, hazardous material incidents, missing person searches, weather related emergencies and mountain search and rescues at Sleeping Giant & Lake Wintergreen State Parks.
We have also facilitated Emergency Sheltering operations, in addition to the 15 to 20 Planned Community Events during the year. Hamden CERT Members are one of the main Emergency Management Components for any weather related emergency being a winter storm, tornado, hurricane or any other major incident.
It was also an honor for the Hamden CERT Members to assist at the Kleen Energy Explosion Disaster (Largest natural gas explosion in history) for three days in Middletown, Ct. assisting with security and accountability back on February 7, 2010.
During Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, we managed and operated our town’s emergency shelter at the Hamden High School for over 36 hours. A team of 17 CERT Members volunteered over 1200 collective hours of service over a four-day period! After the initial period of sheltering, our team volunteered again during a three-day P.O.D. (Point of Distribution), giving out water and food to displaced residents at the Miller Library and the Keefe Center.
During Super Storm Sandy, October 2012, our team managed shelter operations for a three-day period. Hamden CERT Members stepped up again after the most recent Tornado of May 15, 2018. During the 3 day POD (Point of Distribution/Storm Center), the Hamden CERT Members gave out over 325 cases of bottled water, hundreds of gallons of potable water, non- perishable food and snacks and supplied multiple charging stations to 79 families serving 234 individuals while volunteering over 323 service hours!
The team also has monthly training exercises and participates in community events, as well as activations of the town’s emergency operations center or the need to open an emergency shelter. Since March of 2020, Hamden CERT has also volunteered over 4,400 volunteer service hours assisting many town and private agencies during the COVID-19 Pandemic, National Health Emergency.