Getting Ready To Go

Team personnel from the northern part of the state are preparing to head down to Gahanna for the briefing tonight. They are brining with them a Type-1 Mobile Communications Center from Chagrin Valley Dispatch, callsign HAVOC-1. This is a multi vectored capable unit, with the ability to function as a mobile PSAP, field command post, or personnel support unit.

Using a trailer loaned from Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, personnel from Central Ohio are loading radio equipment and other technical components. This will also be carrying the team’s personnel gear, food, and water.

Team personnel from Ohio MARCS are seen here testing one of two generators that will travel with the team to Florida.

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Ohio TERT is part of the National Joint TERT Initiative. For media inquiries during their deployment, please contact Committee Co-Chair Mory Fuhrmann at fuhrmannm@mifflin-oh.gov, or Committee Member Adam Moledor at amoledor@southsummitdispatch.com

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Ohio TERT Deploys to Florida

Following the landfall of Hurricane Ian, and receipt of a request for help, a team of Ohio 911 dispatchers, radio technicians, and support personnel are heading to Florida to lend assistance.

The Ohio TERT Team, part of the Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce, are a group of public safety personnel from across Ohio who have volunteered for a 14-day deployment to assist local 911 centers, fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies whose own personnel have been on duty without break since Ian’s landfall near Cayo Costa on September 27th. Other TERT Teams from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and others are also responding to Florida’s call for help.

The 18 member team is comprised of members from across the state, and includes personnel from centers in Strongsville, Gahanna, Urbana, Bedford, Westlake, North Lawrence, Franklin County, and the State of Ohio. They will be assigned to work 12 hour shifts in centers in the hardest hit part of Florida, to allow home agency personnel time to decompress, and address their own home situations, which were not immune from Ian’s impact.

Ohio TERT Committee Co-Chair Cody Post, who works for the City of Akron, said that the team’s goal is to assist their Florida counterparts in any way possible. “Our colleagues in Florida have endured quite a disaster, and the situation is still unfolding. Our aim, along with the other state TERT Teams, is to give the Florida dispatchers and technicians a chance to catch their breath, and figure out how their homes and loved ones fared during Ian.”

The team departs Monday morning from Gahanna, and expects to arrive in Florida on Tuesday afternoon.

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Ohio TERT is part of the National Joint TERT Initiative. For media inquiries during their deployment, please contact Committee Co-Chair Mory Fuhrmann at fuhrmannm@mifflin-oh.gov, or Committee Member Adam Moledor at amoledor@southsummitdispatch.com

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U.S. Virgin Islands Deployment

On January 4th, 2022 a team of 9 dispatchers from Northeast Ohio, under the umbrella of Chagrin Valley Dispatch prepared to leave Cleveland Hopkins International airport to travel to the U.S. Virgin Island for the work experience of a lifetime. These Dispatchers included: Matt Reinke, Vanessa Headley, and Jackie Chappuies from Chagrin Valley Dispatch – Bedford; Danielle Short from Chagrin Valley Dispatch – Brecksville; Anna Calabrese, Tom Downs, and Jayme Kacica from Chagrin Valley Dispatch – Cleveland Heights; and Erin Iorillo and Christine Eddy from Southwest Emergency Dispatch. Our 10th team member, Becky Naymik from Southwest Emergency Dispatch met us in St Croix on January 5th.

This trip would consist of two teams of 5 working in the two 911 Emergency Communications centers in the U.S. Virgin Islands; St. Thomas and St. Croix.

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