Emergency preparedness is CERT-ified success

Be prepared.

It’s not just the Boy Scout motto.

It’s also a timely approach to life, one that helps define those who train to be Community Emergency Response Team or CERT, members.

Local CERT training starts Jan. 9 at Shelter Bay Clubhouse.

The mission is one that has helped shape lives here and elsewhere – and not just those victimized by hurricanes, floods, fires and earthquakes. The trainees themselves have found CERT to be, if not life-saving, certainly life-changing.

Regardless of age.

Consider its impact in Mart, Texas, a town of 2,200 people, where the local high school offers stu...