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Jake Peng helps CERT's Gordon Nathan carry emergency water barrels to his father's trailer. Photo Chris Lavin
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Everyone knows the drill: Be prepared. The local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), however, has jump-started efforts of dozens of families to prepare for a major weather event or earthquake by ordering emergency water barrels at cost. And more good news is that they have another shipment coming in, and anyone in the Lamorinda area can order them.
"We go by the rule of threes," said Duncan Seibert, program manager for the Lamorinda CERT program. "You can go three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in extreme conditions, three days without water, and three weeks without food."
Lamorinda CERT is a community-based disaster response team that provides training for volunteers interested in learning about how to respond to disasters in Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda and the surrounding unincorporated areas.
Yet CERT is now concentrating especially on water. Seibert found a supplier from which he has ordered more emergency water barrels - dozens of families have already participated - and wants more people to order some. CERT estimates that each person needs one gallon of drinking water per day, and another gallon for washing and cleaning if the tap goes dry. The organization offers 15-gallon holding barrels for $33 and 55-gallon ones for $61. Buyers also need a wrench, a siphon and spigots, which are also provided at cost.
Recently CERT volunteer Gordon Nathan was busy distributing barrels to families picking them up at the Moraga-Orinda Fire Station. "It's a great idea," he said. "It's wonderful that this got organized."
Anyone from the Lamorinda area is welcome to buy them by going to www.supplies.lamorindaCERT.org. Barrels ordered this month must be picked up in person, however, on Jan. 22 or 23. "The shipping is the expensive part," Seibert said. Details are available at the website.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA