Hanover County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a volunteer organization managed by the Hanover County, Virginia’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services and its Emergency Management Department.

This program is part of a nationally supported, locally implemented initiative of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that teaches how to better prevent, prepare for, and safely respond to local hazards that may affect individuals, families and communities.

It is comprised of local residents who have completed standardized training in first aid, disaster medical operations, fire safety and suppression, light search and rescue, disaster and emergency preparedness and response, and team and incident command organization.

Hanover County CERT volunteers are trained to assist and augment response efforts during emergencies when professional responders are not immediately available.

In small scale situations, this provides essential response coordination and triage until professional responders are able to arrive. In large scale disasters, the use of trained CERT members frees up professional responders to focus their efforts on more complex, essential, and critical tasks.

Hanover County CERT works collaboratively with other regional and national CERT and public safety organizations to train and prepare for large scale and multi-regional, mass casualty events by participating in training exercises like the Virginia Operations Plan Exercise (VOPEX) – a simulated radiological emergency at the North Anna Nuclear Power Station and other regional mass casualty simulation exercises.

Locally, Hanover County CERT members are involved in public safety functions at local events like the Ashland Train Day, Ashland’s Light Up the Tracks Celebration, the Ashland Strawberry Faire, Hanover Tomato Festival, and Hanover County Rabies Clinics.

In the past, Hanover County CERT volunteers assisted with multiple COVID pandemic events (vaccination centers, food and hot spot distributions for Hanover Schools); the Louisa earthquake, water/ice distribution, and other public service events.