Press Release
On October 14, 2010, the Board of Supervisors officially approved the creation of the Pottawattamie County Disaster Animal Response Team (PCDART). We're developing the team to respond to disasters that occur within the unincorporated area of Pottawattamie County and the cities we contract with. The team will be trained and organized to set up and operate emergency pet shelters, perform rescue operations, and help to return/connect animals with their owners after a disaster.
The team will consist of volunteers who meet minimum training standards prior to being accepted on the team, and they will receive additional disaster and organizational training once they're accepted on the team.
We're going to start accepting applications for the team immediately. We're going to review the applications in December and we'll start doing interviews and selecting team members in January 2011. We hope to have the team assembled in January and we'll start doing all the training and organization of the team at that time. I would like the team to be operational and ready to respond to a disaster by July 2011.
We're only going to accept people who have completed the required FEMA disaster courses. They're available on the FEMA website for free, and take an average of 3 hours to complete. There are a total of 6 required FEMA courses to take, so there is over 18 plus hours of training for people to take before we even allow them on the team. After they're accepted, we have three trainings they will be required to take. This will be a total of at least four, maybe five days worth of training on disaster response and CPR/first aid trainings. Because this team will be working in disaster areas and with injured and frightened animals, it’s important that each team member is fully trained to handle every situation they’re faced with. This is going to be a well trained team.
I've attached the documents we will be putting on our website later this afternoon for people who are interested in the team. We're going to be sending the information out so interested people can start taking the FEMA courses so they will qualify for the team.
If you’re interested in being part of this team, I would encourage you to check out the links above and view the information regarding the PCDART. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by email
Loren T. Knauss, Chairman Pro Tem
County Supervisor
Pottawattamie County
227 South 6th Street
Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503
712-328-5644