The Ocala Jeep Club of Florida

HOG VALLEY - A dozen jeeps fanned out in the Ocala National Forest on Sunday to look for 21 people - part of a disaster drill in which a group of four-wheel-drive enthusiasts became the county's newest certified rescue team.

At 2 p.m. Sunday, after the group successfully located the missing people, 26 Ocala Jeep Club members graduated from a Citizens Emergency Response Team program sponsored by Marion County Emergency Management.

Officials said the four-wheel drive CERT will be extremely valuable to Marion County. Tom Goforth, emergency management coordinator with the Sheriff's Office, said the new team will be able to help on search-and-rescue missions.

The 22 other CERT programs in Marion County are community-based, meaning they were trained to take care of emergencies in their own neighborhood, subdivision or retirement community.

"As far as we can tell, this may be first four-wheel-drive team of its kind in the United States," said Goforth. "This group will be a tremendous help in many situations."

The newest CERT can be mobilized throughout Marion County, which is larger than Rhode Island and includes the densely-wooded national forest. Many of the muddy roads inside the forest require a four-wheel drive vehicle.

"This is a unique group because their vehicles can often travel in areas that we (in the Sheriff's Office) can't," Goforth said. "We can use this group in many capacities, from searches to rescues. It will definitely give needed support in these type areas."

Saturday's scenario was that a storm forced six Jeeps to crash in the forest. Twenty-one people were injured, and it was the objective of the six, two-Jeep teams to find all the wounded. The wounded sought help via a citizens band radio to start the drill.

The teams zig-zagged along the roads until they found the injured. It was their job to assess the wounds and contact authorities. Caroline Scott, an On Top of the World CERT member, used make up to create pretend injuries that looked real.

Ocala Jeep Club past-president Dr. Ray Woo said he was pleased with the drill and was surprised at how tense it was being a first responder. Woo is a pediatric surgeon at Shands.

"It was definitely a different circumstance out in the woods, with injuries that they were portraying," said Woo, who is also the president of the Florida Four-Wheel Drive Association. "I feel like the community should know how diverse our club is."

The Ocala Jeep Club, which formed about 10 years ago, has 100 members, people from all types of professions. Woo said there are two doctors and two nurses in the group.

One nurse, Stephanie Barker, helped push the group toward becoming a CERT.

It started when Barker told her husband - the new CERT incident commander Steve "Shorty" Barker - that the club should get rescue training. About a dozen members started by taking CPR classes. That's when emergency management officials recognized their potential.

"I feel like we learned a lot today," Steve Barker said.

Goforth agreed, saying the drill went very smoothly.

"I think they did extremely well," said Goforth, adding that he intentionally makes the drills very difficult. "If it was a cakewalk, they wouldn't learn anything from it."

During the exercise, the Marion County Emergency Response Communication Team, or MERT - a group of ham radio operators - also tested its communication system near Lake Ocklawaha RV Park and Campground.

The MERT drill commander was Brian Hatcher, who also created a scenario in which the communications would be very difficult. He felt that the MERT operators handled the scenario well.

Participants playing the roles of patients said they wanted to help the community. Ernie Prevedel said he wanted to play the role of a victim to help train the four-wheel Drive CERT.

"I just wanted to do something to help the community," he said.

Joe Callahan can be reached at joe.callahan@starbanner.com or paged at 898-9649.

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