The Charlottesville City Sheriff’s Office would like to extend an invitation to you and all citizens of Charlottesville to attend the WMD/All Hazards Community Awareness and Partnership Training for Disaster Preparedness.  This unique training opportunity provided by the National Sheriff’s Association is designed to educate the community how best to prepare and respond to a disaster when emergency responders are overwhelmed.  Nationally, Hurricane Katrina taught us that citizens may be left to cope with a crisis on their own for the first few hours or even longer.   Locally, we had a very snowy winter last year that left people stuck in their tracks.  We also had some bad “microburst” storms last summer that left homes damaged, trees down and people without power for days.  Training includes:

* How to create a Family Disaster Plan

* What to include in a Family Disaster Kit

* Developing a Community Resource Database

* Crisis Response

* Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive information

* Terrorism Awareness

* A Desktop Exercise specific to Charlottesville

A complementary continental breakfast and lunch will be provided with the course.  The class will take place at the Holiday Inn-University Area, 1901 Emmet Street on March 12, 2011 between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM.  The banquet room will be open at 8:30 AM for registration.  This training is cost-free to all attendees but is limited to the first 50 people that register.  If you are able to attend, please contact the Sheriff’s Office at 434-970-3777.