Emergency shelters, a full scale exercise, and developing a community emergency response team, or CERT, were discussed at Friday’s Washington County Preparedness Consortium meeting.

Washington County Emergency Management Director Marissa Reisen said she is working with the Red Cross to review current shelter locations and to update the list in the case of an emergency. Regarding a full scale exercise, the consortium agreed to include children to help prepare emergency responders should a situation ever occur with kids involved. Washington County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Shawn Ellingson recommended a way to include multiple school districts would be to hold it at the Kirkwood Washington Regional Center if it works with their staff and schedule. The consortium has the exercise planned for August. Also, Reisen said she is working to hold CERT events in Washington County in the spring and then recruit volunteers for the team.