There are many acronyms to choose from, when it comes to emergency response; illustrated nicely by the Family Disaster Plan Resources (FDPR) for the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG):

Berkeley Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Cupertino Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Corte Madera Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NEAT)
El Cerrito Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NEAT)
Foster City Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
Fremont Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Larkspur Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
Mt. View Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergencies (CORE)
Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity (PANDA)
San Francisco Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT)
San Jose Prepared!
San Mateo Neighborhood Emergency Service Team (NEST)
San Rafael Disaster Area Response Team (DART)
Santa Clara (city) Home Emergency Assistance Team (HEAT)
Southern Marin Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Sunnyvale Neighborhoods Actively Prepare (SNAP)

Aside from NERT (just because it’s fun to say) my favorite in the above list is Palo Alto (PANDA), as it only takes a little work to turn it into something slightly different:

Palo Alto Neighborhood Disaster Activity Monitoring of Natural Incident Un-preparedness Managament (PANDAMONIUM)

Notice San Jose bucking the trend? Wonder what the effect of people wearing “Prepared” logos on their jackets would be…hard to know why they used the past tense, which could be like a slap in the face after a disaster: “I was prepared, were you?” I guess it is still better than “HEAT”, which seems a bit like an insensitive reference to the great San Francisco quake, or perhaps a subtle attempt to assert their relationship with law enforcement.

Ah, what’s in a name, anyway (AWIANA).