ARES Letter for September 22, 2005
================= The ARES E-Letter September 22, 2005 ================= Edited by Rick Palm, K1CE ================================================= ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial questions or comments: Rick Palm, K1CE, k1ce@arrl.net ================================================= As this is being written, very dangerous Hurricane Rita steams westward into the Gulf of Mexico. South Texas SEC Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, a frequent flyer in this newsletter, writes in a report to ARRL: "Harris County (South Texas) will open its EOC for 24/7 operation beginning tonight (September 21) to support the Galveston evacuation, if ordered. ARES has been requested to serve the EOC for the duration. Harris County Hospital District officials have requested ARES operators to be on standby in case they are needed. The Harris County ARES leaders met Monday night to assess their assets, and have subsequently said they have sufficient resources to support this request. "In accordance with the state's new evacuation plans, Galveston evacuees will be sheltered in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston. (Houston area hotels remain very full with Katrina refugees)." ____________________________ Correction: I want to apologize to D. W. Thorne, K6SOJ, for getting his call sign wrong in the first issue of this newsletter. A longstanding pet peeve is missing someone's call sign. I'd rather have my name misspelled than my call sign! Sorry about that, D.W. We were trying to thank him for "his pioneering efforts with emcomm newsletters; he is credited with setting the standard for such newsletters." - K1CE ======================================== IN THIS ISSUE: + NORTH CAROLINA'S OPHELIA RESPONSE + HURRICANE KATRINA RESPONSE UPDATE + SHELTER OPERATIONS IN HARRIS COUNTY, SOUTH TEXAS + "FOG OF WAR" -- HOUSTON KATRINA RESPONSE DAY 16 + SPECIAL NEEDS SHELTER, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI + MORE ON THE SATERN STORY + AMATEURS SUPPORT BROADCAST STATION ROLE + POST-KATRINA: 800 MHZ TRUNK SYSTEMS FIRST TO GO + OPINION: LET'S MAKE ARRL AN "NGO" + NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NIMS) TRAINING + LETTERS FROM KATRINA + FINAL THOUGHT =============================== + NORTH CAROLINA'S OPHELIA RESPONSE [The following is a report on fine North Carolina ARES activity in support of storm Ophelia from Bernie Nobles, WA4MOK, North Carolina Section Emergency Coordinator, forwarded by SM John Covington, W4CC]. All of North Carolina's coastal counties were activated in anticipation of Hurricane Ophelia. The eastern branch EOC was in contact with the hardest hit counties of Burnswick, and New Hanover. The eastern branch EOC operators used 3927 kHz and 7232 kHz, and the Burnswick County repeater on 147.315 MHz. All operations went smoothly and the participation was great. We had more ECs on HF than ever before, and I would like to stress the importance of having that capability. I would like to see all ECs become General class licensees for that reason. There was a lot of activity on our coastal linking system, which allows us to get into the outer banks. Richard Marlin, K4HAT, at Cape Hatteras fed us information about the storm effects, and several messages were given to the eastern branch EOC director. All NWS weather stations should have HF capability--I will talk to NWS staff at the Morehead and Raleigh stations about arranging for that capability. -- Contact NC SEC Bernie Nobles, WA4MOK: <bernie_nobles@unctv.org>; + HURRICANE KATRINA RESPONSE UPDATE [Much of the following overview of the current Katrina response was culled from summaries of daily teleconferences of ARES officials in and around the affected areas conducted by Steve Ewald, WV1X, of the ARRL Headquarters staff. After the overview, we have a few compelling reports from the trenches. I think readers will find them to be riveting. - K1CE] Texas: In the Houston area, STX SEC Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, reported that hams are still supporting the big Houston Astrodome shelter. Other shelters in Houston have closed or were consolidated. Ray Taylor, N5NAV, who has reviewed the shelter situation throughout the entire state, said 160 shelters remain open. Alabama: SEC Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, reports that the Montgomery American Red Cross staging area staff has been "slowing down the pipeline" of available Amateur Radio operators because the need for operators is decreasing -- more Red Cross shelters and kitchens are getting telephone and cell phone service back. The Montgomery American Red Cross Amateur Radio HF station used the call sign N4AP and the frequencies 3.965 MHz and 7.280 MHz for communication with other Red Cross shelters/kitchens on the air throughout the region. Almost one hundred radio amateurs deployed to Red Cross shelters and kitchens throughout the affected region from the Montgomery staging center. Some operators have gone to the shelters alone, while others have gone in teams of two. Amateur Radio has been the primary shelter communication system for many shelters that do not have reliable means for communicating. Other operators have been given Salvation Army assignments. Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN, said some of the served agencies are "re-tooling" at the moment, and supporting radio operators are taking a rest at home before heading out again on new legs of the assignment. Louisiana: Acting Louisiana SEC Al Oubre, K5DPG, was expecting operators from Colorado, Wisconsin and a team from the ARRL Western Washington section. He was anticipating more Amateur Radio needed for Red Cross ops in St. Bernard and Jefferson Parishes. Oubre said he has 12 radio amateurs on current assignment in Covington, Bogalusa and Franklinton, Louisiana. Phone and cell phone service is slowly returning to some parts of the state. Oubre concluded: "All in all, a good reply from the country in mutual assistance." -- Contact Al Oubre, K5DPG: <k5dpg@cox.net>; Benson Scott, AE5V, and Mickey Cox, K5MC, among others, have been handling health and welfare traffic. Scott is doing so via NTS Digital operations and Winlink. They are working on finding outlets to deliver the traffic. Mississippi: In Harrison and Jackson Counties, more repeaters are back on-line as commercial power is restored. The Harrison County EOC is closing its Amateur Radio response operation. Radio amateurs are expected to continue to support the Stennis EOC in hardest hit Hancock county until the end of the month. Northern Florida SM Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP, has been coordinating Florida ARES operator resources to assist there. Northern Florida SEC Joe Bushel, W2DWR, reported that Amateur Radio operators were helping the National Guard working in this area to keep in touch with the EOC. Mississippi SM/SEC Malcolm Keown, W5XX, stressed the need that SECs and SMs should continue to act as "screeners" for volunteer radio operators coming in from around the country. + SHELTER OPERATIONS IN HARRIS COUNTY, SOUTH TEXAS The Harris County Amateur Radio community, lead by the Harris County ARES Emergency Coordinators, continues to assist with communications for various Incident Command elements at both the Astrodome/Reliant Center and George R. Brown Convention Center shelters. More than 130 licensed Amateur Radio operators are participating on-site, with many more support operators behind the scenes. Other amateurs from surrounding counties are also being used in this deployment. Harris County emergency management's Regional Incident Management System (RIMS) is used to track communication events and staffing. To date, 1,626 person-hours of direct Amateur Radio communications support have been provided. A communications link was established between Harris and Galveston Counties to support the use of FEMA-leased cruise ships as shelters. This involved the Galveston ARES EC and Amateur Radio operators of both counties. Alongside the on-site communications support effort, Amateur Radio operators who could not participate in the deployment joined a Harris County ARES health and welfare messaging task force to contact shelters in the greater Harris County area. Task force operators gather messages from shelter residents for assisting in reuniting friends and families. Success stories are already being heard. This focus will remain as long as needed. -- Harris County (Texas) ARES DEC, Ken Mitchell, KD2KW + "FOG OF WAR" -- HOUSTON KATRINA RESPONSE DAY 16 [Here is a personal glimpse into the mental and physical challenges facing ARES volunteers, from Hal Merritt, KD5HWW, EC Northwest Harris County ARES--ed.] "At least I think it is day 16. It is something of a blur. Mental exhaustion is everywhere. The days are so intense that it takes hours to fall asleep. We estimate 2,000 person-hours logged so far. "Things are contracting. We are down to our last few thousand folks in shelters. It was difficult to recruit enough hams but now it is getting to be nearly impossible. Operators have given their all. They have exhausted their vacations and pushed their employers' patience as far as they dare. We have 130 hams on the resource list. "Things continue to change at a rapid clip. By the time we can respond to a need, there can be a change. That can be frustrating for all. This 'fog of war' remains a huge challenge." + SPECIAL NEEDS SHELTER, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI [The mission: care for 1,400 ill and elderly evacuees at the "Special Needs Shelter" in Biloxi. Army MARS members John Pinkard, KD5KXJ/AAM4EMS, and John Whitten, W5JWW/AAA4MS, deployed on August 30 from northern Mississippi. Both were volunteers with the Mississippi State Guard. Pinkard sent the following account of their week's work in Biloxi. -ed.] I am 50 and thought I had seen everything. But this was the most horrendous vision of my life. We deployed as part of the State Guard in support of the Mississippi Medical Detachment and arrived at the special needs shelter at the Biloxi High School. Occupants of the shelter totaled 1,400 persons, mostly nursing home and hospice patients. Most of them had given up hope. They had scant food and water for two days, and were without power or sanitary facilities. The staff (three nurses and one doctor) was overwhelmed and exhausted. They had almost no medical supplies. The scene was one of horror: non-ambulatory occupants were reduced to relieving themselves where they lay. The smell was overpowering. The staff was doing their best, having braved the fury of the storm to remain at their post rendering aid to their helpless charges. They saved lives by dogged determination. I began erecting antennas and setting up a communication room. We ran three portable generators for vital services, cooling fans, O2 concentrators, and communication equipment. We used a Harris commercial HF rig and a Yaesu FT-817, tuned to the local amateur club's VHF repeater. Several H-Ts were used. Thanks to radio amateurs set up at strategic points, contact was made with ambulance dispatch, Keesler AFB, Mississippi State Police, and the EOCs for Harrison, Hancock, and Jackson Counties. Contact was also made with Army MARS. Traffic consisted of several requests for ambulance assistance for the evacuation of four critically ill patients, and for supplies and materials. Supplies began to arrive and things began to improve rapidly. While the role of HF operations cannot be minimized, the real star of the show was VHF operations allowing quick access to a wide array of assets, without which the outcome of the operation would have in no way been nearly so favorable. + MORE ON THE SATERN STORY [The following is from Bill Sexton, N1IN. I am still listening to the SATERN net on 14.265 MHz, which is still doing an excellent job. --K1CE] One of Katrina's many frustrating ironies was that trapped residents in New Orleans couldn't get through to local rescuers on the telephone but were able to connect with relatives or friends many miles away--as far away as China. Related to that was yet another wrenching anomaly: an all-too-pervasive lack (at least during the early days) of radio contact into News Orleans. Facilities were under water or without power. For a fortunate number of storm victims, Amateur Radio operators working with the Salvation Army and other relief agencies provided the vital long-distance link to rescuers. It was roundabout, but it worked. When SOS calls began pouring into the Salvation Army, for example, a quick alliance was forged between SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) and SHARES (SHAred RESources program), the federal net linking government offices across the country. Through SHARES, SATERN's radio amateurs could relay traffic via MARS (Military Affiliate Radio System), which is also composed of hams and is a key SHARES component. "They are still stranded! They still stay in their house . . . please send rescuer there to save them," said the e-mail, one of more than 50,000 health-and-welfare inquiries received by the Salvation Army in the first week. It was forwarded through MARS, and a MARS operator later confirmed that the rescue was successful. These pleas were typical: * "He is elderly and stranded upstairs. No food, no water, no meds. Has health problems." * "Handful of seniors in a senior building. Right off Lake Ponchartrain they are on the 10th floor and running out of food." * "Stranded in girls' dormitory with dozens of other students in the upper levels. Lower levels are flooded. No food or water. Please rescue. Girls are from all parts of the USA." Katrina is possibly the most catastrophic emergency in the MARS organization's operational history going back to its conception in 1925 (then known as the Army Amateur Radio Service). Among other things, this was also the most widespread communications breakdown in US history; and the primary mission of MARS is providing backup communications. Significantly, it was the communications know-how of radio amateurs, and secondarily their radio equipment that provided much of the immediate help to the disaster zone. + AMATEURS SUPPORT BROADCAST STATION ROLE A low power FM broadcast station, WQRZ-LP is owned and operated by the Hancock County Amateur Radio Association, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. WQRZ-LP broadcasts on 103.5 MHz and was the only surviving broadcast facility in Hancock County, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The station was granted an emergency waiver by the FCC to temporarily raise its ERP from 100 watts to 2,000 watts to increase its range in order to better serve the public with emergency news and information. The following engineers, both Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) members and Amateur Radio operators donated their time and effort to install new equipment and raise the station's power level: Gary Sessums, KC5QCN; Sara Allen, KI4KMI; Gary Minker, KC4UDZ; and Brice Phillips, KB5MPW. We moved the surviving WQRZ-LP studio equipment to the Hancock County EOC and installed it along with brand new equipment, creating a new radio station, allowing the Hancock County Emergency Management staff to talk directly to the public from the EOC. 3,000 portable AM/FM radios were distributed at the food, water, and ice distribution points. Harris Corporation and Marti Electronics provided the equipment used to make this happen. -- Gary Sessums, KC5QCN, RACES Officer/ARES Emergency Coordinator, Hillsborough County, Florida + POST-KATRINA: 800 MHZ TRUNK SYSTEMS FIRST TO GO The 800 MHz and other trunked systems commonly used by local and state agencies were the first to go in the hard hit areas of Katrina. In many cases, we found police and fire units dispatching from a car or HT. Even after two weeks, we still had radio amateurs handling all of the EOC and public safety communications in a number of counties and parishes on the coast. The most valuable asset by far has been the totally self-contained Amateur Radio operator or ham team who went in with radios, generators, antennas, food, water, and sleeping bags. -- Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN + OPINION: LET'S MAKE ARRL AN "NGO" Nearly all government emergency responders still regard radio amateurs as outsiders and not part of their system of operations. They don't understand our capability. We don't fit their ideal of an emergency responder, and consequently there is a lack of trust. Non-government organizations (NGO) like the Red Cross are also outsiders but have an accepted, defined role and provide an excellent, needed service. Maybe we, ARRL, should promote ourselves more as an official NGO. I worked for an NGO, Direct Relief International, in Santa Barbara, California, and had a chance to see how they work. NGOs see themselves as outsiders looking in, but take full advantage of that role. I saw them flourish during the tsunami disaster because they are an alternative to government agencies with their attendant problems. Let's make the ARRL an NGO, because that is exactly what we are: an alternative communications resource ready and able to function anywhere and anytime with trained and dedicated volunteers. -- John Wallack, W6TLK <w6tlk@yahoo.com>; [John is the former ARRL Section Manager of the San Francisco section. - ed.] + NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NIMS) TRAINING Hillsborough County (Florida) ARES/RACES is sponsoring National Incident Management System (NIMS) training on Saturday, October 1, 2005 from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM at the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), 2711 East Hanna Avenue, in Tampa, Florida. This training is offered free of charge. Developed by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security at the request of the President, NIMS integrates effective practices in emergency preparedness and response into a comprehensive national framework for Incident Command System (ICS) management. NIMS provides a consistent nationwide template to enable all government, private-sector, and non-governmental organizations to work together during domestic incidents. This one-day training session will consist of the following three Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) courses: ICS-100 -- Introduction to Incident Command System ICS-200 -- Basic Incident Command System IS 700 -- National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction NIMS is a fundamental component of a nationwide credentialing system for Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Services, Fire Fighting and Hazardous Materials Response, Law Enforcement, Health Care, Public Health, Public Works, and Search and Rescue personnel. Students successfully completing the training and receiving a passing score of 75% on the final exam will earn NIMS certification. NIMS certification facilitates the immediate identification and dispatch of appropriate and qualified personnel for mutual-aid response to any incident. Please e-mail <races@hillsboroughcounty.org>; or call the Hillsborough County ARES/RACES office located at the EOC at (813) 224-8544 to register for this course. -- Gary Sessums, KC5QCN, RACES Officer/ARES Emergency Coordinator, Hillsborough County, Florida + LETTERS FROM KATRINA During and after every disaster, the communication problems are lamented. I am curious as to why the various governmental agencies do not just give up and rely on the Amateur Radio Service for communication. There seem to be plenty of trained amateurs with equipment, able and willing to provide this service. The government provides training grants, and some reimbursement for volunteers (although the volunteers seem to be willing to provide the service without reimbursement), yet there seems to be a drive by the government to duplicate our services in some government structure, probably at great cost, and without a great deal of added value. -- Dick Harper, KC9BBA <KC9BBA@arrl.net>; + FINAL THOUGHT This issue by no means presents a complete and comprehensive picture of ARES activity across the several current emergency fronts. There are hundreds of untold other stories and reports of activity out there that go undocumented. If you or your team's own activity is not included in this or other Amateur Radio media, please know that we fully support and applaud your efforts, too. Better yet, if you can somehow find some time and energy, please document and send your reports and stories to the editor. That way, the rest of the "ARES nation" can marvel at your efforts as well. - K1CE
