SB QST @ ARL $ARLB061
ARLB061 ARES teams deployed for Hurricane

ZCZC AG61
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 61  ARLB061
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  August 26, 1998
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB061
ARLB061 ARES teams deployed for Hurricane

Amateur Radio Emergency Service teams are deployed in coastal
Carolina regions as the massive Hurricane Bonnie approaches and
Hurricane Danielle gains strength farther out in the Atlantic.
Tropical storm-force wind and rain lashed the Atlantic coast early
Wednesday as the edge the hurricane reached the US mainland.  More
than a half million residents and visitors in the Carolinas have
been ordered to move inland.  Mobile home owners in 44 North
Carolina counties have been asked to evacuate.

The National Weather Service hurricane warnings now extend from
Chincoteague, Virginia, to Edisto Beach, South Carolina, some 50
miles south of Charleston.  The NWS says Bonnie took a more
northerly path overnight and now is expected to make landfall
between Morehead City and Wilmington, North Carolina, by Wednesday
afternoon.

North Carolina Section Manager Reed Whitten, AB4W, says shelters for
evacuees are expected to be along the I-95 corridor, well inland.
''Our goal is to have at least one ham in every shelter,'' he said.
Hams deployed at shelters will provide communication support and
backup, handle outgoing health and welfare traffic, and reassure
people in the shelter that they ''that they have not lost all
communication.''  Hams working in shelters are advised to be very
visible in the shelters for that reason.

Hams are also staffing emergency operations centers in the wake of
ARES activations.

The Hurricane Watch Net operates on 14.325 MHz.  This is a directed
net.  Stations should not transmit until invited to do so by the net
control station.  Hurricane Watch Net members provide ground level
meteorological reports to the National Hurricane Center.

ARRL section officials in the affected areas have announced the
following regional HF net frequencies to handle emergency-related
traffic:

South Carolina: 3.915 MHz

North Carolina: 3.923 MHz (7.232 MHz alternate)

Virginia: 3.910 MHz (7.260 MHz alternate), with health-and-welfare
traffic on 3.947 MHz (7.240 MHz alternate).
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/EX