From: vikki@precipice.chi.il.us (Victoria Welch)
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.misc
Subject: Re: Emergency communications in South Florida
Keywords: thoughts
Date: Sat, 05 Sep 92 09:40:18 CDT
Organization: Welch Research

waco@cbnewse.cb.att.com (john.l.broughton) writes:

Pardon me, but I came into this thread a bit on the late side
(still dealing with H&W traffic from Hurricane Andrew).

> In article <10545@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall) writ
>
> >It is interesting (and distressing) to note that *none* of the
> >news broadcasts I have seen, nor any of the newspapers that I
> >have read, have made any mention whatsoever of hams being involved
> >in emergency communications in the hurricane-hit area of Miami.

It must just have been the ones that you saw.  I know that
coverage of this has been sparse as usual.  Most of the people I
know are simply too burried to stop and play PR games (yes, I
agree, it needs to be done).  There are pathetically few hams
that have read the first paragraph of Part 97 (and fewer who seem
to care) and when the *hit hits the fan, they are still out
collecting postcards and very few handle the brunt of the work.

My understanding with the command structure is that if they want
news people to come out, they *don't* get in the way of
operations.  Peoples lives may well depend on what I am doing and
taking the time to explain to someone who (usually) hasn't done
any homework and is standing there with equipment I can only
dream of having access to, is just too time consuming and
distracting.  I am willing to chat freely with them AFTER the
pressure is off, but somehow they don't seem to be interested at
that point.

> >On the other hand, they have emphasized several times that there
> >is (or was, at any rate) a real problem with communicating with
> >some of the outlying areas.  That there was food, water, etc.,
> >available at shelters, but no way to let people know about it.
> >
> >Three possibilities occur to me:
> >
> >(1)	The hams down there all had their own problems, and
> >	couldn't stop to do emergency communications (but why
> >	didn't hams from the outside come in?)

That they did.  From what I understand there were hams who came
in, but the scope of the disaster and degree of preparedness made
a marked difference.  Things didn't really seem to improve until
the military was deployed.

> >(3) Everyone assumed that modern technology (cellular
> >	phones, etc.) made it unnecessary to provide for such
> >	arcane methods of communication.  (Wonder how many of
> >	the cellular-transmission towers are still standing??)

What difference would it make?  Cellular technology only uses
radio with mobiles/portables.  The majority of the system is
still linked with land lines.  With the land-lines down, even if
the towers still stand the system quits working.

>   Another good candidate.  I think this is one area we hams have to
>   be aware of as an opportunity to educate the public that when
>   disasters occur, many things are no longer available that we
>   take for granted.  Some may consider amateur radio "old fashioned"
>   but when disaster strikes, that may be all that is immediately available.

Amen.

> I don't know the details of local amateur assistance in the current disaster
> nor the news coverage.  However, in the Chicago area I have seen several item
> on TV news about hams assisting in communication, with one being a Salvation
> Army officer who is also a ham.  Having had a little experience in disaster
> communication after the tornado in Plainfield, IL, two years ago, I think
> individual hams are concerned with doing their jobs and the PR comes with
> it when a news crew happens to interview a ham or one of the emergency
> agencies brings it up.  I don't think it hurts for amateurs to contact local
> TV and radio stations and newspapers to make them aware of what we do in
> emergenciesa, or invite them to Field Day as our club did and got an article
> in the paper as well as a local cable TV station.

Agreed, but when you are trying to deal with the confusion AND
get the job done (shorthanded as always), time for casual
chit-chat takes away from what NEEDS to be done.  I was involved
in the Lamont Disaster (SATERN) and I know I had my hands full.
My only comment on this (and not as bad as some of the operations
I have been involved in) is that the ego twiddling contributes
NOTHING to the effort.

> > In DuPage County, IL, we have a newtwork of ham volunteers working with the
> Office of Emergency Management to provide emergency communications and we
> attend annual training sessions along with emergency personnel.  At Plainfiel
> I was assigned to the Will County Sheriff's command center for a day.  No les
> than three times, once by the sergeant in charge, I was told that without the
> assistance of amateurs, they could not have done their job.  It seems that
> outside of amateur radio, there were no direct communications possible betwee
> the police, ESDA/OEM/ Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.  Also, cell cites are
> liable to be disabled by severe storms, so even with cellular phones, hams ar
> still important.  It was a satisfying feeling to be a small part of the
> help at Plainfield, but it would be better not to have the experience due
> to the fact that no disaster occurred to require it.  Many hams from the area
> worked several days and nights to assist.

Yep, Y'all down in DuPage have a decent system in place and some
people who take it seriously.  Unfortunately, I just moved from
there to the Empire of John Shey(sp?) :-(.


Last comments on this, from my perspective.  I know that things
were a mess down there BIG TIME.  I am not sure (yet) why
communications seemed to have such a problem.  The few people
prepared and involved simply overwhelmed ?  I suspect so.  There
are a lot of hams that are willing to help at times like this,
but they are UNTRAINED and, sadly, almost useless until things
calm down enough to show them what to do.  Variances in
procedures under adverse conditions make things take an awful lot
longer than they should and everything not flowing as smoothly as
possible and every bit of confusion hurts the efforts.

We are "prepared" far better than the average Ham, with 3 days of
battery power, 4 amps of solar and a 300 watt generator with 1
day of gas (we're in Navy MARS as well as SATERN).  Even with all
of this, we could run less than 1 week of "normal" operations,
and probably 2 days of really intense radio usage.  I doubt
seriously that hams down there were as well prepared as this, and
the scope of the disaster is incredible.

One other thing to note: hams are used to contacting hams, but
how do you get ahold of the vast majority of people to whom a
radio means FM 95 ???  We personally have a small FM transmitter
that could get all of 1 block's diameter on a good day - that's
*not* going to tell many people where to get help.  Any
suggestions on how to deal with this?

As a Navy-Marine Corps MARS Operator and Captain of the Northern
Illinois ART (Emergency Response Team), Being involved with
SATERN, and licensed by the FCC in the Amateur Radio Service,
Hurricane Andrew has given me *much* to think about.  New ways of
looking at our emergency trailer and its contents.  How prepared
are we ?  When it comes right down to it, we are all there will
be for awhile.  Eventually (if things are bad enough) they will
bring in the military with all the things that they have that we
can only dream about, but how well can we hold out until then ?
It is obvious that we simply can not do it all considering that
most of us are doing this out of our own pockets and days of
operating under disaster stress levels will take their toll.  It
is all a challenge in creativeness, resourcefulness and thinking
on ones feet (whew! how did I get myself into this one <grin> ?).

If you are interested in getting involved DO SO NOW.  The MARS
System and other organizations provide the training that you will
need when the disaster occurs.  Willingness is nice, but it just
isn't enough.  REAL communications is *not* what happens on the
Ham Bands on a day to day basis.  Even if you are only one of the
Hobby crowd, learn what to do anyway, it certainly won't hurt
anyone and might save some lives.  Yes, it is one hell of a lot
of work, frusteration (under the best of conditions), and
challenging, but it certainly is rewarding when it is all over.

Just my $1.02 worth ;-) (adjusted for the Bush administration)..

I rarely read this newsgroup, so please email me if you have any
comments.  Flames to /dev/nul, I don't have the time for it
unless its constructive.

Take care, Vikki.
(NNN0AEE / NNN0ASG-14 / NNN0GAP-14 / NNN0DDE / WV9K)




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Vikki Welch, WV9K - sysadmin - Welch Research (vikki@precipice.chi.il.us)
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