The volunteers are from the North American Center For Emergency Communications. The two radio technicians and two translators plan to depart for Roatan, Honduras, on Nov. 20 to establish a network for hand-held radios that will improve communications between relief workers and their agencies to speed the movement of food, water and medical supplies. With roads and bridges destroyed and no telephone or two-way radio infrastructure in place, field communications between relief organizations and relief workers takes hours instead of minutes, said Edward Addy, the group's director. The group, which was founded in 1992, supported relief operations in the Mississippi River Valley floods of 1993 and the Red River Valley floods of 1997. Its precursor also provided direct communications between frontline U.S. troops and their families during the Persian Gulf War.
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