| Posted Tueseday February 21, @8:07PM |
It was the fourth night after Hurricane Katrina, and something like a thousand patients, doctors and staff were trapped at Medical Center Louisiana in downtown New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters. Outside, reports were grim. People were drowning in their attics. Inside the hospital, there was no running water, no power, no phones and no Internet. Cell phones didn’t work. Each day the authorities said evacuations were about to begin, but nothing happened.
The staff thought they’d seen everything the disaster could bring. Then, in the middle of the night, a pregnant woman dragged herself out of the foul, dark water surrounding the center’s Charity Hospital, having managed to swim several blocks from her home, where she had been trapped. She was in labor and the pain was intensifying. By flashlight, doctors quickly determined that she needed a Caesarean section. But with no running water, no electricity, and no way to clean her up or to sterilize instruments, surgery was out of the question. The doctors conferred, and then sent Tim Butcher, at that time Charity’s emergency operations director, upstairs to a conference room where a 5-foot-3-inch, middle-aged jazz musician, known for his cigarette-rasped voice and salty language, was sleeping on an air mattress. “Richard, wake up,” Butcher said. “We need you.”
Richard Webb, who happens to be legally blind, is one of the nation’s more than 660,000 licensed amateur radio operators. (They’re nicknamed “hams” for reasons that are unclear.) As an amateur radio operator and a member of the Mobile Maritime Network, Webb regularly relays messages from small boats, occasionally participates in small-vessel rescue operations and helps with tracking hurricanes.
Pitching in and helping is a long tradition among hams, particularly in times of emergency. In fact, the Federal Communications Commission’s regulatory charge to amateur radio operators urges them to enhance communication, “particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.” Whether it’s an earthquake or a forest fire, a blizzard or a hurricane, when usual communication systems go down, ham radio operators are up, ready to connect the scene of disaster with the outside world. As the series of recent emergencies and other natural disasters so amply illustrates, hams are often the sole means of communication from disaster sites. Within minutes of the first impact in the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001—which put the radio and phone towers atop the building out of commission—ham radio operators set up an emergency network that authorities used to coordinate rescue operations.
When the phone lines are down and “wireless” takes on a whole new meaning, when cell phone and PDA networks fail and batteries go dead, when the lights go out, authorities fall back on this seemingly antiquated but always reliable form of communication. Amateur radio becomes quite literally a lifeline.
“Most communications systems are all going through some common chokepoint,” says Allen Pitts, media and public relations manager of the American Radio Relay League. Whether it’s a telephone switchboard, an Internet relay or a radio tower, “knock out that chokepoint, and the whole system fails,” he says.
Rather than relying on a network, each ham operator has a complete, self-contained transmitting and receiving station. “There is no chokepoint,” says Pitts. “They are like ants at a picnic. You can knock out some, many or even most of them, and they still get to the food. Each one is a mobile, independent unit working in cooperation for a common goal.”
Understandably, many government agencies and hospitals have enlisted amateur radio operators to be on call for emergencies. When the two hospitals making up New Orleans’ Medical Center—University and Charity hospitals—decided to set up their station two years ago, they looked around for volunteers to run it. Richard Webb and his wife, Kathleen Anderson, who is also a ham, raised their hands. They set up the station and tested it every week or so.
The night before Katrina hit, Webb pushed Anderson—she uses a wheelchair—to their van and she drove them to the hospital from their small home in suburban Slidell, Louisiana. Pretty much every other vehicle they encountered during that 30-mile trip was heading out of, not into, downtown New Orleans. At the hospital, this unlikely A-Team—a blind man and a woman in a wheelchair—set up their antennas and gasoline-fired generators, got on the air, tracked the approaching storm and rode it out.
Like much of New Orleans, the hospital suffered relatively little damage from Katrina directly. Then the levees broke. Soon the hospital was isolated, an island surrounded by water 10 feet deep in places. (And, yes, when the power went out, a hospital staffer did offer Webb a flashlight. “Thanks,” he said, “but I don’t need it.”)
Webb and Anderson kept communications going 20 hours a day, relaying messages to and from the state command center in Baton Rouge. They passed along the hospital staff’s requests for food, drinkable water, medicine, bedding, cleaning supplies and more. Authorities repeatedly told Webb that rescuers were coming to evacuate the hospital—later that day, in a few hours, the next day—but day after day, nobody showed up. Coast Guard boats delivered supplies, and took out a handful of patients who needed critical care, including babies in incubators.
Webb and Anderson listened in on the emergency networks and heard how other hams, including many who drove in from all over the country, were a vital part of numerous rescues. In hundreds of cases, people trapped by floodwaters in homes or on rooftops tried calling 911 on their cell phones. The calls wouldn’t go through. So they called relatives in other parts of the country, sometimes a thousand miles away, and the relatives in turn dialed 911. Their local emergency dispatchers then would pass along messages to ham radio operators who contacted rescuers in New Orleans: There are three people trapped in an attic at this address . . . five on the roof of this building . . . 15 on an overpass at this intersection.
A word about all this relaying. While most of today’s sophisticated communications equipment uses horizon-to- horizon, line-of-sight radio frequencies, ham radio must rely on lower frequencies for long-distance transmission. “Low-frequency waves do an interesting thing,” says Pitts. “They ricochet. These waves bounce off the ionosphere, 60 miles over your head.” Depending on atmospheric conditions, some days you can communicate more clearly with another ham operator in Kenya than with your buddy across town. “By using different frequencies, directions and means, ham operators learn the art form of getting them to bounce where they want them to go,” Pitts says.
Webb took one call from a teenager who had a brand-new license with no kind of emergency training. He was in a school building with a number of other people, and nobody knew they were there. Two babies needed formula, and an elderly man needed a respirator. Webb relayed the call, and the group was rescued.
As the week wore on—the storm hit on a Monday night—more and more people began stopping by Webb’s radio room, the only link to the outside world. When he could, he sent out word from hospital staffers and patients to their families: I’m at the hospital, I’m OK, I hope to be evacuated soon, I’ll call you when I can. Hams who received the messages in other parts of the country telephoned or e-mailed the families.
A number of people tried to pay Webb for sending out their messages. “Sorry, can’t take it,” he’d growl. “Not allowed. I’m strictly a volunteer.”
Sometimes during lulls between radio transmissions he pulled out his guitar. Small crowds gathered, welcoming the diversion. Webb became a rare source of light and calm in the darkness and confusion of a disaster scene.
The night the woman in labor swam to the hospital, Tim Butcher shook Richard Webb awake and told him that she needed a helicopter. “We have a two-hour window to get her out of here,” Butcher said. Otherwise the mother would probably die, and the baby might, too. Webb ran to his radio, broke in on the network, and tried to relay a message to anyone.
On this evening, the first ham that Webb could reach was a fellow member of the Mobile Maritime Network in Texas. The Texas ham contacted a Network member in Cleveland—who was also an auxiliary Coast Guard officer. The Cleveland ham contacted his superior officers, and within a short time the patient was being airlifted to another hospital, where she had a C-section. At last report both mother and baby were doing well.
Webb saved one life that night, Butcher says, maybe two. And no one knows how many other people at the hospital might have died if Webb and his radio had not been there. Butcher’s sure of one thing: “Richard is a real hero.”
|
| Posted Sunday October 23, @5:52PM |
Katrina Efforts Winding Down
[The following was written by Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, ARRL Alabama
Section Manager. His words express so eloquently the experience of
ARES leaders and volunteers over the course of the last couple of
months.]
Today, on the 37th day of Amateur Radio operations at the Montgomery,
Alabama, American Red Cross center, the radios were powered down for
a final time. It was a strange feeling packing, saying goodbye and
then walking out of the old Super K-Mart building knowing I would not
return tomorrow.
It was a pleasure working with the American Red Cross personnel. My
job was made easier with their support. The radio amateurs that
worked on the Montgomery HQ team were all fine, quality men and
women. My staff included dedicated amateurs from all over the United
States and Canada as well as many local operators. We developed many
processes, practices and procedures that will make the next time
easier.
The volunteers traveled on their own dollar to come do the right
thing. Using their Amateur Radio skills, they helped people in great
need. Many amateurs helped people and served agencies in other ways
as well. We also supplied amateurs for other agencies including the
Salvation Army, the Southern Baptists, and many emergency management
agencies and operating centers.
I'm looking forward to visiting ARRL HQ to review this successful
operation. We will plan and improve. I appreciate the League's help,
support and patience. Over the next few days I plan to review my
notes, ideas, double check the deployed roster and work on an after
action report.
This effort was a success and a huge help to the people and workers
in the devastated region. Many non-amateurs now know what works when
all else fails. -- Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, ARRL Alabama Section Manager
ARRL HQ staffer Steve Ewald, WV1X, conducted the final scheduled Gulf
Coast teleconference of SMs and SECs, thanking them for their
Herculean efforts. As busy as these dedicated ARRL Field Organization
leaders were, they found time to communicate reports of ARES activity
for the benefit of the rest of us.
Outside support for Jasper County, Texas, operations [Jasper is 75
miles north of Beaumont, and has 7500 citizens] was no longer needed
as the Salvation Army was planning on suspending operations, and
repeater service has been restored to the area. Local ARES personnel
can now provide any support needed. Power is becoming available even
in the smaller communities. Infrastructure has been largely
rehabilitated. Bill Swan, K5MWC, North Texas SEC thanked all ARES
operators, including those who had volunteered but were not called.
The situation had been that without power, repeaters in the area were
only usable with an on-site generator, constantly refueled,
presenting a daunting task. Communications were negatively impacted,
but 40-meters (SSB) was used by amateurs as the sole viable means of
supporting the Salvation Army (and other organizations) who were
distributing food. The communications promoted expediency in food
delivery operations. [From reports by SEC Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, South
Texas]
The situation in South Texas is still being evaluated. As residents
(and radio amateurs) return, the extent of local ARES capability is
being re-evaluated. The North Texas section remains on standby to
assist, if required.
Colorado Team Returns from Hurricane Zones
The Colorado ARES/RACES Disaster Response Team (DRT) recently
returned from the Gulf coast after supplying communications support
there. The Winlink mode proved to be beneficial during their
operations.
The ARES/RACES DRT is the field deployment amateur support
communications group of the Colorado Division of Emergency Management
(CDEM). They provide emergency communication for state agencies, as
well as county and local emergency management agencies, and disaster
relief organizations.
The DRT primarily supports wildland fire operations, but also gets
called for tornadoes, floods and blizzards -- often in remote areas
of the Colorado high country. "As a joint ARES/RACES unit, we are one
of the few Amateur Radio response teams available to provide
communication support around the country, as we did during Hurricane
Katrina," said Wes Wilson, K0HBZ, the ARES Emergency
Coordinator/RACES Officer for the team. "We can get called out on a
moment's notice at any time." See
Rhode Island's Finest Cited for Katrina Effort
Rhode Island ARES/MARS volunteer Matt Hackman, KB1FUP, who deployed
to the Gulf disaster region from September 9-25, has returned safely
home. The city of Warwick, Rhode Island, presented Hackman with a
city citation for his service. SEC Sean Brennan, KE1AB, along with
Section Manager Bob Beaudet, W1YRC, presented Hackman with two
commendation certificates from ARRL. At the presentation held in
conjunction with a regular Warwick CERT volunteers meeting, Matt
spoke informally to the CERT members describing some of his
experiences. The stories brought a full measure of reality to the
volunteers' training. His real-life anecdotal comments cannot be
found in any training guide and were very useful. Pictures of the
presentation appear on
Gwinnett County ARES "Geek Squad" Assists Agency Center
The Gwinnett County (Georgia) Emergency Management Agency (EMA) had a
different kind of request for Gwinnett ARES in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. With the Atlanta metro area receiving thousands of
evacuees, three Joint Resource Recovery Centers were opened. The
American Red Cross was the cornerstone with additional resources from
numerous federal, state and local agencies. Gwinnett ARES was called
to investigate alternatives for Internet connectivity in the event
that ordered services were not in place when the center opened. The
EMA Director knew Gwinnett ARES was exploring a county-wide WiFi
network for emergency support.
ARES members assisted the agencies with installing their local
networks in anticipation of DSL Internet service. This would allow
the agencies to connect to their home-base computer systems. The
evening before the center opened, the connections were completed and
as a result of ARES support, all systems were ready to go live,
immediately.
For the next three weeks, Gwinnett ARES provided a "geek squad" that
supported the center's operation, including a telephone/radio channel
directory, telephone repair, daily distributing and checking-in 50
GMRS radios, configuring laptop computers for WiFi access to the
Internet, using their radio voices to make announcements on the
paging system, and moving telephone terminations as the situation
changed. In addition, ARES members helped staff the command center,
directing visitors and responding to questions posed by the public.
This one-stop shop proved very successful. More than 11,000 clients
(or households) were served. Young evacuees were enrolled in the
Gwinnett County school system. The local EMA was appreciative of the
support provided by Gwinnett ARES. More than 700 person-hours were
contributed by Gwinnett ARES members. -- Stan Edwards, WA4DYD,
Gwinnett County EC,
Reflections on Hurricane Jeanne
After working an ARES post during Hurricane Jeanne in Florida, I was
forced to reflect on why I was volunteering my time, effort and
equipment. Our team had supported City Hall, the primary Fire
Station, and the EOC. It hadn't occurred to me to question why we
were there; I just knew as a radio amateur, my job was to provide
communications in a time of emergency. I happened to be assigned to
City Hall.
Citizens could call City Hall to speak to a live person about the
storm and their situation. My job was to relay ARES weather
reports from the field to the City Manager and personnel conducting
the telephone operation. These reports enabled their safety and the
public safety.
After the event, I returned home and found that we had just lost
power. I was putting my three-year-old son to bed when he asked me
about the storm and where I had been all day and why. I told him
that I was helping people with the storm. After a series of "whys"
and my patient explanations, he gave me a big hug. I not only knew
that I had gotten my message through but I knew he was proud of me.
Between searching for the accurate but simple answers for why I do
what I do along with receiving the approval for being away from my
young son, I knew that I had made the right choice and would do it
again in a heartbeat. -- Jim Billings, KB8LXC, Flagler County
(Florida) ARES
|
| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:48PM |
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
If analysts agree on anything when it comes to the federal agency responsible for handling disasters, it's that it lacks the money to prepare for calamities that are not literally on the horizon. Much else about the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency defies consensus-- or even comprehension.
Unlike most parts of the government, FEMA is different at different times -- small in size and budget when nothing much is going on, swelling to huge and expensive when a disaster strikes.
That lets FEMA spend money when it also has plenty of political capital to cash in, because Americans want the government to do all it can when they see people hurting from hurricanes, floods or other disasters.
But FEMA's heavy dependence on emergencies to get the money coming in leaves it struggling to do a thorough job on preparation.
"We have the hardest time paying attention to things that haven't happened yet," said Natalie C. Simpson, an emergency management expert at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
As a result, a lot of things don't get done, said William Lee Waugh of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
For example, FEMA regional offices always need students and others to do basic research and projects beyond the abilities of the agency's full-time workers, he said.
"It's a tiny agency and the base budget does not include enough funding to be proactive," Waugh said. "They certainly don't have enough funds to set priorities and address the known risks."
Congress has approved more than $62 billion in supplemental spending for the recovery and rebuilding of Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. More such spending is certain to help people recover from Katrina and the follow-up punch of Hurricane Rita.
The Katrina response alone amounted to more than 11 times FEMA's 2005 budget of $5.5 billion. That budget was higher than usual because of cleanup costs due to four major hurricanes that hit Florida last year.
FEMA has borne the brunt of criticism about the Bush administration's lagging response to Katrina. The agency's director, Michael Brown, was removed from on-site command and resigned.
Disasters can be planned for, said Peter S. Davis, a professor at the University of Memphis, "but that requires consistency in funding."
Davis, a FEMA emergency housing manager in the late 1970s, contends FEMA's transfer into the Department of Homeland Security "led to a slow, inadequate and poorly coordinated response to a predictable event."
Tracking FEMA's numbers was relatively simple when it was an independent agency. When it became part of Homeland Security, everything became more complex.
For example, FEMA lost some activities to transportation and border security agencies and gained some from the Health and Human Services Department.
In March, Brown said the agency had spent $5.5 billion on disaster aid, including $4.8 billion for hurricane assistance, in 2004. There were 65 disaster declarations in 2004, the most for any year in a decade, he said at a hearing.
At that hearing, Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., commented that FEMA had lost about 500 staff members since joining Homeland Security. He asked where the reductions had been.
Brown said they were spread over the agency, including headquarters and regional offices. The administration was recommending restoring 190 of the jobs, he said.
For 2005, about $9.4 billion was appropriated for Homeland Security's emergency preparedness and response, according to a congressional analysis. That was up from $5.4 billion in 2004 and $4.4 billion in 2003.
Depending who provides the numbers and what's counted, FEMA's basic budget rose or fell over the last few years.
In FEMA's last budget year as an independent agency, 2001, it had a budget of $4.4 billion.
The Office of Management and Budget put non-emergency FEMA funding at about $2.8 billion in 2004.
OMB Watch, a private advocacy group urging government accountability, said it calculated base FEMA funding, without emergency response money, at $1 billion in 2003, $960 million in 2004 and $928 million in 2005.
OMB Watch's Adam Hughes said moving FEMA into Homeland Security forced it to compete with other department priorities, notably fighting terrorism, a higher priority of this administration.
He estimated FEMA funding other than emergency spending declined 10 percent since the agency joined Homeland Security.
Figuring out how many people work for FEMA is also harder than it might seem.
FEMA said that as of Aug. 8 it had a total work force of 20,287, up from 8,388 on Sept. 22, 2001.
Most of the increase _ 9,346 _ came from disaster medical assistance teams transferred from the Health and Human Services Department. FEMA's fulltime staff rose to 2,262 from 2,132.
|
| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:45PM |
Amateur Radio volunteers in Jasper County, Texas, continue to support
mass-feeding operations by The Salvation Army, which has been coordinating
with other relief groups to provide meals to Hurricane Rita-displaced
residents. Amateur volunteers plan to meet with Salvation Army personnel to
discuss the need for Amateur Radio support beyond this weekend. Meanwhile,
ARRL Alabama SM Greg Sarratt, W4OZK--who's been handling the intake of
American Red Cross volunteers in Montgomery, Alabama--has been visiting ARC
shelters along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Shelters there are in the process
of closing down. In Gulfport, Amateur Radio volunteers continue to support
communication for the emergency operations center (EOC) in Harrison County,
where they've been a mainstay since Hurricane Katrina struck in late August.
"If it hadn't been for Amateur Radio operators, we would not have had
communications with other agencies," said Col Joe Spraggins of the Harrison
County Emergency Management Agency. "Even with the advancements in our radio
technology, ham radio saved the day! Thank you."
Christy Hardin, KB7BSA, a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer from
Alabama, and husband Rick, KB4BSA, have been in the Gulf Coast twice
following Hurricane Katrina. She had nothing but praise for those who have
been volunteering to maintain communication at the EOC 24/7 in some cases
despite having lost their own homes to the storm. "The four or five
operators who worked around the clock for nearly a month are the true
heroes," she said.
In particular, she cited ARES District Emergency Coordinator Tom Hammack,
W4WLF, Ray Taber, WX5AAA, Glover Hayden, W5BLV, and John Moore, W5EG, for
serving unselfishly on behalf of Mississippi Gulf Coast residents. Hammack
has been living in the EOC since the storm flooded and badly damaged his
house. An instructor for all three levels of the ARRL Amateur Radio
Emergency Communications course, Hardin says she was "thrilled to see it in
action" as the EOC volunteers performed as true professionals.
South Texas ARRL Section Manager Ray Taylor, N5NAV, this week estimated
upward of 60 Amateur Radio volunteers were on the ground in Texas, many
supporting shelters scattered throughout the area. North Texas SEC Bill
Swan, K5MWC, has been helping to recruit and schedule ARES members from his
section to assist in mass-care operations in Jasper County.
Taylor says radio amateurs in North Texas and Arkansas have been helping to
cover net control shifts and to serve as relay stations for the West Gulf
ARES Emergency Net on 7.285 MHz days/3.873 MHz evenings.
Scott Pederson, KI5DR, reports he just returned home from three days in
Jasper County, Texas, working with John Wagner, WA5VBP, Charles Fletcher,
N5BOY, and John Barber, N5JB. "Our job was to deliver hot meals to various
locations around a three-county area with five Salvation Army trucks and
also several Red Cross trucks working together," he said. Ham radio, he
explained, helped to coordinate the delivery routes by the various agencies
involved. While VHF FM simplex was okay for local work, the West Gulf ARES
Emergency Net on HF was very reliable.
"Even though regular phones are working most of the time, it's really the
hams that are the communicators of the group," he said. Pederson also lauded
the efforts of The Salvation Army, American Red Cross and Arkansas Methodist
Men's volunteers. "Everyone is focused and cares deeply about their tasks,"
he said, "and things are happening at lightning speed throughout the day."
In Louisiana, SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, said earlier this week that some 45
Amateur Radio volunteers remained on hurricane recovery duty there. "Things
are settling down," Stratton told ARRL.--Christy Hardin, KB7BSA, supplied
information for this article
|
| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:42PM |
Local hospitals in critical condition. Only handful in area back up and
running Hurricane Katrina closed half of the hospitals in the seven-parish area,
including all of those based in New Orleans, and some may not reopen.
Several hospitals - most notably the Charity and University hospital
campuses operated by a branch of Louisiana State University - will have to
undergo intense structural studies before anyone can even talk about
reopening them, said John J. "Jack" Finn, president of the Metropolitan
Hospital Council of New Orleans.
Of the approximately 4,000 employees both campuses had before Katrina, about
2,500 haven't checked in since the storm, spokesman Marvin McGraw said,
adding that he does not know whether Charity will reopen.
"It would take pretty close to a miracle for a hospital with a badly damaged
electrical and mechanical system" to reopen, Finn said. "I can't imagine
anyone spending $50 million to $100 million to put it in the condition that
it was in before."
The potential loss of Charity, compounded by the diminished capacity of
private health-care providers, is a double whammy for the New Orleans area.
"What we have in New Orleans is the loss of the huge public hospital and the
capacity that was relied on for the city's and the state's large uninsured
population for their care," said Diane Rowland, executive director at the
Kaiser Family Foundation. "Plus we have a loss of private-hospital capacity.
Even if they reopen, it will take some time to get them back in shape.
"There's no way I can imagine how other hospitals with reduced capacity and
far more limited outpatient capacity can absorb what Charity was doing if
Charity can't reopen."
Charity, the 66-year-old state-owned colossus on Tulane Avenue, is the
principal teaching hospital for Louisiana's doctors, and it provides an
array of services that poor people would have a difficult time getting
elsewhere, Rowland said. Charity also operates the area's only Level One
trauma center, a member of an elite group of hospitals that are equipped to
handle the most serious emergencies.
Dr. Vincent Berkley, chief medical officer for Indian Health Service, the
federal health program for American Indians and Alaska natives, is leading a
U.S. Public Hospital Administration team overseeing the restoration of
health care in New Orleans. The goal is to rebuild the area's hospital
capacity in an integrated and incremental manner, with hospitals sharing
information about the services they are prepared to offer.
In the meantime, disaster medical assistance teams that work with doctors,
nurses and pharmacy services to provide urgent medical care to communities
without hospitals have been set up. And the emergency medical service
systems in Orleans and Jefferson parishes are working together to transport
patients to hospitals that can accommodate them.
A dozen hospitals in the New Orleans area continue to operate, including
Ochsner Clinic Foundation in Jefferson, East Jefferson General Hospital in
Metairie and West Jefferson General Hospital in Marrero. Kenner Regional
Medical Center and Touro Infirmary are operating emergency rooms. And this
week Kenner Regional was cleared to reopen some inpatient beds, a spokesman
for the hospital's owner said. Children's Hospital has a projected opening
date of Oct. 10, depending on the return of city services.
As the hospitals work to reopen, hospital administrators must balance the
community's need for medical care with their own fiscal health.
"The challenge a hospital CEO faces is how to bring in additional staff when
you don't know what the patient load is going to be to provide work for that
staff," Berkley said. "They've got to pay them to be there to work, but at
the same time they've got to have work for them to do."
"Nurses are being hired away because many of them have no homes here and no
schools where they can send their children. The human resources side is not
attractive," Finn said.
Already 5,944 doctors were displaced in the 10 parishes in Louisiana and
Mississippi flooded by Katrina. That figure doesn't include doctors working
as administrators or researchers, only those caring for patients. Of those,
4,486 were in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes, according to
Thomas Ricketts, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor who
conducted a study on displaced doctors. The study is based on data from the
American Medical Association, information on areas that flooded and the
locations where doctors practiced.
More than half the displaced doctors were specialists, including 1,292
primary care doctors and 272 obstetricians and gynecologists. Half of the
1,300 medical students at Louisiana State University and Tulane moved to
other programs, mostly in Baton Rouge and East Texas.
The problem is that many doctors won't come back. For physicians, once they
get busy practicing elsewhere, the reasons for not coming back build,
Ricketts said.
Medicine "is a fairly complex, high-order service that requires a great deal
of coordination and cooperation among professions," Ricketts said.
Doctors need patients, nurses, pharmacies, medical records staff, X-ray
technicians and other specialists to support them, he said. "Just having a
doctor open the door does not mean you can provide modern medicine."
This week Tenet Healthcare notified the approximately 2,400 employees of
Memorial and Lindy Boggs medical centers that they would be laid off at the
end of October because it's clear those hospitals will be closed for at
least six months, a company spokesman said. Both lost power and flooded when
levees broke after Hurricane Katrina. Workers there are being given the
opportunity to apply for work at Tenet's 67 other hospitals in 13 states,
Steve Campanini said.
Both Methodist Hospital and Chalmette Medical Center took on water, and the
parent company for those hospitals, UHS Inc., has started surveying the
damage. UHS has 2,800 employees spread among the five New Orleans area
hospitals it operates and they are still being paid.
John Pope
|
| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:38PM |
This has been a very interesting series of threads and I find that I'm in the wishy-washy position of agreeing with everyone at points. I would have responded sooner but was in Key West. I just wanted to throw in a few personal observations in from Katrina:
1.) ICS was used conducting ESF-8 operations in Katrina but the different parties involved (Mississippi Dept. of Health, Florida Dept. of Health, NDMS, various hospitals) tended to have different ideas of what that meant and how much it needed to be implemented. Speaking from a Florida perspective, Most of our incoming personnel were ICS trained in some form or another and that proved to be sufficient. ICS 100 or so was really all that was required for our front line nurses, epi and environmental health people to conduct their jobs under a larger ICS system. Most of the people involved in C&C and planning had a higher level of training that was required to work smoothly with the other unified commanders both at the NASA Stennis staging area as well as anywhere else in the AOR. We did find the usual health/ICS problems that things like the some of the normal forms that were fire oriented didn't have quite the detail that we needed for ESF-8 issues but they were easy to extend and work around. We are learning a lot about typing as we go along. We have a goal of every Florida DOH employee trained to at least the elementary IS-700 and other people who tend to go to events be trained higher. ICS works but we can't let health people get wrapped around the axle about the implementation and stall out. IS-700 is probably more than sufficient for 95% of the solution. Just understanding the philosophy of NIMS is key - if one person in the group can fill out the logs and IAP that will do nicely.
2.) Multiple command posts/coordination. We were having to follow a fine line. Many people rally around the idea of standing around together "attached at the hip" as the model of unified command. While that may work in some cases, we generally find that we don't have enough space and time: the larger the operation the more overhead is chewed up in waiting for meetings to start/end and waiting for people to get off the phone. The key, in my opinion, is Liaisons - it is absolutely critical to have and trust competent liaisons who can attend all of the joint meetings with the big-picture IC and bring that information back to the appropriate ESF-8 personnel (obviously, the ESF-8 IC works with the main operation IC in unified command but time is short.). Although everyone wants to know what everyone is doing - the fact is that after a few days you, as an ESF-8 person, have lost interest in when the water trucks are due to refuel and where forestry is staging ladders.
3.) Freelancers. Freelancers were a problem. If you haven't been invited - don't go. If you have a killer resource and the host state does not recognize your talents it is their loss and not your problem. Some freelancers were self supported, some cleaned out supplies and fuel in the impacted area. There were some cases where freelancers, on balance, did some good because they got there before the official system under Mississippi's control got ramped up. More often, they served to derail official missions requested by the state (Day 2:"We don't need your nurses for 2 weeks because some really great nurses just showed up from SOMEWHERE." Day 3:"We're sunk! Our nurses from SOMEWHERE just left because they got bored and we don't have anybody! Can you send your nurses back?!?"). We also had some issues within the official deployment system. We were sending some medical people out under FL-DOH's name but who were actually volunteers from other agencies. Some of these people had exaggerated ideas about what they were supposed to do and were discontent doing "unimportant things" like relieving hospital staff who had worked for a straight week and needed to go fix their own homes. These same medical people tended to be the highest maintenance, most whiney, people in the field and sometimes chewed up far more resources than they were worth. If you personally run into medical people that want to be "the first called" to do medical work in a disaster - please point them to a DMAT so they can join a group, get trained and practice first. With little exception, the DMAT personnel were phenomenal. I cannot overstate how valuable Florida DOH's long term relationship with our six state DMATs has proven to have been. They have been worth every minute and dime that we have invested to augment them and I am proud to be associated with them.
4.) Bases. Early on in our operation in Mississippi we chose to work out of NASA/Stennis. It was not ideal in terms of location but it was AVAILIBLE and it was BIG! Never underestimate the size of base that you need. I don't remember the figures precisely, but counting truck drivers and everything, Stennis went from essentially zero outside responders to something like 14,000 people in a matter of days. On the ESF-8 side, when my colleague and I went into Mississippi the night after landfall (We were the first Florida people in - FL EMAC mission #2) there were 2 of us deployed. When I left 2 weeks later, Florida DOH had about 215 people on the ground working in Mississippi and many more in various states of demobilization, staging and operations back in Florida. These things grow very very quickly - and that was just FL-DOH, it didn't count everyone else from other states and the federal government!
Serving in Mississippi during Katrina was a privilege and an honor. The Mississippi State Department of Health folks we worked with were competent, courageous and gracious. There are many things to learn from Katrina and respectfully critique about it. Please remember that as a colleague of mine says "Nobody gets up in the morning planning to screw up" - people on the ground do the best that they can.
|
| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:34PM |
Many U.S. hospitals called unprepared for big disasters
By Kristen Gerencher
Last Updated: 9/19/2005 6:24:43 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The deaths of 45 patients who were stranded at one of the many New Orleans hospitals that were crippled after Hurricane Katrina is forcing the nation's emergency-medicine experts to reexamine disaster planning.
Despite mandatory twice-a-year drills for an emergency in a worst-case scenario, many of the 5,000 hospitals across the land are ill-prepared to handle the kind of catastrophe that led to the tragedy at New Orleans' Memorial Hospital, experts say.
Some say varying state rules and loose overall regulation give many of the nation's big hospitals too much latitude in their planning, leaving them vulnerable in the event of a major disaster.
"Hospitals need to be prepared to deal with disasters by themselves for sustained periods of time, and most hospitals in this country are not capable of doing that," said Dr. Robert Suter, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. For that matter, in his view, no hospitals are doing an "exemplary job" of getting ready for the unthinkable.
Hospitals in a crisis face daunting decisions such as when and where to evacuate patients, and their budgets force them to weigh preparing for a disaster that may never occur against the demands of everyday health-care needs.
Creating a kind of playbook to guide those decisions gets even more complicated thanks to laws restricting the transfer of patients to other facilities. And, like other businesses in their markets, hospitals tend to compete against each other for backup services and other scarce resources instead of cooperating, Suter said.
About 85% of American hospitals have been accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the industry's main standard-setter.
To get the commission's stamp of approval, hospitals are supposed to assess the hazard vulnerability risks in their area, make a disaster plan and run drills twice a year -- one inside the hospital and one coordinating with the larger community.
Most hospitals' city-wide drills focus on how to handle large volumes of patients affected by a disaster and rarely include themselves as part of the crisis, Suter said. "The scenario of you're affected by the disaster and have to evacuate to other hospitals, all of which every day you compete with, is not something that's usually done," he said.
Many hospitals that are part of a network of three or four other hospitals don't have the capacity within the system to evacuate the entire hospital, he said. "There needs to be more agreements between competitors in regions to evacuate and more overall surge capacity."
Until the federal government declares a state of emergency and sends National Guard troops, there is no known authority that can compel hospitals to work together, Suter said. "In general, the lack of any authority means that normally individual hospitals will conduct exercises that are focused on their own needs."
Early lessons
After Katrina left New Orleans flooded, one major problem was that several hospitals simultaneously recognized the need for total evacuation, putting them all in direct competition for life-saving resources such as specially equipped helicopters, said Dr. Robert Wise, vice president of the standards division of the joint accreditation commission.
Wise, who visited New Orleans after the storm, found many hospitals were still closed. However one of them, Ochsner Hospital, kept running when others went down, thanks in part to a well that provided water needed to run its air conditioning. According Wise, regulations that require having back-up generators don't specify that heating, ventilation and air systems be included on the power source, and he noted many other problems presented themselves.
"We were not aware of any communication systems that were ever well established between the command system and the hospitals," Wise said. "They were essentially isolated."
Disaster-planning standards generally anticipate cases in which a single hospital is disabled, but not cases of the surrounding community and support structure being devastated, he said. "You would be expected to know if your hospital lost its infrastructure, lost electricity and water, how it would be able to evacuate its facility to another facility. You would not be expected to know how it was going to be evacuated in the middle of a disaster like Katrina."
The joint commission has found a number of places where hospitals don't have a seat on their local emergency-operations centers. Wise said that although hospitals are expected to engage the community and try to integrate into the larger disaster plan, but accreditation isn't withheld from hospitals that aren't included in larger community plans.
"It is impractical and impossible for each hospital to figure out how to sustain itself for a prolonged period without the combined efforts of all the [community] assets working together," he said.
Suter, who also visited the New Orleans area briefly, said the airport that was run as a temporary medical center got down to one bottle of oxygen for some 7,000 patients who had yet to be examined there. "It wasn't any failure of plans in New Orleans, not a lack of knowing what the problems were," Suter said. "It was a lack of execution and not just at the time of the disaster but before."
Hospitals often get caught unprepared because of financial constraints, he said, noting spending on disaster planning typically amounts to less than 1% or 2% of a hospital's budget.
"It's a calculated risk being taken and if there isn't a disaster at your hospital, you win; and if there is, then the victims lose," Suter said.
Tightening planning standards
When it comes to testing, tight staffing levels and the need to keep hospitals safely operating during the drills can hamper the learning process and interfere with the purpose of doing dry-runs, Wise said.
"Typically, the hospitals have not drilled to the point of really stressing the system and seeing where their failure points are," he said. "Often drills have not been at the level of intensity to help an organization understand in advance where the vulnerabilities are. We are in the process of increasing the expectation for that standard."
Next year, the accreditation commission is likely to tighten rules for testing back-up generators. "It's a 30-minute test under a certain percentage of load," Wise said. "It certainly does not simulate what happens in a situation where there's a complete loss of all power or for a long period of time."
Hospitals should know they need to be self-sufficient for up to three days in an emergency, said Jim Bentley, a senior vice president at the American Hospital Association, a trade group representing about 85% of U.S. hospitals.
"Our advice to members is to plan to be 48 to 72 hours on your own," he said. "That requires more space and more storage and in a hospital system pushed to be as lean as can be that creates a tension, but my sense is hospitals have the capacity to do that."
After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, about $2 billion in federal bioterror money was distributed to states over four years to bolster their emergency responses to any disaster, Bentley said. States parceled out that money to various groups such as police, fire and public-health departments, but he estimates hospitals alone needed $11.5 billion to ramp up their capabilities sufficiently.
Even so, many urban areas were able to tap the funds to upgrade their disaster communications in hospitals and emergency transportation by installing 800-megahertz radio systems, he said. Both landline and cell phones failed to perform during New York City's hour of need, forcing many health-care facilities to rethink their emergency plans.
Health care on the fly
The decision to evacuate patients isn't made lightly because it carries substantial risks, said Hank Christen, director of emergency response operations for Unconventional Concepts Inc., a consulting firm that contracts with federal agencies on emergency preparedness and counterterrorism.
"These are frail patients that are power-dependent and not all are going to survive the trip," he said. "It's not an easy call. You will lose patients in the act of transporting."
But waiting can be fatal, too, he said. "If patients are in a storm surge zone, you've got to get them out of there."
Organizations typically need to have three levels of evacuation planning and contract with facilities 50 to 100 miles away as a back-up plan for a back-up plan, said Christen, who was emergency services director in Okaloosa County, Florida, from 1987 until 2000.
"We had nursing homes either contract private assets or use public school buses," he said. "You can't rely on the ambulance system."
Christen said he hasn't seen any of the New Orleans hospitals' plans, but that he's attended professional emergency management conferences since the mid-80s. "The New Orleans scenario was discussed at every one I ever went to... There's no way any professional in this business could justify saying they had not heard of this and were totally surprised."
Still, not every contingency can be covered if hospitals want to stay in business, said Dr. Joel Shalowitz, head of the health industry management program at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
"This is a huge, hopefully once in a lifetime event that in some ways you can't plan for," Shalowitz said. "You can't plan that this is going to happen at every hospital in the country because preparing for this would bankrupt the system."
AHA's Bentley agreed that planning can only prepare hospitals to a degree. "A disaster never plays out the way the disaster plan works."
The fact that patients needed to be evacuated outside state borders points to an overburdened health-care system, said Suter, who's also medical director at Spring Branch Medical Center in Houston and associate professor of emergency medicine and surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.
To be sure, health-care workers did the best they could to set up temporary hospitals at places like Louisiana State University's basketball arena, he said. "For two days, a closed Kmart was one of the biggest hospitals in the state of Louisiana."
But undercapacity was a challenge too big to overcome, he said. "There are people who died waiting for the provider taking care of them to have a place to send them. If there had been capacity in the state of Louisiana in unaffected areas, they would have lived."
Said Suter: "Part of the body count from this disaster is due to the fact that hospitals have no surge capacity on a day-to-day basis in the health-care system."
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| Posted Sunday October 9, @8:32PM |
Click here to see pictures from Biloxi after Katrina passed through.
|
| Posted Wednesday September 7, @9:42PM |
I responded to the request from ARRL on Friday September 2nd and received a Saturday email on Sunday morning to proceed immediately to Montgomery Alabama. I left Maple Valley Monday afternoon the 5th with a load of equipment and self-sufficient living supplies in my Explorer. I arrived in Montgomery Friday afternoon the 9th and was assigned to proceed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and check in with the American Red Cross chapter there.
I joined a crew of about 6 hams already there from various parts of the US. During this time I have been supporting communications from the ARC Emergency Relief Vehicles taking food out to those without power and water or providing communications from Client Service Centers where those with need in affected counties and those displace from the Gulf region including New Orleans come to apply for financial assistance from the Red Cross.
About five days ago we had a peak of 21 hams assigned here. We have been declining since then with some hams returning home and others moving south to the Gulf regions near Stennis Space Center and Biloxi MS. We are now down to 4 hams here assigned by Montgomery. I am now the ham left here with the greatest amount of time on this site, so I have assumed team leader status.
My length of stay here has been somewhat uncertain for the first week, but now I am planning to leave here on September 30th to return home. It has been a rewarding experience and my first disaster response assignment. A real eye opener.
Best regards to all back in Washington,
Richard Green
KR7L
Maple Valley ARES and WWA Medical Services Team
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| Posted Wednesday September 7, @9:29PM |
==>ARRL PRESIDENT SUBMITS CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY ON HAMS' KATRINA RESPONSE
ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, has provided written testimony on Amateur
Radio's response in the Hurricane Katrina disaster to the US House
Government Reform Committee. Haynie submitted the testimony to the
congressional panel September 15 "on the successful efforts of Amateur Radio
operators providing communications for first responders, disaster relief
agencies and countless individuals in connection with the Hurricane Katrina
relief effort" on behalf of the League.
"As has been proven consistently and repeatedly in the past, when
communications systems fail due to a wide-area or localized natural
disaster, Amateur Radio works, right away, all the time," Haynie's statement
said. "This report is not, therefore, a statement of concern about what must
be changed or improved. It is, rather, a report on what is going right, and
what works, in emergency communications in the Gulf Coast and what can be
depended on to work the next time there is a natural disaster, and the times
after that."
The congressional committee, chaired by Virginia Republican Tom Davis, is
holding hearings on the Hurricane Katrina response. Haynie told the panel
that upward of 1000 Amateur Radio volunteers were or have been serving in
the stricken area to provide communication for served agencies such as the
American Red Cross and The Salvation Army and to facilitate interoperability
among agencies.
"Trained volunteer Amateur Radio operators are also providing
health-and-welfare communications from within the affected area to the rest
of the United States and the world," Haynie said. "In the past week, the
Coast Guard, the Red Cross, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency all
put out calls for volunteer Amateur Radio operators to provide
communications, because phone lines and cell sites were inoperative, and
public safety communications facilities were overwhelmed due to loss of
repeater towers and the large number of first responders in the area."
Haynie pointed out that the main reason Amateur Radio works when other
communication systems fail during natural disasters is that it's not
infrastructure-dependent and is decentralized. "Amateurs are trained in
emergency communications. They are disciplined operators, and their stations
are, in general, portable and reliable," he told the panel.
The ARRL President also put in a good word for the FCC's Enforcement Bureau
for what he called "its efficient and successful efforts" during the
hurricane response in monitoring HF nets to minimize incidents of
interference.
"The Committee should be aware that this vast volunteer resource is always
at the disposal of the federal government," Haynie concluded. "The United
States absolutely can rely on the Amateur Radio Service. Amateur Radio
provides immediate, high-quality communications that work every time, when
all else fails."
Haynie's complete testimony is available on the ARRL Web site
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/09/15/100/#statement
==>AMATEUR RADIO EARNING PRAISE, RESPECT IN HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF
Amateur Radio is continuing to earn praise and respect as the Hurricane
Katrina relief effort moves forward. Donated Amateur Radio equipment and
supplies arriving at the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina relief staging
area in Montgomery, Alabama, have been turned around as quickly as possible
to accompany volunteers into the field. A team headed by Alabama ARRL
Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, now has been on duty for some three
weeks, overseeing Amateur Radio volunteer intake and registration and trying
to satisfy the ever-changing requirements of the Red Cross and other served
agencies.
"The American Red Cross and other served agencies are very thankful and
appreciative that we are helping them out," Sarratt said this week. "I have
talked with several ARC folks who said they could not operate without us!"
ARES and MARS member Matt Hackman, KB1FUP, was among a Rhode Island
contingent processed through the Montgomery marshaling center. The New
England volunteers were able to take advantage of the newly donated handheld
transceivers, HF transceivers and antennas for use in and around Ocean
Springs, Mississippi. Hackman said Red Cross personnel were using VHF
simplex to keep in contact with each shelter.
"We still have no potable public water and no land-line telephones," Hackman
said this week, adding that cell phone service was intermittent. "I hope I
am helping in some small way," he went on to say. "People further west still
have no power, no water--even for flushing toilets--and the emergency
workers are in tents with no washing facilities, living on MREs. I have it
good."
Sarratt said his staging area has been slowing down the pipeline of
available Amateur Radio volunteers because the need for operators is
decreasing. He reports the Montgomery marshaling center has registered more
than 100 Amateur Radio volunteers. Those still in the pipeline will replace
operators already on the ground in affected areas when they rotate out, he
said. Sarratt rescinded an urgent call for operators put out over the
September 10-11 weekend.
The best estimate is that some 1000 Amateur Radio volunteers have helped out
or are still serving in hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast communities and at
evacuee centers there and in other states. While prospective volunteers have
been told to stand by for now, that situation could change as restricted
areas are reopened and as replacement operators are needed.
Amateur Radio has been the primary means of contact with the outside world
for shelters that still lack reliable communication. An HF station at the
Montgomery Red Cross staging area, N4AP, has been frequenting 3.965 and
7.280 MHz to keep in touch with other Red Cross shelters and kitchens
throughout the region.
"We have deployed many great Amateur Radio operators to the field," Sarratt
remarked. "Guys have traveled from all over the USA on their own dime to do
the right thing and help others. I'm very proud of them." Sarratt said
several "shining stars" in the field have made the volunteer effort work
well and "kept Amateur Radio looking great."
ARRL Louisiana Acting Section Emergency Coordinator Al Oubre, K5DPG, reports
that telephone and cell service around the state is slowly being restored,
and Louisiana does not need additional help at this time. A Red Cross
marshaling center remains open in Covington. Oubre said when St Bernard and
Jefferson parishes dry out sufficiently, the Red Cross will then be able to
move into that area and set up support services. At that point, he
anticipates that more Amateur Radio volunteers may be needed.
Radio amateurs from Florida have been helping at the temporary Hancock
County, Mississippi, emergency operations center at Stennis Airport. The
county lost its EOC in the hurricane. Randy Pierce, AG4UU, said radio
amateurs are serving as communicators and dispatchers for all the services
at the EOC--including the fire department and emergency medical services.
County officials and agencies have been very complimentary about Amateur
Radio, he said.
South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, reports
Amateur Radio is continuing to support sheltering operations at the Houston
Astrodome, but other shelters in Houston have closed or been consolidated.
In Rains County, Texas, some 60 miles east of Dallas, ARES/RACES member T.W.
Ivey, K5IJT, reported his team has been keeping in contact with the county
EOC via VHF repeater.
In Tullahoma, Tennessee, Jimmy Floyd, NQ4U, has been among a group of
operators helping to staff a communications/command center for an operation
housing 170 evacuees. "We have also been active in communicating with other
shelters on HF and attempting to locate family and friends of the evacuees,"
Floyd said.
Amateur Radio operators concluded a shelter support operation at Oklahoma's
Camp Gruber. "We were the communications backbone between responding
agencies," said Mark Conklin, N7XYO. "We also passed tons of traffic,
ranging from requests for water and food, supplies and bedding. In fact,
Amateur Radio was the 911 system on Camp Gruber for many days."
Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) Liaison Officer Jeff
Schneller, N2HPO, says TSA canteens are holding with their present
complement of ham radio volunteers and may not rotate them out of service.
"As operators need to leave, we may just scale down," he told ARRL. "We
thank all those who are assisting and were willing to assist." He also
thanked the American Red Cross for referring radio operators to SATERN.
SATERN volunteers Steve Hicks, N5AC, and John Beadles, N5OOM, are supporting
a canteen operation in Waveland. "We drove up and down several streets, and
everyone we talked to said they had not had a hot meal in a while," Hicks
said in a PACTOR dispatch to Schneller. Hicks said they continue to ask
about H&W traffic, "but based on what we have seen, I think it unlikely that
we will have any traffic to run."
SATERN has continued monitoring 7.288 MHz and 3.965 MHz each half hour
throughout the day and evening. In addition, the SATERN Net activates daily
at 1400 UTC on 14.265 MHz.
Jim Aylward, KC8PD, just returned to Ohio this week from volunteering in
Ocean Springs, Mississippi. "Even though we all prepare for events we hope
never occur, the hams I worked with from all over the country demonstrated
that 'When all else fails, Amateur Radio is there' is a lot more than a
slogan," he said. "It was the reality for thousands of people who needed
effective emergency communication. When my shelter manager, who had never
worked with hams before, told me that I had been a godsend, I was moved."
==>ARRL SPELLS OUT "HAM AID" REIMBURSEMENT PROCEDURES
The ARRL has established a set of "Ham Aid" reimbursement procedures so
radio amateurs volunteering to provide emergency communication in the field
during the Hurricane Katrina disaster can recover some of their
out-of-pocket expenses. The procedures are on the ARRL Web site
. The Corporation for National
and Community Service (CNCS) has provided a $100,000 grant supplement to
ARRL to help fund Ham Aid, a new League program to support Amateur Radio
volunteers deployed in the field in disaster-stricken areas. Ham Aid also
has benefited from some individual donations. ARRL Chief Development Officer
Mary Hobart, K1MMH, says the Ham Aid reimbursement program for the Katrina
disaster will be limited.
"In an effort to distribute funding to as many hams as possible, expense
reimbursement will be $25 per day for a maximum of four days for a total
reimbursement per radio amateur of $100," Hobart said. "Hams will only be
permitted one expense reimbursement during Katrina operations."
The CNCS grant funds will go toward helping volunteers defray such expenses
as gasoline, meals, lodging and other necessities while they're in the
field. Hobart says the money should not be misconstrued as compensation for
operating, however. For now, the program only covers per-diem reimbursements
between September 1 and December 31, 2005. The period may be extended based
on the availability of funds.
Besides providing emergency communication within and outside the affected
areas, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) members and individual radio
amateurs are supplementing the communication needs of emergency management
and relief agencies, including the American Red Cross and The Salvation
Army. Hobart said it's only due to the scope of the unprecedented and tragic
Katrina disaster that CNCS agreed to help support dedicated Amateur Radio
volunteers.
Hams seeking expense reimbursement must complete an on-line application form
with the required information. The form also solicits some optional
information, such as license class, whether the applicant has completed any
of the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications courses and if the
applicant is an ARES and/or RACES member. The Section Manager or Section
Emergency Coordinator on site during the radio operator's service in the
field then will review and e-mail validated electronic forms to ARRL
Headquarters.
Hobart says the League will accept reimbursement request applications on a
first-come, first served basis for as long as funds are available.
Reimbursement checks will be mailed to the address the radio amateur
provides on the form.
The CNCS grant is an extension of ARRL's three year Homeland Security
training grant, which has provided certification in emergency communication
protocols to nearly 5500 Amateur Radio volunteers over the past three years.
This grant extension does not cover additional ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications training program reimbursements, however.
|
| Posted Wednesday September 7, @9:26PM |
Here's a fascinating report from a California physician who's at a hospital in Biloxi, Mississippi.
http://www.dr-goodheart.blogspot.com/
Lots of pictures and details on working with FEMA and the Red Cross
as well as Vietnamese immigrants.
|
| Posted Wednesday September 21, @9:14PM |
Dear Public Health Colleague:
There's been a lot of information coming out about Hurricane Katrina and related local efforts. I want to take a moment to make sure everyone has the latest resources.
Operation Evergreen
The state continues to prepare for the possibility of evacuees coming here from the Gulf Coast area. Seattle-King County, Pierce County and Thurston County have been actively engaged in this planning. At this point, we don't know if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will send any evacuees to the Northwest because most people have been sent to states nearer their homes. For ongoing updates-and the hotline number-visit: http://www.ga.wa.gov/opevergreen
Volunteers
Many of you-and others from your agencies-have volunteered to help with hurricane relief efforts. Your enthusiasm is much appreciated. So far we have only been asked to compile lists of government volunteers to make sure we can respond quickly if needed. We have not been asked to deploy anyone.
I want to remind everyone to wait until specific assistance is requested by the Gulf Coast states. To send people without this official request would further strain emergency operations in the affected areas.
Requests for health resources have been infrequent and sporadic as the affected states absorb the help they have already received and assess their needs. Calls for further assistance may eventually come in as new needs are identified and the first wave of responders need relief. To be ready, we should continue efforts to identify volunteers in all public health disciplines.
Relief efforts are being coordinated through the Emergency Management Assistant Compact, known as EMAC. This compact is an interstate mutual aid agreement designed to ensure that the affected jurisdictions can obtain needed resources from other states quickly and efficiently. EMAC also provides a mechanism to recover costs, extends liability protection and interstate licensure recognition.
In our state, EMAC is coordinated by the state Emergency Management Division
(EMD). EMAC requests for health and medical services are sent to DOH. If
you've already registered as a volunteer in response to a previous SECURES message and your assistance is requested, you will be contacted either by DOH or EMD. If staff would like to volunteer and haven't registered, they can request a form from
emergency.preparedness@doh.wa.gov.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has also established a web-based system for managing volunteer health care providers and other public health and medical professions. (Visit https://volunteer.hhs.gov for more information.) This system has its own rules and terms. Although government employees may register here, it is separate and distinct from EMAC.
Katrina Evacuees in Washington State
Some people from Gulf Coast states have chosen to come to our state on their own. There are several resources available to assist them. Contact the American Red Cross office to get help with immediate needs. If you can't find the local number, call 1-800-435-7669.
A list of information resources is available at: http://www.emd.wa.gov/6-mrr/mit-rec/pa/katrina/katrina-pa.htm
Information on Medicaid and other issues being managed by the state Department of Social and Health Services may be found at: http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/HurricaneHelp/
Health Issues - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regularly updates a Website on health issues to consider for hurricane survivors at: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/hcp.asp
Evacuee Access to Benefits - Information on federal disaster assistance programs for Hurricane Katrina evacuees is available at www.govbenefits.gov.
We will also continue to host a Web page at http://www.doh.wa.gov/katrina.htm with links to a variety of related resources, from mental health issues to relief efforts.
Thanks again to all of you for your interest and your willingness to help.
We'll do our best to keep you informed.
Mary C. Selecky, Secretary
Washington State Department of Health
|
| Posted Wednesday September 21, @9:08PM |
Marina,
I've attached a rather depressing article about what some in Congress
want to charge off and do. While interoperability can be a problem, I
doubt it was the problem in New Orleans, with its 800 MHz trunking.
The clueless local officials simply didn't provide any emergency
power. You can't fix dumb with money. And the evacuation didn't need
radios as much as it needed a concrete plan and the will to use it.
That said, maybe some good can come of this disaster, although with
all the competing trunking standards, I'm not sure what. Speedy
action clearly isn't the answer.
--Mike
See the article here.
|
| Posted Monday September 12, @8:41PM |
=================
The ARES E-Letter
Special Edition
September 11, 2005
=================
Edited by Rick Palm, K1CE
===============================================================
ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial questions or
comments: Rick Palm, K1CE, k1ce@arrl.net
===============================================================
SPECIAL EDITION TWO: HURRICANE KATRINA FOLLOW-UP
It's been quite a week of studying the ARES response to Hurricane
Katrina while keeping a wary eye on storm Ophelia, just off shore
here in Flagler County, on the Florida central east coast. Local ARES
was on alert. We had winds and driving rain as Ophelia tried to
decide which way to turn. Yesterday, it marched to the northeast and
today we have an uneasy, almost surreal calm. But, the sky is clear.
Back to Katrina: I can't remember a more comprehensive ARES response,
especially in terms of inter-county and interstate mutual assistance,
plus the concomitant, unprecedented activity by ARRL HQ staff in
support of that response, ever. Even the Chief Operating Officer
Harold Kramer, WJ1B, worked over the Labor Day holiday weekend. And
word arrived yesterday that the "Hurricane Katrina Amateur Radio
Volunteers Needed Clearing House" now is live on the ARRL Web site
. The ARRL Letter: "This
database will be the primary means for relief organizations requiring
Amateur Radio volunteers for communication support to list their
needs. Additionally, volunteers looking to help may search the
listings to match up their capabilities with the various
requirements." That is a first, as far as I know. Credit Joe
Tomasone, AB2M, for the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Communications
Volunteer Registration and Message Traffic Database he developed.
On the Northern Florida ARES Net this morning, a report was made that
"renegade" hams were turned away from an affected area and were to be
adorned with "metal bracelets" if they did not leave. Message:
Coordinate your volunteer efforts with your own home ARRL Section
Emergency Coordinator (SEC), or his/her designees. Also, be prepared
to be self-sufficient: "If you need it, you bring it," advised
Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN. - K1CE
"All of us know this will be a months-long effort. Just because we
are unable to immediately send those of you who have registered, that
does not mean we will not need you in the future. Your patience in
awaiting an assignment that may never come is appreciated. The
requirements are likely to change in the future; we are unable to
give any idea of when that will be." - Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, STX SEC
=====================================
IN THIS ISSUE:
+ Northern Texas Response
+ Louisiana
+ Mississippi
+ Alabama
+ South Texas
+ New Orleans
+ Northwest Harris County (Texas) ARES
+ Hillsborough (Florida) Ops Deployment
+ Interoperability Tip
+ On Responder Fatigue
+ Digital Outlets
+ Briefs
+ Response and Recovery HF Frequencies
+ Resource Links
+ Final Note and Prediction
======================================
+ NORTHERN TEXAS SECTION RESPONSE
The NTX Section had been on alert since Monday, August 29. NTX SEC
Harris Swan, K5MWC, and STX SEC Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, had agreed early
on a plan to make effective use of NTX ARES members in response to
requests from the affected area. That plan was to prepare a list of
people volunteering to go if requested; Reimer would coordinate all
requests for assistance.
NTX ARES has primarily been supporting the West Gulf ARES Emergency
Net, dealing with H/W traffic, and supporting Red Cross, Salvation
Army, and FEMA. Several of the county EOCs requested support as they
anticipated operations with the large number of evacuees expected.
NTX will supplement resources in the affected area, provide support
to local shelter operations and support relief agencies in response
to their requests. The tempo will certainly pick up as time goes by;
NTX ARES is planning for long-term needs. -- NTX SEC Harris Swan,
K5MWC
______________________
The following is culled from a status report by the indefatigable
Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, South Texas SEC: Hurricane Katrina ARES
operations continue in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, North and
South Texas sections, using operators recruited from Louisiana,
Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and other nearby
states and sections.
+ LOUISIANA
ARES continues to support Red Cross shelter and Southern Baptist
Convention debris-clearing operations in St. Tammany parish, where
disaster relief workers are housed and fed at the First Baptist
Church in Covington. In Washington Parish, ARES operators are
arriving to provide critical communication among hospitals and the
parish EOC. Over a dozen operators from Texas alone have traveled to
Louisiana. Victoria County (Texas) ARES EC John Wagner, WA5VBP, flew
into the New Orleans airport where it was determined that his
assignment was unsafe; he was sent on to serve in Baton Rouge.
Communications among the field teams and the state EOC in Baton Rouge
continues using HF voice on 75 meters and 40 meters. Surprisingly,
many VHF and UHF repeaters remained operational after the storm's
passing. Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, temporarily delegated
his authority to former SM Al Oubre, K5DPG. Stratton will be working
on restoring the communications infrastructure.
In yesterday's ARRL Letter, Stratton was cited as saying Amateur
Radio was the only means for state officials at the state EOC in
Baton Rouge to communicate earlier this week with parishes above Lake
Pontchartrain. Also, there was a communication to the EOC from FEMA
that said, "Ham radio is our prime communications with you, and they
should get anything they need."
Reports also have ARES ops even loaning government agencies their
equipment.
+ MISSISSIPPI
The hardest hit areas are perhaps the counties closest to the Gulf
coast, especially Hancock and Harrison Counties. ARES DEC Tom
Hammack, W4WLF, requested 25 ARES operators for critical
communication among EOCs, hospitals, and shelters. ARRL Northern
Florida, West Central Florida and Southern Florida Sections are
sending self-sufficient teams to meet this urgent need, and a few
operators are coming from Arkansas. Hammack said his operators are
sleeping on the floor where they are assigned. State RACES Officer
and ARES DEC Ron Brown, AB5WF, is working on a staging area for
Amateur Radio responders near the Mississippi Emergency Management
Agency (MEMA) in Jackson. Mississippi SM/SEC Malcolm Keown, W5XX,
received a replacement generator and now has telephone and Internet
service.
[In correspondence with Malcolm, he gave me an appreciation for their
mental status and what they are going through on the ground in
Mississippi: "At this point nobody has much time to document
activities. Nobody at this point really has a clear enough mind to
put together a coherent story." -- K1CE]
+ ALABAMA
The state capitol of Montgomery was the scene of processing and
orienting Amateur Radio volunteers for Red Cross and other duty in
Louisiana and Mississippi. Some volunteers will help support
communication at Red Cross shelters set up for evacuees, while others
will provide tactical communication for feeding stations or for
emergency management. Alabama SM Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, has been
coordinating ham radio volunteers at the Montgomery site. - ARRL
Letter
+ SOUTH TEXAS
The Red Cross reports housing more than 142,000 people in 485
shelters in 18 states. Texas has over 230,000 people who fled.
Orange County ARES EC Rocky Wilson, N5MTX, has ARES operators
supporting seven Red Cross facilities that include distribution
centers and shelters. Since being activated on August 27, 35 ARES
operators have provided over 1,200 person-hours, as operations
continue. ARES groups from adjacent Jefferson and Polk Counties are
providing much-needed mutual aid.
ARES District 14 (Harris County) DEC Ken Mitchell, KD2KW, was
requested by the county emergency management office (HCOEM) to
provide four operators 24 hours per day, on-site at the Houston
Astrodome, and two at the county EOC, beginning September 1. Since
then, more than 90 operators have provided over 720 person-hours of
direct communications support. All four county ARES ECs are
providing operators at both sites.
Managing the incoming health and welfare inquiry messages is
overwhelming nearly all NTS resources, especially at the local level.
To mitigate this, Amateur Radio clubs have been asked to contact
nearby shelters as often as possible to pick up outgoing messages and
process them into the NTS by any available means.
At the request of the state Adjutant General's office, Travis County
ARES EC Don Dudley, AC5YK, facilitated National Guard in Waco with
communication with Guard elements at the Louisiana Superdome.
+ NEW ORLEANS
STX SEC Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, reports: "Amateur Radio operators are
beginning to be sent into areas around New Orleans to support command
and control operations for Red Cross and other disaster relief
operations. The equipment requirement is VHF and UHF FM. Portable,
hand-held and mobile stations are needed. Conditions remain
primitive. A pass is required from the Louisiana State Police for
access beyond roadblocks. Similar requirements exist in Mississippi,
where the state EOC is located in Jackson."
+ NORTHWEST HARRIS COUNTY (TEXAS) ARES
>From Hal Merritt, KD5HWW, EC, Northwest Harris County (Texas) ARES:
"I have a few moments to breathe and share some notes. We have three
running missions: a deployment near Slidell, an operator in New
Orleans, and the local event.
The local mission consists of serving the mass shelters in Houston.
We saw rapid escalation, much more misinformation than information,
and a dynamic situation. The core problem was one we've never seen
before: We had trained and drilled on mass evacuations, but not the
reverse (mass incoming evacuees). Our local resources were quickly
overwhelmed, and I pulled the trigger on our MOU with surrounding
county ARES groups. I am now tasking hams from several counties, but
may be expanding my plea for operators statewide. The problem is
that there is no lodging of any kind to be had. Every hotel and
motel is completely full with evacuees.
There is ample local infrastructure, except housing. The event is
running along the FEMA ICS (Incident Command System) and UC (Unified
Command) scripts. It may seem like chaos to the untrained eye, but it
is a thing of beauty to see it working so well.
Normally, an ARES response team would report to, and be tasked by,
the Liaison person of the FEMA Command Staff. There, it might be
used as an ICS resource or tasked to Logistics for assignment to Task
Forces or Strike Teams. Amateur Radio is not yet an official FEMA
Resource Type, but that is being worked on. In this event, the Harris
County OEM called us. The EOC is attached to ICS under Logistics,
and that is how we fit into this event. The ICS is on site at the
Astrodome complex.
The ARES response has two locations. The first team is situated with
the EOC, providing communication for logistics (resource scheduling
and support of the Dome team). They are making entries into a master
event log, also.
The main effort is in the field, however. We have teams of four to
six operators. There is a Team Leader who is in charge. He/she is
responsible for on-site task assignments and for getting the relief
team quickly up to speed. The Team Leaders are ARES AECs, or other
amateurs with large public service event experience.
We are running six-hour shifts. No one is scheduled for more than
six hours, and they have only one shift per day. Having seen what
happens when someone gets too tired, we would rather do without, than
have someone get hurt; or worse, get other people hurt. Superheroes
need not apply.
The ARES leadership is focused on coordination. Every possible task
is being delegated. Although we are working 12-hour days, the real
action is with the Team Leaders and Net Controls. No, things are not
being done exactly like we would have done it, but it is getting
done; and generally, with the highest degree of professionalism.
Every time I screw up, there seems to be a number of folks there to
beat me up and get the job done right.
Please relay my deepest gratitude to all that have stepped up to the
plate. - Contact Hal Merritt, KD5HWW, at
+ HILLSBOROUGH (FLORIDA) OPS DEPLOYED TO MISSISSIPPI MAKING A
DIFFERENCE FOR KATRINA SURVIVORS
Six trained communication volunteers from the Tampa Bay, Florida,
area (sponsored by the Hillsborough County EOC) have been in
Mississippi. Using ham radio while awaiting their deployment with
state of Florida communications assets, they became one of the few
outlets for "I'm Alive" messages out of the area. With local
operators in the affected area providing communications to local
police, fire, and search teams, there has been limited means of
transmitting H/W messages from the victims to their families outside
the disaster zone.
Members of the Hillsborough team have been visiting shelters and
feeding stations collecting messages from victims. More than 100
messages have been transmitted from Gulfport to Tampa via the Tampa
Amateur Radio Club, and local hams in Tampa have been making
heart-breaking phone calls to loved ones across the country who had
no word for a week on the fate of their family members in
Mississippi.
The official mission of the Hillsborough team is to set up and
operate EDICs (Emergency Deployable Interoperable Communications
System), a fly-away computer-controlled communications system that
interconnects radios and cell phones of different frequencies and
types so that public service communication can be restored in a
disaster area. It allows the radios that survived to be put to use so
that police officers and firefighters can better coordinate recovery
operations.
The EDICs unit may be tasked to Stennis Space Center in Hancock
County, or to Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. The team is to
deploy with Florida law enforcement teams staged in Gulfport. -- Pete
Kemp, KZ1Z, West Central Florida Section PIO
Gary Sessums, KC5QCN, member of the Hillsborough team writes: "Thanks
for the mention in the ARES newsletter about the Hillsborough County
ARES/RACES deployment. We are on site in Biloxi and Gulfport,
Mississippi. We have passed over 100 H/W messages in addition to our
public safety tasking. We are on the MARS, CAP, and SHARES nets, in
addition to Amateur Radio. I am trying to arrange relief for the
local ARES/RACES operators at the Harrison County EOC, as those guys
have been running non-stop since before the storm hit."
+ INTEROPERABILITY TIP
Watching in frustration at the breakdown of communications in the
Gulf coast response, I was made acutely aware of the viability of
Amateur Radio in terms of interoperability. We have the ability to
change frequencies in our radios to serve the location and needs of
the area.
Mobile HF, VHF and UHF radios can be re-programmed on the fly. With
that in mind, one of the necessary contents of anyone's "grab and go"
equipment should be the manuals, or copies of specific pages, for any
radio they carry with them.
I also write down the necessary steps -- and only the necessary steps
-- to program and use the radio away from the manual. I word process
the steps small enough so that I can laminate them as part of my
credentials lanyard. As a backup, I put another credit-card-size
laminated copy in a wallet that I keep separate in a coat pocket or
in the cargo pocket of my trousers. -- Chuck Heron, KD7BWG, DEC, Gila
County ARES, Arizona, Executive Officer, Gila County EMCOMM
(ARES/RACES),
+ ON RESPONDER FATIGUE
>From Fred Leif, W6WTI: Thank you for putting out the special edition
ARES E-Letter. It is important that hams outside the impact and
support areas have a sense of the service that is being provided so
that we can help explain to our neighbors and the public the vital
role that Amateur Radio is playing.
Amateur Radio serves best while the communications emergency exists.
The full response and recovery from Katrina will take a very long
time, but when the response agencies and recovery teams have
established networks that meet their communications needs, the hams
should be allowed to stand down. It will be difficult to determine
when this occurs, but the ARES leaders should keep an eye on this
ball. We don't want "responder fatigue" to the extent that we can't
get operators for the next event. Bringing our service to bear on
the communications emergency, and recognizing when it is time to step
aside is a vital management function.
+ DIGITAL OUTLETS
Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, reports "We now have digital
(Pactor/Internet/WL2K) outlets for H/W traffic into the areas noted
below in Louisiana and Mississippi. National Traffic System (NTS)
traffic can be sent to . At the point that
destination traffic handlers feel they can take on all comers, the
directions to reach them will be shared. Louisiana towns and
parishes: St. Tammany, Abita Spring, Covington, Folsom, Lacombe,
Madisonville, Mandeville, Pearl River, Son, Slidell, Tangipahoa,
Amite, Hammond, Independence, Kentwood, Ponchatoula, Roseland,
Tangipahoa, Ticfaw, Terrebonne, Houma, Washington, Angie, Bogalusa,
Franklinton, Varnado. Mississippi Towns: Gautier, Ocean Springs,
Pascagoula. - Relayed by Benson Scott, AE5V
+ BRIEFS:
The Ohio Single Side Band Net (OSSBN) was to announce that H/W
traffic will be accepted. OSSBN Net Manager Connie Hamilton, N8IO,
who is also an Assistant Section Manager, said conditions have
changed, allowing for a reasonable chance of traffic getting
delivered. -- Joe Phillips, K8QOE, Ohio Section Manager
+ HURRICANE KATRINA HF RESPONSE AND RECOVERY FREQUENCIES
The following frequencies and links are the courtesy of John Mayger,
W4DJ. As far as net activity is concerned, I've been listening
primarily to the Gulf Coast ARES Net on 7285 kHz, and the SATERN Net
on 14.265 MHz, although I'm sure there are many other active nets.
Good propagation to the Florida east coast from those two nets have
allowed me to monitor their excellent, professional work. - K1CE
2802.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster
3171.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster
5136.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster
5141.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster
5211.0 USB FEMA
5236.0 USB SHARES Coordination Network
6859.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster
7507.0 USB USN/USCG hurricane net
7550.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster (primary)
7698.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster
9380.0 USB USN/USCG hurricane net
10493.0 USB FEMA
14396.5 USB SHARES Coordination Network
AMATEUR HF GULF COAST HURRICANE NETS
3845.0 LSB Gulf Coast West Hurricane
3862.5 LSB Mississippi Section Traffic
3873.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
3873.0 LSB Louisiana ARES Emergency (night)
3873.0 LSB Texas ARES Emergency (night)
3873.0 LSB Mississippi ARES Emergency
3910.0 LSB Mississippi ARES
3910.0 LSB Louisiana Traffic
3923.0 LSB Mississippi ARES
3925.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
3925.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency (altn)
3935.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
3935.0 LSB Louisiana ARES (health and welfare)
3935.0 LSB Texas ARES (health and welfare)
3935.0 LSB Mississippi ARES (health and welfare)
3935.0 LSB Alabama Emergency
3940.0 LSB Southern Florida Emergency
3950.0 LSB Northern Florida Emergency
3955.0 LSB South Texas Emergency
3965.0 LSB Alabama Emergency (altn)
3967.0 LSB Gulf Coast (outgoing traffic)
3975.0 LSB Texas RACES
3993.5 LSB Gulf Coast (health & welfare)
3995.0 LSB Gulf Coast Wx
7225.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
7235.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency
7235.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
7235.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency
7240.0 LSB American Red Cross US Gulf Coast Disaster
7240.0 LSB Texas Emergency
7243.0 LSB Alabama Emergency
7245.0 LSB Southern Louisiana
7248.0 LSB Texas RACES
7250.0 LSB Texas Emergency
7260.0 LSB Gulf Coast West Hurricane
7264.0 LSB Gulf Coast (health and welfare)
7265.0 LSB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio (SATERN) (altn)
7273.0 LSB Texas ARES (altn)
7280.0 LSB NTS Region 5
7280.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency (altn)
7283.0 LSB Gulf Coast (outgoing only)
7285.0 LSB West Gulf ARES Emergency (day)
7285.0 LSB Louisiana ARES Emergency (day)
7285.0 LSB Mississippi ARES Emergency
7285.0 LSB Texas ARES Emergency (day)
7290.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
7290.0 LSB Gulf Coast Weather
7290.0 LSB Texas ARES (health and welfare)
7290.0 LSB Louisiana ARES (health and welfare) (day)
7290.0 LSB Texas ARES (health and welfare)
7290.0 LSB Mississippi ARES (health and welfare)
14265.0 USB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio (SATERN)
14300.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic
14300.0 USB Maritime Mobile Service
14303.0 USB International Assistance and Traffic
14313.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic (altn)
14313.0 USB Maritime Mobile Service (altn)
14316.0 USB Health and Welfare
14320.0 USB Health and Welfare
14325.0 USB Hurricane Watch (Amateur-to-National Hurricane Center)
14340.0 USB Louisiana (1900)
+ RESOURCE LINKS
CAUTION: The links presented below are listed as possible resources
for ARES deployment teams. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN VETTED BY ARRL. USE
AT YOUR OWN RISK.
-K1CE
Health and Welfare Inquiries can be submitted to:
Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN)
; for Health and Welfare inquiries after
hurricanes and other disasters .
American Red Cross (H/W Inquiries): 866-GET-INFO (866-438-4636)
American Red Cross donations and volunteering: 800-HELP-NOW
(800-435-7669)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
(Individual Disaster Assistance): 800-621-FEMA (800-621-3362)
Hurricane Katrina Survivor Lists and Information:
National Next of Kin Registration
Hurricane Katrina Survivors Online Forum and Survivor List
CNN Hurricane Katrina Survivor List
Globe Coast News Katrina Survivor List
New Orleans
WDSU-TV6 New Orleans TV Station
New Orleans Newspaper
Hurricane Housing Information for Victims
Links to Emergency Management and Related Sites:
See also:
Florida Division of Emergency Management
Alabama Emergency Management
Alabama Homeland Security
Louisiana State Emergency Information
Louisiana Homeland Security
Louisiana Governor's Office
City of New Orleans
Mississippi Emergency Management
Mississippi Emergency Management Emergency Line: 1-800-222-MEMA(6362)
Mississippi Homeland Security
Disaster Relief Organizations:
American Red Cross
Salvation Army
United Way
Catholic Charities
Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348
United Jewish Communities
United Methodists Relief Committee
Episcopal Relief
America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070
+ FINAL NOTE AND PREDICTION
This special edition is released on the anniversary of the September
11 bombings that changed all of our lives. As with the humanitarian
ARES response, then, it has been a privilege to monitor the
incredible ARES response to the current catastrophe. Bravo to you,
the ARES field activists.
It was also inspiring to see Newington and other staff give up their
holiday and other time to support the ARES effort. Bravo to them --
they are members of the HQ staff for all of the right reasons.
And now, the prediction: When the curtain is finally drawn on this
calamity, you will see Amateur Radio and ARES written -- or
re-written -- into a host of more governmental and non-governmental
organization plans for the future. Guaranteed. Mark my words on that
one. Get your pens ready. - K1CE
|
| Posted Monday September 12, @8:40PM |
Folks:
In case you haven't heard, Allen is heading home today and filed this report on more of his activities. Again, I haven't edited it, since I feel you need to see the raw energy he is putting into his tasks. As before, if you wish to comment to Allen, please hold it for a couple of days, so he can get caught up just a little bit at HQ.
Sept 9 05
Today started out early –far too early. The time change caught me and I almost over slept a radio interview that I had scheduled. But the one thing here that is never in short supply is coffee, and after a few cups the fog cleared.
Alabama in September is hot even in the morning and it made me wonder what the volunteers along the coast might be facing today. I entered the converted Super Kmart only to find that even at 7 a.m. there already were many activity centers fully staffed. I searched for a quiet spot in a corner.
It’s not easy to find a good spot. Somehow it seems God decided that he will allow cell phone frequencies only to work in atmospheric conditions of high decibel sonic energies. The few quiet spots always seem to be lined like a Faraday cage. I chose a spot that I had stumbled upon yesterday and waited a few moments. True to their promise, the radio station called right on time just as my now-caffeinated kidneys kicked in.
On a table not far away, the TV was reporting a riot in Houston. It was the first I and many people around me had heard of it. The immediate reaction from the people around me was that it only reinforced the decision that H&W traffic not be done unless it can be done for everyone in a location. They shook their heads as if to say, “What did you THINK was going to happen?” and walked away. I stayed glued to the TV because the next story was about yet another storm possibly targeting Charleston. Troubles indeed come in threes – cue the locusts.
Monica came in early today. Greg was not far behind, but was immediately pulled off to some meeting to coordinate things across different activity groups. As the others filed in, they went immediately to their tasks and soon volunteers were reporting in for assignments. Today they were going to Mississippi. Most initially went to Hattiesburg. People like Pam Taylor, AA7CM, came from as far away as New Hampshire. She went to Gulfport. Richard Lubash, N1XVW, arrived from Atlanta. He will be doing double duty working in shelters and also getting video for a new PSA for ARES. He went to Hattiesburg, but was later re-deployed to the coast as the need was greater there.
As other communications systems come up, I am finding it interesting to deal with some news people who seem simply to have missed major events. They ask, “What does ham radio have to do with this? Why, was there a communications problem?” I don’t know where they have been, but it certainly wasn't following hurricane events for the past week! But I am also lifted up by the news that the body count may be a lot lower than earlier estimates. Meanwhile, some stations, enamored by Hollywood, headline their reports of celebrities’ political statements and actions as if they were really important. Their narcissistic delusions inexorably navigate their words into their own cosmic singularity of time and space orbiting about the word “me”. To me it just highlights how “other worldly” some lives are from common folk. But then there are news people who ARE involved and following the developments. It’s pleasant to chat with them and share stories.
No one seems to care about today’s shake-up in FEMA. They are more concerned about getting a good HF station up on 40 meters. This was a real concern in many locations, until a little old man from in the back shipping area came hoofing up to us as quickly as he could. Catching his breath he told me, “Your stuff is here.”
“Stuff” was the first shipment of donations from the ARRL national HQ. Many manufacturers have come together to provide gear through the ARRL. There were over 200 small radios and 20 or more entire big HF kits. Radios, microphones, headphones, antennas, coax –it was all there. Monica went into overdrive putting kits together, numbering them all and preparing them for use. Some went out with teams as fast as we could log them in. Pam Taylor was among the first to be issued gear which she will distribute in her assigned area. It visibly lifted the spirits of not only the hams around the ARES area, but drew in spectators from surrounding activity areas in the building who ogled the mounting pile in the radio cache.
A reporter from the Christian Science Monitor called. I had talked with her briefly before, but Harold Kramer had gotten her further attention. I have to ask Harold what he said, but whatever it was, it worked. I spoke with her for an hour and gave her several names and phone numbers of other people who said they would be willing to share their stories. She will call me again tomorrow evening after she has a chance to talk to people.
I also spoke with the reporter from the New York Times who I had worked with for many hours before coming here. I asked about the story he has written, and he said that it was “in” yesterday. So far there has been nothing on Google about it, so I am was figuring that it is coming out this weekend. Then I heard it was out today - and here I was with no chance of getting a copy. Oh well. Hope it was good. With the return of normal telecommunications in more and more areas, and the media’s proclivity to hype the cell services as if they are the only means to communicate short of two cups and a string, I fear that the delay in the story could be its demise.
I am very conscious that I am swimming in a media soup of news and the PR spun by multibillion dollar corporations positioning themselves for the windfalls that will become available in the long term recovery. They have whole Advertising and PR agencies. On our side ham radio has a cadre of volunteer PIOs around the country and me. Yet the message MUST get out. Ham radio must be given proper credit for what we have done in the past days and included in the future plans – whatever they may be. How many times must we come to the rescue before we are heard above the din of the mega corporations selling commercial systems? While I have nothing against their systems, which DO work most of the time, they work hard to revise their histories in disasters and minimize ham radio in order to sell more. It is simply the bottom line and we’re outnumbered and outspent many times over. Sometimes I despair. But then, for a few brief moments I secretly stole computer time to send out email this morning and I saw the words of encouragement from dozens of hams – that helped. I am also in awe of the Red Cross volunteers. Faced with a crisis beyond the imaginations of most of us, they keep putting one foot in front of the other and plugging away. That inspires me to also keep plugging too in getting out our story. I just hope that the PIO’s around the country are doing the same. Maybe they are - I trust that they are - but without internet access other than a few stolen moments I really do not know, so we live by faith.
The presence of Greg Sarratt, the Alabama Section Manager, dominates the ARES tables. His southern gentility keeps an outwardly calm and pleasant demeanor even though we know his head is a tempest of facts, needs and expectations placed on him. When he can, he talks gently with each person passing through, both hams and just curious volunteers. The chatter between Greg and Monica about the location of innocuous items such as a paper or a pen remains a diversion from the tensions. Monica has a place for everything –all in order. Her greatest gift was when I made a run to a local Dollar Store and bought her some kitchen drawer organizers. For her, it was Christmas. For Greg, it was a major help too, but he will not admit it to Monica.
By the way, it turns out that AB4AWM actually has a name! “JD” Creel was finally able to take off the headphones and take a break as others took over for a bit. In a deep Southern drawl he shared that he has always been able to listen and accurately track four or more conversations simultaneously on the radio. To him it was “nothing special.” It was odd that he was in awe of someone coming from ARRL HQ, while I was in awe of his audio capabilities.
I will head back to Connecticut tomorrow. My prayer is that it is not just to “bounce,” clean laundry and run to report events in Charleston if that hurricane strikes. I leave with confidence that Greg, Monica and “JD” will soldier on. Hams will continue to be processed in and out, serving the needs of the faces that fill the news nightly by working behind the scenes to make the recovery possible. It’s a good day to be a ham.
Often I don’t wear my “radio shirts” when I travel. I don’t want to be bothered by other passengers asking questions while I try to get sleep. I’m tired –but tomorrow I think I will wear my ARES shirt to the airport.
Allen
W1agp
I want to add that I really appreciate Allen sharing his thoughts on what is going on. Maybe he did not want them posted in the rough draft form, but I feel it gives a truer understanding of what goes on in an effort of this scope. Most of us have never been in any major operation, and this gives us a peek behind the curtain.
Our thoughts are with each and everyone in the area and especially for the hams down there bustin' their rears to provide effective communication.
Jim McDonald, KB9LEI
ARRL PR Committee
Muncie, IN ARC Public Information Officer
When All Else Fails...
...Amateur Radio
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| Posted Monday September 12, @8:35PM |
I live in TN and am a field engineer for Velocita Wireless - the U.S.
operator of the Mobitex wireless data network - and am often one of the
first into disaster areas trying to restore service from our affected sites.
Like every other wireless service, we depend on the local phone company for
99% of our connectivity upwards through our network and local power
companies for power to run the sites.
Small portable generators can make up for lack of electrical service and we
have and are deploying satellite links for lack of TelCo service at others.
I am back home now after spending a week working along the gulf coast from
Pascagoula, MS to New Orleans, LA. We have found that a week is about the
limit for an engineer to spend under the intense demands of these
situations. The long hours and marginal living conditions rapidly take their
toll on the physical and mental health of people working in these areas.
My hope is that any hams wanting to go into the area and provide
communications assistance be prepared to see things that no person should
experience. They must also be totally prepared to live under virtual combat
conditions. I have seen too many gun-ho hams wanting to help but are ill
prepared to support themselves for the duration.
Good luck - it's still a mess down there!
73 de KD4GT
This isn't my first hurricane but it is certainly the worst I've seen.
Others agree. Stuart, FL, ground zero after Frances, doesn't compare to what
I've seen so far. The devastation goes for miles. I spent last night in
Petal, MS - 60 miles inland - and 1 tree in 4 is gone. Road signs are
missing. Roofs are in the remaining trees and every couple miles you drive
over a chunk of Telco cable ripped from poles 100+ yards away. Major
intersections have portable stop signs or the centerline has a police
barricade to prevent cross traffic.
Cell coverage is spotty, electrical power sparse and the POTS phone was
supposed to use a pair in that last cable you drove over. Gas, if the
station has power, is a 4+ hour wait in the ¾ mile line for a $20 limit.
People are siphoning gas from their cars to run portable generators keeping
their refrigerator and a box fan running. If they are lucky, they still have
running water.
But it gets worse as you go south. Heading down I-59 to Slidell, LA are
mile+ long stretches where 1 in 4 trees are left standing.
Several overpasses were flooded over 8' deep for the local road below. My
site in Slidell was lucky. The shack is 4' above ground so it only got a
foot deep with water inside.
Oh, that's after wading through 6" black gumbo mud to get to the steps. But,
the site remains down. TelCo says it will take at least a week before they
can connect upwards through their network. That is the first priority. Dial
tone at your home or Frame Relay to your radio site comes later. The good
thing is there are no gas lines creating traffic jams. There's just none
available. There's no power to run the pumps. Large crews are trying to
rebuild the railroad. The local marina looks like a 5 year old boy's toy
box with the boats piled wherever the wind and waves left them.
Going west to Hammond, LA. Life gets a bit better. The gas lines return.
Your cell phone might work. I am able to find out I'm needed in Diamondhead,
MS. I-10 is littered with everything - cars, chairs, trees, what looked like
refrigerators and the constant tree limbs and brush. I passed the hood of a
Kenworth. There's' very little traffic here. Power crews, TV vans and other
'official' vehicles only. I'm passing a National Guard convoy now. Homes
along the road are heavily damaged. Many have walls or a roof missing - if
its still standing. The stench of dead and rotting plants and animals is
everywhere.
Devastation? Massive. Do they need help? Yes. However you must be TOTALLY
self-sufficient. Expect nothing - not even roads. You must bring your own
water, food, toilet paper and porta-a-potty. There are no hotel rooms, few
camp grounds, no Burger King. You won't get it "your way"!
The infrastructure is being restored - slowly. The damage is major.
The shootings are real. Even in 'good' neighborhoods there is petty looting.
The governmental agencies are deploying resources. Order is slowly being
restored.
Curfews are being enforced. Normalcy will return. At the moment however,
there is little structure. If you didn't bring it along, it doesn't exist.
Your personal safety is sometimes a luxury. Think of being a lone soldier in
a war zone. You have no supply chain. You are one bottle of water away from
being a victim.
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| Posted Monday September 12, @8:33PM |
==>AMATEUR RADIO VOLUNTEERS FILLING COMMUNICATION GAPS IN GULF REGION
Hundreds of Amateur Radio operators from the Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the
US continue to volunteer their skills and expertise as the Hurricane Katrina
relief effort heads into its third week. ARRL Section Managers (SMs) and
Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs) across and around the affected region
have been teleconferencing daily to keep their efforts on the same page. In
the field, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and other volunteers are
assisting as needed to support communication for relief agencies as well as
for state and local government and even the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA). Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, says Amateur Radio was
the only means for state officials at the state emergency operations center
(EOC) in Baton Rouge to communicate earlier this week with the so-called
"Florida parishes" above Lake Pontchartrain.
"We have had praise from one end of Louisiana to the other about Amateur
Radio operators," Stratton said. "There was a communication to the EOC in
Baton Rouge from FEMA that said, 'Ham radio is our prime communications with
you, and they should get anything they need,' so FEMA recognizes the
importance of ham radio." He also recounted how state officials arriving at
the EOC were using ham radio to get through to their hard-hit parishes.
A marshaling center has been established in Covington, Louisiana. ARES has
been continuing to support Red Cross shelter and Southern Baptist Convention
debris-clearing in St Tammany parish, as well as Baptist Men's Kitchen
canteen operations. In Washington Parish, ARES volunteers--including more
than a dozen from South Texas--have been providing critical communication
among hospitals and the parish EOC, among other functions. Field teams were
continuing to use HF to maintain communication with the EOC in Baton Rouge.
Stratton, who's temporarily handed over his SEC duties to former Louisiana
SM Al Oubre, K5SDG, said that while things are going along okay right now,
he foresees a need for additional operators down the road, once closed areas
are reopened. "One of the biggest problems we're going to have is relief for
the operators who have been down there [in the affected parishes]," he said.
"New Orleans is, of course, our next thrust, and we're going to have to have
to staff recovery efforts down there, but it'll be a different kind of
recovery effort," Stratton predicted. "We'll be supporting the EOC in Baton
Rouge with temporary communications until the National Guard can get in."
Stratton said Amateur Radio has even had to loan some government agencies
their communication gear because their own didn't function. "It's been an
eye-opener to me operating in the EOC down there how terribly their
equipment operates," he said.
In Mississippi, ARES operators have been helping to maintain communication
among hospitals, EOCs and shelters. ARES District Emergency Coordinator Tom
Hammack, W4WLF, reported operators were sleeping on the floor when off duty.
State RACES Officer and ARES DEC Ron Brown, AB5WF, was setting up a staging
area for Amateur Radio volunteers near the Mississippi Emergency Management
Agency in Jackson.
SECs in the US Gulf advise volunteers signing up for duty in the
hurricane-stricken zones to coordinate with their home SECs and, once given
the go-ahead, arrive as self-sufficient as possible. "If you need it, you
bring it," advised Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN. Volunteers have come from
all over the US.
Isbell said each Red Cross feeding unit was turning out 25,000 to 30,000
meals a day. "They still need communication," he said. Local amateurs in the
affected areas were handling some of the tactical communication on VHF.
A staging area in Montgomery, Alabama, continues to process and orient
Amateur Radio volunteers for American Red Cross and other duty in Louisiana
and Mississippi. Some volunteers will help support communication at Red
Cross shelters set up for evacuees, while others will provide tactical
communication for feeding stations or for emergency management. Alabama SM
Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, has been coordinating ham radio volunteers at the
Montgomery site.
Norm North Jr, WA1DBR, of Arkansas, was deployed to a Red Cross shelter in
Biloxi, Mississippi, where he managed to squeeze in some health-and-welfare
messages among the emergency traffic.
North says typical requests included pleas from mothers trying to find
missing children, youngsters looking for parents and other trying to get
word to families and loved ones that they'd survived the storm and were at
the shelter. "Many messages got through," North said, "and I received many
thanks and hugs."
As conventional telecommunications starts coming back to life, traffic has
been slowing on the major regional HF emergency net--the West Gulf ARES
Emergency Net on 7.285 MHz days and 3.873 MHz nights. As a result, the net
announced September 9 that it would secure routine operation at 0600 UTC
September 10. An open net will be maintained on 3.862 MHz after that.
West Gulf ARES Emergency Net Manager Lee Franks, N5FP (ex-AD5IS), says the
net passed traffic as recently as September 7 about a man trapped in an
attic in Arabi [Louisiana]. "We're still getting a trickle of messages like
this," he said earlier this week. "As communications are reestablished via
landline and VHF-UHF links in that area, there has been less demand on our
net--but I'd call it an absolute, tremendous success what we have done."
There's more information on Amateur Radio's Hurricane Katrina response on
the ARRL Web site .
==>ARRL HEADQUARTERS RESPONDING TO HURRICANE KATRINA ON SEVERAL FRONTS
As the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina's devastation in human terms became
evident along the US Gulf Coast, activities at ARRL Headquarters ramped up
into crisis mode. The immediate challenges were many and seemed to multiply
by the minute. Under the leadership of ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold
Kramer, WJ1B--an experienced Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
Emergency Coordinator--and Special Assistant to the CEO Dave Patton, NN1N,
ARRL staff members mustered to focus their energies on responding to the
needs of ham radio volunteers. Kramer says the overarching goal at ARRL
Headquarters has been to support its Field Organization of ARES and other
volunteers.
"Their main job is to support the served agencies, such as the American Red
Cross, The Salvation Army, FEMA," Kramer said. "Because this is over such a
widespread area, a lot of the Amateur Radio infrastructure in that area got
destroyed, so we're having to bring in operators from further out--as well
as equipment." With a lack of communication cited as the largest obstacle to
rescue and relief efforts, ARES members--with support from
Headquarters--began bridging the gap immediately.
The sheer size of the geographical region affected by the disaster and the
dearth of communication put ARRL Headquarters in the somewhat unusual role
of serving as a clearing house for various aspects of the response.
Activities include helping to recruit volunteers, coordinating equipment
donations, and working with regulatory agencies and the news media. A daily
conference call has brought together Headquarters personnel and Section
Managers (SMs) and Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs) from the affected
region to provide situation reports, compare notes and request any
assistance they need from ARRL Headquarters.
"We don't normally have to do that much support for the Field Organization,"
Kramer pointed out.
ARRL has been receiving donations and offers of equipment and services for
use in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Some two dozen members of the
Amateur Radio industry and individual radio amateurs have contributed gear.
The donations were made as gifts to ARRL, which is redirecting these
resources as needed to the disaster zone. Some donors have offered valuable
services and supplies.
"The ARRL would like to thank everyone who has generously donated Amateur
Radio equipment, accessories and supplies," said Kramer. Some of the
equipment already on hand has been or soon will be deployed to assist relief
agencies such as the American Red Cross as well as state and local emergency
managers, he said.
Key ARRL staff members have been meeting on a daily basis--including over
the Labor Day holiday weekend--to help keep track of events and
relief-related initiatives as they progress. Over the Labor Day holiday
weekend, ARRL Headquarters employees volunteered to staff Maxim Memorial
Station W1AW around the clock and to keep telephone (860-594-0200) and
e-mail communication open .
The activity at W1AW also provided a focal point for local news media. On
more than one occasion, TV crews showed up at HQ for a story about how
Amateur Radio was doing its part in the disaster. Major "media hits"
included a favorable article in the Wall Street Journal September 6. Another
turned up on MSNBC's Web site, and a third on the Computerworld Web site.
ARRL Sales and Marketing Manager Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, volunteered to
head into the hurricane strike zone. He checked in at the American Red Cross
ham radio support volunteer center in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 6.
Motschenbacher has a complete HF station as well as sufficient supplies to
stay in the field for a couple of weeks. He was expected to be deployed to
help in Mississippi.
ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, also has headed
to Montgomery to coordinate with national news media there.
|
| Posted Monday September 12, @8:27PM |
By IAN URBINA
Published: September 8, 2005
GULFPORT, Miss., Sept. 8 - The 500-pound man on the deck of a shrimp boat along the coast of Gulfport had been lying there for three days and needed medical attention fast.
But the two ambulance workers who had found him could not lift him or reach the Coast Guard with their cellphones or hand-held radios.
Their options dwindling, one of them used his radio to call an emergency center in town, where, he remembered, there was an amateur radio operator.
"The situation was getting pretty dire, because this guy had serious medical complications," said Mark Bort, the amateur operator who took the call and, his radio more reliable than the ambulance crew's, who notified a Coast Guard helicopter, which rescued the man.
All over Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, a volunteer army of nearly 1,000 amateur radio operators have stepped in to help fill the communications void that was left when Hurricane Katrina snapped telephone poles and toppled many cellphone towers. These ham operators suddenly find themselves in great demand: the Coast Guard, the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have all made requests in the last week for more volunteer operators to handle communications at hospitals, evacuation centers and emergency operations facilities.
"When all else fails, they turn to us," said Gary Stratton, who is coordinating Louisiana's volunteer operators from a base at the emergency operations center in Baton Rouge. "Until phone lines are replaced and cells are no longer overwhelmed with traffic, we are the ones keeping this area connected."
In Gulfport, volunteer operators dispatched by FEMA to hospitals and evacuation shelters have been using their radios round the clock to send emergency calls.
At airports in Texas and Alabama, ham operators have been tracking evacuees and notifying the Baton Rouge operations center of their whereabouts so their families will be able to find them.
Ham operators have also helped locate the stranded in New Orleans. Although many in need of rescue there had cellphones, once the storm hit they were able to reach the authorities only by calling people outside the area, because the landlines on which 911 calls within the city depended had been destroyed.
"People elsewhere in the state who were getting panicked calls from folks in New Orleans were contacting their local 911," said David Gore, a spokesman for the Louisiana ham operators. "When those 911 operators got these calls, they passed them to volunteer ham operators that we stationed at these call centers, and that's how the information was then relayed back into New Orleans for rescue missions."
Ham operators use transmitters that can send messages to other operators both locally and around the world. Depending on the frequency and the time of day, these signals are sometimes easier to detect far away than nearby. Partly as a result, people in states as distant as California and Maine have also been helping coordinate relief efforts.
Mark Conklin was called into action last Wednesday after hearing a plea from another amateur operator, who had discovered an amputee stuck on a New Orleans bridge where her car had run out of gasoline. That operator was having trouble getting in touch with the Coast Guard locally, but his signal bounced clearly to Mr. Conklin in Tulsa, Okla., who did contact the Coast Guard. The woman was rescued.
"Tulsa just happened to be the right spot at the right time for this signal, so the message landed in my lap," said Mr. Conklin, a sales manager for an appliance store.
At her home in Shelton, Conn., Betsey Doane, who is blind, has been spending several hours a day monitoring her radio, awaiting a chance to help. One opportunity came over the weekend, after she received a message about a woman who had been stranded in her New Orleans home for close to a week. The woman's mother had been trying for days to get a call through to the New Orleans police, and it was Ms. Doane who, using her radio, was finally able to reach police officers.
"I think most of us are glad to help," she said. "It's one of the reasons we're operators."
Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio, said there were about 670,000 amateur operators in the nation licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
"We remain in obscurity until disasters hit," Mr. Pitts said. "And then everyone tends to come running to us for help."
|
| Posted Monday September 12, @8:24PM |
By LARRY BRADSHAW and LORRIE BETH SLONSKY
(Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics frorm California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans. Larry Bradsahw is the chief shop steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790; and Lorrie Beth Slonsky is steward, Paramedic Chapter, | |