The ARES E-Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
September 28, 2011
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
In This Issue:
IN THIS ISSUE
- Hurricane Irene: Beast of the East
- ARESŪ Briefs
- Letters
- K1CE For a Final
____________
==> HURRICANE IRENE: BEAST OF THE EAST
Scorned by Florida, Irene vented her fury on the rest of the east coast
and many inland areas. Reports from Section Managers and other key ARES
leaders on critical aspects of response efforts follow.
Hurricane Irene produced a significant impact across Massachusetts,
Vermont, and much of New York and New England. Tracking of Hurricane
Irene started when the system was in the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos
Islands and the National Hurricane Center "cone of uncertainty," which
is a cone that describes track uncertainty for the center of the
hurricane to reach a particular location, covered much of southern New
England on Tuesday, August 23. During this timeframe, the first
coordination message to Amateur Radio and non-Amateur Radio SKYWARN
Spotters, Emergency Management and other agencies was posted to the
SKYWARN email list covering the National Weather Service Taunton,
Massachusetts coverage area. Messages were issued once per day through
Thursday, August 25 and were increased to two messages a day on Friday
as Tropical Storm and Hurricane Watches and Warnings were posted for
the region. These messages were also posted via Facebook and Twitter as
listed under the WX1BOX, Amateur Radio station at the NWS Forecast
Office, social media Web sites and on the WX1BOX home page
so that spotters could prepare and then be in
position to report severe weather conditions.
From an ARES perspective, a call between the Section Emergency
Coordinator, Assistant Section Emergency Coordinators and senior ARES
staff members was held Tuesday evening. This ramped up to the entire
staff of DECs, ASECs and the SEC by Wednesday evening and were held
nightly with two calls held on Saturday. A follow-up call was held late
Sunday afternoon. The Western Massachusetts section also participated
in the calls and coordination between the Eastern and Western
Massachusetts ARES SECs took place throughout the event.
Eastern Massachusetts ARES was placed on stand-by on Thursday, with
deployments all day Sunday, August 28. The Eastern Massachusetts ARES
Stand-by Status was lifted the following Tuesday when conditions across
the area had improved sufficiently that no further agency requests were
anticipated and power slowly returned to people in the region.
Information on the ARES stand-by and agency deployments was posted to
the Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site .
In the Eastern Massachusetts section, two town EOCs and one school
Amateur Radio station serve as control points within the section to
maintain contact with the various ARES and SKYWARN Nets in the region.
They are located in the town of Acushnet (WA1EMA) led by South Coast
Massachusetts EC Ed Caron, KA1RSY, the town of Bridgewater led by
Assistant SEC Carl Aveni, N1FY, and at the Dexter-Southfield
School/Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts
(WX1CLA/W1CLA) led by Metro Boston DEC Marek Kozubal, KB1NCG. In
addition, the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Taunton
(WX1BOX) was also staffed with Amateur Radio operators that included
Eastern Massachusetts SEC Rob Macedo, KD1CY, John Bacon, K1JWB and soon
to be licensee Nick Snow. Coordination took place between WX4NHC, the
Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami,
Florida, and the WX1BOX NWS Taunton Amateur Radio station.
In the Western Massachusetts section, SEC John Ruggiero, N2YHK, placed
ARES on stand-by on Friday, August 26. Amateur Radio operators
supported a minimum of 12 EOCs in his section. In the commonwealth of
Massachusetts, there is no county government and counties only
represent a geographical collection of towns so staffing takes place at
the local and town level with some smaller cities and towns having one
EOC centrally located between them. Also staffed were the Pioneer
Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross where staffing was continuous
from Sunday, August 28, through Friday, September 2, the Greenfield
Community College Regional EOC and the Berkshire Medical Center in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In terms of shelters, a minimum of 11
shelters were staffed across western Massachusetts.
Several dozen local city and town EOCs were also staffed in the Eastern
Massachusetts section. The city of Boston EOC was staffed with Amateur
Radio operators for the first time in an actual storm related event. In
the past, it had only been staffed during the Boston Marathon and major
events such as the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Several
regional Red Cross shelters were staffed with Amateur Radio operators
across the section. This included seven shelters and the Red Cross
headquarters on Cape Cod and three shelters and a Red Cross base
outside of Cape Cod. Cape Cod DEC Frank O'Laughlin, WQ1O, led Cape Cod
ARES operations. In addition, North Shore ARES supported the Beverly
and Bay Ride Hospitals and the Peabody, Massachusetts EOC. Assistant
SEC Jim Palmer, KB1KQW, and North Shore DEC Eric Horwitz, KA1NCF, led
these operations. The Cape Ann Amateur Radio Association supported the
Gloucester EOC and the Gloucester Hospital with hams at each location.
South Shore DEC Phil McNamara, N1XTB, reported numerous town EOCs
staffed including the towns of Carver and Mansfield. Also, for the
first time, the FEMA Region 1 Maynard Federal Response Center was
staffed with an Amateur Radio operator, Kate Murphy, KB1USO, Metro
Boston EC, providing a link to their center for the first time in a
storm related incident.
One of the major roles ARES and SKYWARN play in the commonwealth of
Massachusetts is providing situational awareness and disaster
intelligence information during a weather event and in a hurricane it
is no different. ARES-SKYWARN operations lasted 19 hours. In the 19
hours of activation, amateurs at the NWS Taunton Forecast Office
handled several hundred reports of wind damage, storm surge, flood
measured rainfall and wind reports from across the entire coverage
area, which is all of Massachusetts except for Berkshire County, Rhode
Island, Northern Connecticut and Southern New Hampshire. Approximately
a dozen SKYWARN nets were stood up across the region to support the
reporting from all areas. These reports were distributed to state and
federal emergency management officials as well as the media. At the
height of the storm, over 600,000 were without power in Massachusetts
with over 1,000,000 without power in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut combined. Measured wind gusts between 70 and 80 mph were
reported by Amateur Radio operators and this information was sent
directly to the National Hurricane Center via the VoIP Hurricane Net
http://www.voipwx.net
, which was merged with the Echolink/IRLP New
England Reflector system.
Some amateurs were directly impacted by the storm with trees falling on
their houses from the high winds and many hams lost power but were able
to remain on the air through emergency power backup. Amateur Radio
operators were key in providing what was happening during the hurricane
in near real-time to public safety officials. This was particularly
true in Western Massachusetts where major flooding shut down major
highways such as Interstate 91 and almost cut off entire towns in
Franklin County and parts of the hill-towns of northwestern
Massachusetts. Some of those first reports of major flooding came from
Amateur Radio operators.
Western Massachusetts SEC N2YHK alerted Eastern Massachusetts ARES on
the potential need for ARESMAT support to Franklin County as one
shelter was filled to capacity and a second shelter was opened with
communications in the area spotty due to hilly terrain and the stress
the flooding had caused on the communications infrastructure.
Lessons
Irene's impact to the region was that of a strong tropical
storm/minimal category 1 hurricane. Its large wind field that expanded
to between 250 and 300 miles along with its heavy rainfall caused
significant issues over a widespread area from North Carolina through
New York and New England. It shows that all tropical systems are
dangerous and there is little difference between a strong tropical
storm versus a minimal category 1 hurricane particularly where the wind
field is as large as Irene and the tremendous amount of rainfall the
system had.
Over 200 amateurs supported the operation between deployments and
SKYWARN Net support in Eastern Massachusetts. At least 65 amateurs from
Western Massachusetts participated by providing services in direct
support of those deployed in the field. There were many more that
provided storm reports and net assistance, as well as supporting
logistics and administration. After action reports are still being
compiled. They will eventually be posted to the Eastern Massachusetts
ARES Web site, Western Massachusetts ARRL
web site and the NWS Taunton SKYWARN
WX1BOX Web site with notifications sent over
Facebook and Twitter as well. These reports will include the the names
of amateur operators that deployed to the various agencies and other
lessons learned from Hurricane Irene. [Contributors: Mike Neilsen,
W1MPN, former Eastern Massachusetts SM and OES; John Ruggiero, N2YHK,
Western Massachusetts SEC; principal author Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Eastern
Massachusetts SEC, ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton
Massachusetts, and Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net;
and Carl Aveni, N1FY, Eastern Massachusetts ASEC and Assistant ARES
SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton Massachusetts].
North Carolina
In North Carolina, Section Manager Bill Morine, N2COP, reported that
commercial network infrastructure remained largely intact, but
emphasized "that this was the first large scale disaster in the state
since ARES EC and higher appointments required ICS 100, 200, 700 and
800 training and certification." Morine said that "55% of the state's
100 counties now have ICS-credentialed ECs, and there are almost 400
ICS-credentialed operators in ARES. The result was that emcomm
assignments were effected like clockwork in conjunction with our
primary served agency: North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM)."
Morine said that "after the storm passed, many ICS credentialed ARES
personnel reported to the agency's Eastern Branch Regional Coordination
Center (RCC) in Kinston, where communications for the affected areas in
the Outer Banks were being handled. This was the first time in the
state that we also had several COMM-Ls (Communications Unit Leader)
being used. This storm response validated the NIMS/ICS system, and
showed that it's working well here in North Carolina."
Morine thanked the state's operators: "Much appreciation goes to the
thousands of operators across the state who got on the air to help with
Hurricane Irene emergency communications. Hams in the northeastern
counties and on the Outer Banks saw tremendous damage. The Tar Heel
Emergency Net (THEN) was
on the air almost continuously."
"Disasters like Hurricane Irene cause repeaters to light up as new and
inactive operators gather on air with reports but also to find out
what's going on. It's important we all welcome such operators but they
may need gentle reminders about when to identify, to wait for courtesy
tones, allow for time between transmissions, and to observe Net Control
Station (NCS) instructions during directed nets, especially on
repeaters designated for ARES or SKYWARN. During declared emergencies
and activations, nets should function with order. Many government
officials as well as the public listen to Amateur Radio repeaters on
scanners, so we always should be at our best." -- Bill Morine, N2COP,
North Carolina Section Manager
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, taking time to speak to ARES EC
Tom Brown, N4TAB, and company during her visit to the North Carolina
Emergency Operations Center, offered her personal thanks for the
support that Amateur Radio provided. -- Raymond Woodward, K3VSA, Public
Information Coordinator, North Carolina ARRL
Connecticut
In Connecticut, veteran Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC, reported
that Hurricane Irene "sure visited" her state/section: "We have not had
an emergency of this scale in some time." Preparations in the state
began with SEC Wayne Gronlund, N1CLV, ASEC Rod Lane, N1FNE, and K1EIC
convening a net of ARES and NTS ops to review plans and procedures for
the emergency and to update all on the status of the SEC's plans for
activation. More than 80 operators checked in.
"We do not have county government in the state," Doane said. "Our
Section is divided into five Emergency Management regions. During the
hurricane, SKYWARN nets were activated every two hours and NWS stations
were also operational. SKYWARN DEC Steve Williams, K1SJW, and his net
managers and net control stations performed yeomen's work coordinating
and controlling the many nets. There were 98 check-ins from Hartford
and Tolland counties alone. The operator of WX1BOX at the National
Weather Service Office in Taunton, Massachusetts, checked into the
Hartford Tolland county nets on the 146.79 MHz Pioneer Valley Repeater
Association repeater throughout the storm. WX2ALY at the National
Weather Service Office in Albany, New York checked into the Litchfield
County nets through the 147.285 MHz Southern Berkshire ARC repeater in
Sharon that is tied into the KB1AEV system. SKYWARN nets in Windham
County used the K1VSC W2LK Airmail system to send reports to the NWS
office in Taunton, Connecticut SKYWARN, ARES leadership and DEMHS
Region #4.
DECs in each region reported that they had hams in several EOCs and at
Red Cross shelters. Linked repeater systems were all active and used
shared resources. Both Flexnet and State Police packet networks as well
as some Winlink RMS's were fully operational. Doane said her emcomm
team "is very appreciative of our repeater and digital system owners
and operators who are committed to public service. It takes a lot of
work and expense to run these systems." She reported that "we kept our
membership informed on the air and through our ARES reflector and
Section Web sites when we had Internet availability."
Doane's leadership team, which is affectionately called "the CALC," the
CT ARES Leadership Council, met regularly on the air to share status
updates. Unfortunately, some clubs lost power at repeater sites and
others lost entire repeater systems.
On the NTS side, all nets were active with great participation. A
welfare message was given to Doane by ASM K1HEJ from an op in Vermont
inquiring about his brother in Milford. Doane couldn't get through on
the phone but new DEC WA1SFH successfully delivered the message in
person and got a "good news" reply back.
ARRL PIC KA1WPM distributed news releases about ARES operations and
participated with the SM and SEC in a Web conference with ARRL staff
conducted by ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager W5MPC. Doane thanked
the ARRL staff for their vigilance and continuing offers of support.
Connecticut ops were commended by emergency management directors and
Red Cross shelter managers across the state for their
outstanding communications work. New relationships were formed in
the Section. Amateur Radio communications with the city of Stamford led
by EC WB2RYV, who participated in planning meetings with city
officials, is one example.
Eastern Pennsylvania
In Eastern Pennsylvania, Section Manager Eric Olena, WB3FPL, reported
that "shelters in most counties were open for two to three days with
lack of power being the main concern. There was flooding in only a few
areas."
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Section Manager and SEC Al Shuman, K1AKS, was situated at
the State EOC and saw firsthand both on the HF and VHF sides how well
things went: "We had a number of repeaters go down as electricity
failed. I was impressed on how well our troops dealt with adversity to
keep things going."
Over two hundred members of New Hampshire ARES responded to the call-up
in the days just prior to Hurricane Irene with some advance VHF nets
being activated on Friday afternoon and a number of shelters and the
State of New Hampshire being manned on Saturday. All 12 ARES Groups
representing ten counties were represented. "We were asked to provide
situation reports via both HF and VHF nets to the State EOC, which were
directly fed into the State's WebEOC
data base. Damage from the storm was primarily in the northern and
northeastern part of New Hampshire with significant road erosion and
collapsed bridges. The southern part of the state was plagued with
sporadic losses of electricity. No deaths were reported in New
Hampshire. NH-ARES and their served agencies worked seamlessly to our
agreed operational plan."- Al Shuman, K1AKS, New Hampshire SM/SEC
ARRL and W1AW
ARRL HQ went into monitoring mode on Irene long before she made
landfall in North Carolina. Thanks to Angel, WP3GW, Public Information
Officer for ARRL's Puerto Rico Section, we were getting reports on
Irene as she made her way across Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
On Tuesday August 23rd the ARRL HQ Emergency Response Team went into
monitoring mode for Irene. The decission for activation came later in
the week as Irene's path became more certain.
ARRL hosted conference calls for Section officials in Irene's path and
issued daily updates on related activities. Irene's impact on the east
coast fell on a weekend when HQ would normally be closed. To assist the
affected Sections W1AW was staffed and on the air from 0700 local
Saturday through 1400 local Sunday. Station operators monitored traffic
nets, assisted with relays, passed traffic through the Hurricane Watch
Net and through NWS Taunton, MA.
One kudo that should be mentioned is to Sean Kutzko, KX9X, ARRL's
Contest Branch Manager. Sean gave very generously of his time over the
weekend of Irene's landfall. He spent many hours at W1AW passing storm
related traffic to NWS Taunton via Echolink. Many times I hear of the
divide between EmComm and contesting, but it is a divide created by us.
When there is a true emergency and we (the Amateur Radio Service) are
needed, we come through regardless of our differences or interests
within Amateur Radio. To Sean and all those that step up to plate when
called upon...thank you!
Special thanks to HQ staff who helped keep W1AW on the air over the
weekend; KX9X, NJ1Q, K1FUG, N1ND, W3IZ, WV1X, NC1L, AG1YK, and KA1JPA.
Submitted - Mike Corey, W5MPC, ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager
==> ARESŪ BRIEFS
"EmComm for the Apocalypse" is the title of a presentation to be made
at the ARRL PACIFICON 2011 convention next
month in Santa Clara, California, by David Kidd, KA7OZO, of Oregon
ARES/RACES and Bart Lee, K6VK. The subject is electromagnetic pulse
(EMP) and emergency communications. "If your gear is solid state, it's
cooked unless it's protected," said Lee. PACIFICON 2011, The Great West
Coast Ham Radio Convention, returns to the San Francisco Bay Area and
will again be sponsored by the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club.
PACIFICON 2011 will take place Friday, October 14 through Sunday,
October 16, at the Marriott Santa Clara Hotel.
ARRL SET: This Weekend October 1 and 2
This nationwide exercise is the chance to test your emergency operating
skills and the readiness of your communications equipment and
accessories in an emergency-like deployment. ARRL Field Organization
Leaders at the Section and local levels -- along with many other
volunteers who are active in public service and emergency
communications -- are developing emergency-like scenarios in
consultation with a variety of agencies for whom radio amateurs are
known to provide service during emergencies. To find out how you can
step up and be a part of the local or Section-level activities, contact
your Section Manager. You can find contact information for all 71 ARRL
Section Managers on page 16 of any issue of QST. Additional contact
information may also be found on the ARRL Web
site. ARESŪ, the National Traffic System (NTS), the Radio Amateur Civil
Emergency Service (RACES) and members of the ARRL Field Organization
will participate and practice emergency operation plans, nets and
procedures.
GlobalSET: November
GlobalSET is an exercise taking place
twice annually, usually in April/May and November. Participants are
headquarters stations of national IARU Member-Societies and of stations
of specialized emergency communications groups world-wide. GlobalSET is
not a contest, but an exercise; messages are being exchanged between
stations and forwarded to a regional headquarters station in each of
the three IARU Regions. In addition to the training of operators in
message handling, GlobalSET also aims at increasing the awareness for
the global and regional Center of Activity (CoA) Frequencies
. GlobalSETs are sponsored and
organized by IARU Region 1 and regularly announced on the IARU
web site with a link to the rules and
details for each event.
==> LETTERS
Amateur Radio in Disasters: One Step Forward, One Step Back
With recent events such as the Japan earthquake and Hurricane Irene
still fresh on the mind, I was heartened to read David Sumner's (K1ZZ)
astute opinion on the changing role of Amateur Radio in emergency
communications in the September 2011 issue of QST. In a world of social
media, real-time crisis mapping, and pervasive smartphone use, the role
of Amateur Radio is indeed changing, even as we remain a core tool in
the communications toolbox. David's essential point assumes that a
successful response to any significant emergency requires different
agencies and organizations working together in a collaborative and
trusting manner.
Unfortunately, just a few pages later Rick Palm's (K1CE) article about
the Florida-based EMCOMM-1 vehicle does a fundamental disservice to
that trust. No, it's not about the vehicle: from what I read and have
seen online, it seems to be a fine vehicle and its builders are to be
commended for their efforts. What I take exception to was the hyperbole
and explicit attitude that said "Hams do it better than government -
look how wasteful and incompetent they are." This "us versus them"
attitude is exactly what is NOT needed in modern emergency response,
and unfortunately only reinforces the negative stereotypes held in
certain served agencies of the Amateur Radio service. The attitude is
wasteful, and serves no useful purpose.
Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, the technologies used in
emergency response communications are changing radically right in front
of our eyes. We also have to understand and accept the legitimate roles
that other organizations have to contribute. After 9/11 and Hurricane
Katrina, isn't it obvious that we either all sink or swim together? --
Rakesh Bharania, N6ILG, San Jose, California
FEMA's Fugate on C-SPAN
It's true though perhaps sad that I spend more time watching the
various C-Span channels instead of operating. Anyway, I was channel
surfing yesterday and caught the end of a talk by Craig Fugate, the
FEMA administrator. Basically, he described how he had refined his
approach to relief and emergency services over the years, to more
clearly assess and identify problem areas, instead of working from a
methodology. He sounded very practical and functionally-oriented, and
his approach reminded me of the Op-Ed and feedback that appeared in the
last and previous ARES E-Letter issues. It would be worthwhile viewing
(from C-Span's Web site ) for anyone interested
in emergency response. Also, it seems to me that Mr. Fugate would be an
interesting subject for an interview, for either QST or the ARES
E-Letter. - Mike Harla, N2MHO, Vineland, New Jersey
==> K1CE FOR A FINAL
One of the things that jumped out at me in the wake of Hurricane Irene
was how far the ARRL HQ's planning, preparation and response
initiatives have come since the old days, when I was responsible for
them. Back in those days, the HQ response was mostly reactionary, as
opposed to pre-planning and coordination protocols. Some of that
changed after Hurricane Hugo, but the quantum leap for HQ's emergency
response and planning came with the vision of the executive management
at HQ, especially Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B. Staff
was hired with the dedicated mission of ramping up HQ's emergency
preparedness and response, and most importantly, support to the field,
and coordination. They have done an excellent job.
A good example of the manifestation of this new era was the "webinar"
convened by ARRL HQ's Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, W5MPC,
before the storm was to impact the east coast. The purpose of the
Internet-based meeting was for ARRL Sections in the path of Irene to
provide a brief update on Amateur Radio activities. Section Public
Information Coordinators, Section Traffic Managers, and other key
Section level staff were invited to attend. These section staffers
would provide information from key Section staff in the overall update.
A spokesperson for each Section was named, and briefings from nineteen
Sections were conducted. A synopsis of Amateur Radio activity in each
Section ahead of Irene was provided, along with any anticipated needs,
HF emergency net information, Echolink/IRLP, and D-STAR nets operating,
and a back up point of contact for each Section. Good job, HQ.
See you next month! 73, Rick K1CE
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