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W1AW > ARES 20.11.05 18:43l 112 Lines 5664 Bytes #999 (0) @ EU
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Subj: The ARES E-Letter 11/06/05 3/4
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From: W1AW@KB9MMA.#SEWI.WI.USA.NOAM
To : ARES@ARL
+ When Telephones Fail
A telephone outage in southern California on October 11 left at least
150,000 customers without telephone and Internet service for up to
twelve hours. Many cell phones were cut off from service as well. The
outage also disabled 911 services in communities along the coast and
through parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The Long Beach EOC, which serves both police and fire, declared a
communication failure protocol, and local radio amateurs stepped in
to provide emergency communication. Amateurs worked alongside the
police chief and fire chief to support the departments with auxiliary
communication. Radio amateurs were also stationed at 17 of the
largest nursing homes. The emergency net successfully relayed traffic
through the EOC to the nursing homes, hospitals and ambulances
services. Radio amateurs provided communications when all else
failed, and they ensured that patients had access to 911, medical and
ambulance services.
The City of Long Beach built a new EOC three years ago. Casey Chel,
KD6DOV, Emergency Services Coordinator, who had the foresight to
include a complete Amateur Radio room for the times when all other
communications might fail, headed the project. That foresight paid
off on October 11. -- Carina Lister, KF6ZYY [Lister is president of
the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach. The official station of
the ARALB is W6RO on the Queen Mary, where she is an operator in the
Wireless Room on the fourth Thursday of each month, 5 PM - 9 PM
Pacific Time. You can learn more about the ARALB and W6RO on the
Queen Mary by visiting <http://www.aralb.org}].
+ When Hospital Communications Fail
[The famous Orange County (California) Hospital Disaster Support
Communications System (HDSCS) was nominated for the ARRL
International Humanitarian Award in 2001 and subsequently won a
National Certificate of Merit from the ARRL Board of Directors for
its work in providing back-up communications to a vast number of
hospitals in the area. - ed.]
HDSCS communicators were requested by St. Jude Medical Center on the
night of July 27 for an "emergency standby" while phone technicians
tried to troubleshoot problems with the new phone system. The timing
was not good with many HDSCS communicators set to participate early
the next morning in a terrorism drill in Anaheim. But true to our
mission, we supported the request.
The standby was set for 9 PM to midnight but as many of these events
go, midnight came and went. Our coverage continued in hospital key
areas and the shadowing of the administrative nurse.
At 8:30AM and during the next five hours HDSCS communicators were
activated to the participating hospitals, including St. Jude, to
provide backup communications related to the scenario of a sarin gas
terrorist attack at the Anaheim Convention Center. In the
midafternoon, after all 21 communicators had secured and were
recharging batteries, the disaster/safety coordinator from St. Jude
once again contacted HDSCS to request standby communications for that
night. The work was scheduled for 9 PM to midnight.
Another three-hour event not only went past midnight, but during the
phone work a major alarm failure occurred. Not only were phones down
but the hospital's various back-up systems failed also. Good thing we
were there BEFORE ALL ELSE FAILED. Critical tactical communications
were handled between the emergency department and other units during
that time. By 6AM on Friday, July 29, HDSCS communicators could
finally secure.
I share this event to point out the value and importance of the
following: being integrated into hospital disaster plans, and having
activation plans so hospitals can contact Amateur Radio teams
directly. Have portability and flexibility; we used no installed
equipment. And have depth in your group: We were stretched throughout
the event and we have a pretty big group from which we can draw. --
April Moell, WA6OPS, Emergency Coordinator, Hospital Disaster Support
Communications System, Orange County, California <emcom4hosp@aol.com}
and <http://www.hdscs.org}
+ARES in South Dakota? Yes!
After the spate of hurricanes in the southeast, South Dakota's
governor called for white papers from all state agencies in regard to
their emergency communication capabilities. "Luckily, we had people
in the right places, so one of the organizations asked to submit a
paper was South Dakota ARES," reports SEC Jerry Hawley, KG0GG.
"We quickly appointed a special committee that compiled information
on individual, club and ARES capabilities," Hawley said. "Among items
gathered were a general statement of our abilities, a callout roster
and a complete listing of all radio amateurs interested in emergency
communication service, with their capabilities." There will be an
ongoing effort to keep the information given to the state Office of
Emergency Management up to date.
Another development is a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
between the South Dakota Department of Public Safety/Office of
Emergency Management (OEM) and South Dakota ARES. Initial responses
from OEM are good. The MOU will lead to ARES' ability to use state
towers and structures for amateur equipment, which will be great
assets to Amateur Radio, OEM and the people of South Dakota in the
event of a disaster.
South Dakota has a statewide linked repeater system. "During our
recent Simulated Emergency Test we used the system to pass traffic
for the governor and the OEM staff into the state capitol of Pierre,"
Hawley said. - From a report by Jerry Hawley, KG0GG, South Dakota
ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
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