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AE5ME > ARES 17.06.16 18:33l 54 Lines 6856 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : H1MMAS6L2ALV
Read: GUEST
Subj: ARES E-Letter June 15 Part 1 of 4
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ<AE5ME
Sent: 160617/1543Z 39760@AE5ME.#NEOK.OK.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.65
In This Issue:
? ARES Supports Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach
?HDSCS Follows Up on Issues from Orange County Drill
?Before Deployment: Personal, Family Safety First
?FEMA Encourages Preparedness for the 2016 Hurricane Season; ARES Should be Ready Now
?K1CE For a Final
ARES Briefs, Links
Do you like the ARES E-Letter? Can you think of anything to improve it? We value your opinion! Please click to take a brief survey. Thank you for subscribing to the ARES E-Letter! -- Your Editor, Rick Palm, K1CE
Pacific Northwest Earthquake Exercise Reaching for Realistic Response Scenario; ARES/RACES Heavily Invested (6/6/2016); Colorado Creates Auxiliary Emergency Communications Unit (6/8/2016); ARES Volunteers Take Part in Search for Missing Plane (6/6/2016); Houston Area ARES Activates in Response to Flood Emergency (6/2/2016)
The 2016 Florida Statewide Hurricane Exercise was supported by the state's ARES and other groups' activities, conducted on Wednesday May 18, with net operations on HF center frequencies of 3.950 MHz and 7.242 MHz, and on the SARnet linked system of UHF repeaters. Propagation was challenging on both the 80-meter and 40-meter bands; many relays were needed. But, with patience and diligence, the
ARRL Northern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator Strait Hollis, KT4YA, in front of the Lake County (Florida) ARES Communications Van at the AUXCOMM training session, Orlando, in February. (Rick Palm, K1CE photo)
exercise with coordination with the state EOC (SEOC) yielded experience, practice and honing of skill sets for participating operators. Test messages were sent to the state EOC station KA4EOC from all three Florida ARRL sections. Many were delivered via SARnet. The SEOC KA4EOC station was not co-located at the main EOC campus in Tallahassee, but instead was situated at a remote military complex Camp Blanding, operating from a communications unit, as a planned part of the hurricane exercise to test the state EOC's Continuation of Operations Plan (COOP). The scenario had the Tallahassee SEOC facility so severely damaged that the COOP had to be initiated. - from an after action report by Northern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator Strait Hollis, KT4YA
Early Reports from Pacific Northwest Cascadia Rising Earthquake/Tsunami Exercise: Major Exercise, Major Success
The largest FEMA exercise of the year, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) and the resulting tsunami was the scenario posed to emergency management, public safety and ARES/RACES officials and volunteers in the Pacific Northwest, June 7 to 10. Cascadia Rising has just concluded with a large showing by amateur operators, and after action reports are just starting to roll in. Emergency Operations and Coordination Centers (EOC/ECCs) at all levels of government and the private sector were activated for this major effort.
Members of the Island County Amateur Radio Club (W7AVM) on
Whidbey Island WA Red Cross official Ron Conlin thanks Island County Amateur Radio Club member Michael Dunn, KG7WFV, for communications assistance passing emergency message traffic from a field triage and treatment facility located in a church during the Cascadia Rising catastrophic earthquake exercise. (Vince Bond, K7NA, photo)
Whidbey Island, Washington, coordinated with local emergency officials and facilitated the flow of radio message traffic from their homes, emergency operations centers and field shelter sites during the four-day, multi-state exercise.
The local exercise scenario called for a temporary breakdown of commercial communications facilities, creating an urgent need for amateur radio point-to-point communications. Members also hoisted antennas and forwarded Red Cross message traffic via voice and packet from a field triage site located in a community church on the island.
The exercise activities scattered throughout Whidbey created keen interest from the public about the value of ham radio operators to bridge the communications gap immediately following any disaster. -- Vince Bond, K7NA, Island County Amateur Radio Club PIO
Andrew Phelps, Director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, said "Thanks to our amateur radio partners and Oregon ARES/RACES for your participation! Vital to our success!" (from John Core, KX7YT, ARRL Oregon Section Manager).
Bruce Bjerke, K7BHB, Oregon Section Emergency Coordinator, Oregon ARES/RACES, reported that immediately following the exercise on June 10 during the hot wash with FEMA and the Oregon Office of Emergency Management staff, State Communications Officer Terry Pietras, W7JOC, introduced the ARES/RACES members of the State Amateur Radio Unit, highlighted their contributions, and stressed that they are all volunteers having contributed hundreds of hours in training and preparation for the exercise. Pietras also recognized the importance and performance of the county ARES/RACES units throughout the state. Earlier, the Director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, Andrew Phelps, KI7SIY, visited the radio room to personally thank operators.
Bjerke said "we operated the FEMA National Radio System (FNARS), HF SHARES, 60 Meter Interoperability Net, FEMA VTAC, CAP radio, four VHF Regional Repeaters, the Winlink station, and the HF Net." One hour after the "ground shook" at the beginning of the exercise June 7, more than 45 ARES/RACES stations lit up the State ARES/RACES HF Net. Thirteen county EOC stations had been activated for the first day of play, and as many more became operational for situational awareness. Over the course of the next three days, more than 22 county units would activate and operate for periods of from one to all four days.
Around the state, the activated county ARES/RACES units passed more than 300 Winlink and ICS-213 voice messages during scripted communications outages. Many other ARES/RACES units in other counties created their own local test elements, partnering with hospitals, the Red Cross, and other responders to realistically train for anticipated challenges.
Oregon Section ARES/RACES members trained hard and realistically for more than two years to prepare for this exercise. "Our last two SET'S were particularly arduous," said Bjerke. "We asked our county units to operate for 24 hours, from Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) locations/trailers, and with emergency power only." "We scripted out mountaintop repeaters, existing fixed-site antennas, and allowed HF Winlink operation only," said Bjerke. In the end, our training protocols proved to be more demanding than the actual exercise, but we were ready to excel at anything they threw at us, and a great performance was the result." (Thanks, Bruce Bjerke, K7BHB, Oregon Section Emergency Coordinator)
More on the Cascadia Rising exercise after action reports in next month's issue.
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