[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] SANDY Stand by!

[Rick Bunn]

All,

                The track for hurricane Sandy looks more and more like we
will get some severe weather.  This AM I heard that we could get 2 o 4
inches of rain and winds to 70 mph.

                I have notified the City that we would be available if
needed to provide supplemental communications support under the ARES
agreement.

                The last event like this was hurricane Isobel back in I
think 2003.  The city opened the EOC, Shelters, and put the hospital on an
emergency status.  We provided communications between EOC, the Shelters, Red
Cross and the Hospital emergency room.

                This will be if needed primarily a 2 meter event.

                When the weather starts to get bad,  I would ask that you
assess your personnel situation and if you can volunteer:

                1 - Have your gear ready to go

                2 - Call me either on 147.315 (PL 107.2) with your status
and what you're willing to do.

                3 - Hours you can support.

 

                If this goes like the last major storm, we can expect that
may of the trees, lining some of the roads in the older part of town, may
fall.  This takes out power lines, phone lines and blocks the roads.  So,
this may become a field day like exercise on VHF.  For the EOC, They may or
may not have power and they may or may not have a room for our operators, we
will have to find out if and when we are called.  EOC will be where we set
up our net control station.

                If shelters are set up we will send operators to assist city
folks with running the shelters should regular communications fail.
Remember the last major rain event we had caused 911 outages and failure of
the city's radio systems for several hours.   If this happens again we may
need more operators to provide links to Fire Stations.

                

                SOP

                1 - Standby on 147.315 until asked by the city to support.

                2 - EC gets the request from the city

                3 - Formal net activated on 147.315 for assignments and
deployment.

                4 - If needed we will use 147.315 for checking in of
volunteers and assignments and use 146.655 (PL 141.3) for operations.

                5 - Should either repeater go down we will first go to the
other repeater.  

                6 - Should both repeaters go down, we will use 147.315
simplex, but keep the 107.2 PL ON!  At that point we will relay as needed.

                7 - Should the event go beyond 8 hours,  we will try to find
other volunteers to replace those who were first assigned.

 

                Keep your ears on the weather and be ready.

 

                Many Thanks

                73 Rick 

                N4ASX

                ARES EC - Alexandria, VA.