[Ares-races] What happens with the infrastructure goes down?

[David French, N7FAN]

This speaks for itself and is very interesting.  Some of you might find it
very useful.  If you do decide to utilize it, or reprint it, please let the
original author know.

David, N7FAN

****

Self Evaluation Primer of Disaster Communications
Using Internet and Cellular Telephone Services
By Major James R. Sohl, CAP, WB5MPX, rsohl@apex2000.net
Copyright March 1996. Reprinted here by permission.

The basic text of this document was an Internet message written and sent by
James R. "Ric" Sohl, in March 1997. It was written primarily for USAF
Auxiliary - Civil Air Patrol and for Amateur (Ham) radio emergency service
personnel, but it relates to any disaster relief agency.

The idea came during a Ham radio club meeting where the reliance of Cellular
telephone service and the Internet during disaster events was discussed. A
concern that government and private sector agencies that provide disaster
support were beginning to rely more on Cellular and Internet services, could
create problems during actual disaster events.

This is because the main training and evaluation program for disaster relief
training and planning is simulated disaster events. Most of these do not
provide a realistic situation regarding a major event and the loss of a
large percentage of public communications services.

This "Internet / Cellular Communications Exercise"; is designed as a self
evaluation for any disaster relief agency. Be honest, you only hurt
yourself, and your agency, by not doing a true evaluation.

Even though the event is directed toward Civil Air Patrol and Amateur radio
staff, if can be used by any agency or group.

It does assume some factors, that do not relate to the general public. Most
disaster relief agencies have trained members, who are better prepared to
deal with a disaster event. Therefore the following is assumed:

Each member

has received training in disaster relief, including:
First Aid training,
Survival training at least to a basic level,
Expects to travel (and possibly has travelled) to a disaster event, and,
Is prepared to perform some duty to provide relief / support to the event at
hand.
Understands that disaster relief work is hazardous and dangerous.
Understands that communications between the disaster area and surrounding
areas is required.
Understands that communications are also required within the disaster area.
Understands that these communications provide a vital link to coordinate
support and prevent loss of life, and
Understands that the efficiency and safety of ones staff is greatly improved
with good reliable communications.
Is somewhat aware that a disaster can occur in your own home city and,
Has made prior plans to have a "Disaster Kit" readily available to provide
for necessary Equipment and personal gear for a 72 hour (or longer) time
period.

The scenario for this simulation, was based on my experience for more than
thirty years in disaster / relief ground and air support missions. The
training records are noted at the end of this document.


I know that some Civil Air Patrol (CAP) members, and amateurs are thinking
that our radio networks are outdated, in particular our High Frequency long
range networks. This is not limited to CAP and amateur radio, as many key
staff people in many agencies / departments, feel the same way. Because of
that, I have created the following:

Here is a little Internet / Cellular phone communications exercise.

Your community has just been hit by a disaster. The following conditions now
exist.

No commercial power will be available for 72 hours. 60% of the power lines
are down.

60% of all radio towers are out of service for 72 hours, at a 45 degree
angle to your city from South to North. (Odessa, TX watch out, your trunking
system just died, totally)

Land line telephone service is lost to 60% of the community. (This occurred
at Alpine, TX, and occurs many weeknights between Midland and Odessa, TX)

Cellular telephone service is overloaded, and it takes two hours to get a
line, and you may only use the service for 3 minutes. (This occurred at
Alpine, TX and occurs often in larger cities)

All city and county radio networks are reduced by 80% (this figure is real
for most trunking networks unless very well planned. I based this one on
Odessa Tx. and the locations of their towers)

60% of the broadcast stations (radio and television) are off the air (see
item 2.)

The Cable TV system and satellite TV services are completely out of service.
(see item 1.)

All Internet service providers are out of service (see item 1, 3, and 4,
this is not a joke.)

25 % of your fire department and police department equipment is destroyed.

No gasoline is available from any underground tanks, and the local
government has taken over all overhead fuel storage tanks for government
use. If you can show them that your use will support the recovery effort you
may be able to get a small amount of fuel.

You have planned ahead (right) and have an emergency gasoline powered
generator to power your radio equipment, your generator uses .7 gallons per
hour of operation, how much fuel do you have on hand (this may include your
automobiles fuel tanks if you have a way to get the fuel out) you have
________ gallons of fuel, and can operate your generator for _______ hours.
If you use your automobile to charge your batteries, remember the fuel
consumption will be MUCH higher.

Do you have food for 72 hours for all members of you household? Note an MRE
will feed two average people per meal. (1200 Calories each, and they are a
lot better than C and K rations)

You do have five or ten gallons of drinking water don't you? In Odessa
everyone has some bottled water, but what if tomorrow was your day to get
fresh water?

Do you have a way to keep warm during cold weather, bed rolls, blankets,
fireplace (for cooking as well. You did plan for this right?)

If we lost 60% of the radio towers we also lost a great deal of homes and
many would require shelter. Can your community provide 60% of its population
with emergency shelter. Your camping gear will come in handy now, if it did
not get destroyed with the house.

A disaster noted above is a rare occasion, or is it? Check out recent
tornado activity in the Central US and check out the state of Washington in
the last two years. Much of what I described has occurred to many
communities during the last two years.

Is your community, and are YOU, prepared? Not just to survive but can you
help your community or the community 40 miles away? Do you have emergency
radio's, both local (FM, 26.620) and HF? Do you have spare/portable
antennas, tools, food, water, ect?

Civil Air Patrol and Amateur (ham) radio communications are a life saver.
These may be the only communications available to contact the Outside world
for Help and to take over the load for the local networks.

When Alpine Texas was hit by an earthquake and a year or two later, by a
severe storm, the land line and cellular telephone systems were total
useless (overloaded). CAP and Amateur radio became the primary
communications link to the outside world for the first few hours. Most of
Alpine people were not even aware that we where out of communications, or
why.

Of note, most smaller areas are fed by fiber optic cable for long distance
service. This cable goes back to a main switch, usually located in another
area. One time I saw no long distance service available for two hours. You
could not call outside of the Alpine, TX area. Not Ft Davis nor Marfa, nor
Ft Stockton. Everything in this area is switched through Midland.

Granted if the need came up, the phone company should be able to rig up
something in a few hours that should allow some communications outside the
area. But how much communications can you provide with only a few lines
available? Ten outside lines (if your lucky) to the more than 3,000 local
phones. Your going to have problems calling the hospital, much less someone
outside the area.

During a disaster all conventional communications circuits will become
overloaded and additional networks must be put into service to provide the
needed communications to help your community get support and aid from
outside as well as provide additional communications capacity to fill in
between hospitals, Emergency Operations Center, supporting local government
communications needs (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service RACES) health
and welfare (Amateur Radio Emergency Service ARES), emergency shelters,
disaster support agencies (Red Cross, Salvation Army) and providing local
radio and television broadcast stations with emergency information for the
public.

The communication requirements will vary and will be needed everywhere, as
the event proceeds and outside support becomes available, the needs will
change and may decrease.

All amateurs, both local, and from the surrounding areas will be needed to
provide the mail communications support role. Local and long range networks
will be required. After the initial support is put into place, the Ham radio
networks will began to handle "health and welfare" messages with the outside
world and between shelters, hospitals, ect.

All Civil Air Patrol units and members will be needed to provide many forms
of emergency services, your local CAP network can provide additional
communications to support local needs, as well as providing communications
for your units non-communications disaster response / support.

Read this message, close your eyes, and imagine that it just occurred. Your
radio tower (if you have one; many CAP members only use a portable radio)
came down, your home lost 40% of its roof. You can put up a 20 foot pole for
an emergency antenna support.


Do you have any emergency power?

Do you have a 30 watt or higher power mobile unit installed in you
automobile? If this unit was not used in the last 7 days, count it as out of
service.

Do you have 1 gallon (1/2 gallon during cold season) of drinking water per
day per person for your home?

Would you need to go to a store to purchase (they will all be out of
everything in one hour) food, water, batteries, gasoline (none available)
bed rolls, parts for replacement antenna's? If you answered yes to any part
of item 4, you need to go to the store right now and get prepared.

If you are using any portable radio (this includes cell phones) that
transmits, do you have an alkaline battery pack (with spare batteries?) If
not count out your use of this radio after four hours of use. If the
rechargeable battery was not charged in the last 72 hours count that battery
pack as out of service. If you have not used that portable radio in the last
7 days, count it out of service.

Do you have (yourself or in your unit) an HF radio, including portable
antenna and emergency power source, that was operated in the last 7 days? If
not your HF system can not be counted on when you need it. You do not have
time to fix it now. (This only applies to Amateur and CAP staff. )
I hope that I have made you think about what it can be like during a
disaster situation. I have seen some units that only use their radios when
on a mission and worst of all some units have no HF capability at all. (This
only applies to Amateur and CAP staff. )

During the last three years I have called on local Texas CAP repeaters and
stated "This is a simulated emergency radio communications test, I need a
CAP station to answer my call to test your capability to provide emergency
communications on this repeater. Is there any station available?" More than
50% of the time I have failed to receive an answer. What would happen if a
CAP member was in an automobile accident, with a CAP radio who tried using
your repeater? (This only applies to Amateur and CAP staff. )

During a disaster your repeater may fail, can your unit still provide
support communications without the repeater? (EVERYBODY , do your radios
have "talk around"? If not, your out!)

Internet, E-Mail, facsimile, cellular and land line telephones have made our
daily communications simple, easy and very handy to conduct our business.
However, during a disaster all of these services will be overloaded, or not
useable. They can not be relied upon for a true disaster event. During a
disaster some of these may work, and if they do, that will make things
easier, but you can not depend on that until it happens.

The thing that scares me is that many local governments, disaster support
agencies, and even CAP units and members are relying on non tactical
communications and are not maintaining their local and long range radio
communications capabilities or relationships with RACES and ARES.

You should use your all of your radios at least once every week. Check into
a local and HF net each week, and your station will work when the need
arises. Do not forget to pack up those emergency back up portable antenna
(including coaxial cables, ropes, anchors, ect) systems for each band.

If your unit does not have two (one should be yours) High Frequency radio
systems, that can operate on 4 MHz and 7 MHz, with at least the capability
to operate mobile, then, shame on you and your unit. You're not fully
prepared. (This only applies to Amateur and CAP staff. )

I am open to any comments or ideas that you may wish to pass on. This
document may be re-printed as long as the original source and author are
noted. I would like notice of any publication that uses this material, but
prior notification is not required unless you make changes in it. If you
wish to change or edit it, please send your changes for approval by E-Mail.
I have no problems with improvements as long as I have a copy for my
records.

By: Maj. James "Ric" Sohl
USAF/AU-CAP Texas Wing Asst. DOK
Radio Calls: WB5MPX [HAM] TEXAS CAP [USAF/AU] AFA4ZV [USAF/MARS]
EMAIL: PRI: rsohl@apex2000.net SEC: sohl@juno.com

Maj. J R Sohl, CAP
2712 HALIFAX AVE.
ODESSA, TX 79762-8004
915-550-7959, Voice Mail and FAX.
915-556-1877 Cellular with Voice Mail


Training and Experience of the author:

James R. Sohl, Licensed as a First Class Radiotelephone Operator, with Ship
Radar Endorsement, that was changed to a General Radio Telephone Operator,
with Ship Radar Endorsement. All such licensee's were converted by an FCC
rule change. Licensed as an Advanced Class Amateur Radio Operator, with a
station call sign of WB5MPX. FAA Licensed Pilot, with more than 300 hours
mission flight time and 1,200+ hours total time.

Training and experience, as a communications officer for several Sheriff and
Police departments, as well as serving as a Civil Defense Director /
Coordinator for Brewster County and the City of Alpine.

Provided industrial communications service for many years to all types of
systems, from 200 kHz to 14 GHz, transmitters, receivers and associated
equipment. Designed and build specialized communications equipment.

More than 20 years service in the Civil Air Patrol as a Communications
Officer at both Squadron and Group level, and as an Assistant Director of
Communications for Texas.

Active in training and service as a Military Affiliate Radio Service
(USAF/MARS) and active and qualified as one of six SHARES stations assigned
to USAF/AU Texas Wing.

More than 20 years training and experience with Amateur (Ham) radio
emergency services, including, Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the National Weather Service
SKYWARN program.

Actual experience in many disaster events, starting with the Flood at
Sanderson, Texas in 1965. Experience as ground team member, , deputy
sheriff, fireman, rescue squad leader, ambulance attendant, Mission
Coordinator, Mission Communications Officer, Mission Pilot, Counter Drug
Pilot, Transport Pilot, Safety Officer, Air and Ground Operations Officer,
Net control operator for ARES, and RACES networks.