[ARRL-OK] Hams and EM

[Lloyd Colston]

The following comes from Ed Harris in VA.  While I am obviously biased, 
I think it makes good sense.

As for the radio club and CERT, from what I understand, there needs to 
be "just a few more" students and the class will make.  Email 
cert at mayescem.us if you are interested in this valuable, yet free, 
training in Mayes County.  Sorry, we won't put it on the road.

Let me know how more I can help.


> From: "Ed Harris" <ke4sky at att.net>
> To: VA_EmCom at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [VA_EmCom] Get Involved with Local EM Planning
> Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 15:19:37 +0000
>
> It's essential that somebody in your local Office of Emergency 
> Management understand the characteristics of amateur radio and is able 
> to appreciate its potential, as well as the differences between that 
> theoretical potential and actual local capabililities.
>
> We are lucky in Fairfax County that the radio systems engineering 
> manager for our county is a ham, and that several licensed hams in 
> fire and PD have emergency management duties. When our county 
> completed a FEMA local emergency management operations course several 
> years ago, the LEMOC tested our "existing" EOP and the state 
> evaluators "gigged" us on auxiliary and backup communications.
>
> Pointing out holes in our local emergency plan started a dialogue. Our 
> then ARES EC, WD5DBC was invited into the group working with the 
> county on our EOP revision. Adequate amateur equipment was installed 
> in the former Woodburn EOC and plans we are now similarly equiping the 
> new AEOC at the Government Center. A group of hams with necessary 
> skills have been idenfiied and adequate numbers and screened and ID'ed 
> provide rotating shift coverage. During Hurricane Isabel operators 
> came from both ARES and MARS.  Very effective use of them was made in 
> the EOC as well as ARES providing shelter comms, not just staffing 
> shelters. Doug Bass, our coordinator of emergency services hired a few 
> years ago hails originally from North Carolina hurricane country. He 
> knows first-hand from Hugo what an effective, well organized amateur 
> radio group can do, irrespective of what organization they belong to.   
>
> The bottom line is that if the local EM doesn't know what amateur 
> radio is, you need to find a polite way to get your nose into the 
> tent. Doing that with diplomacy and tact is a gift.
>
> Getting and keeping dedicated people involved and interested is the 
> biggest problem. VARACES live training sessions help identify those 
> who are committed, but in a county with over a million population we 
> seem to have about 20 operators who are genuinely active all the time 
> and another hundred or so we may see when they show up.
>
> I'm hoping that the county's decision to enable "independent" citizens 
> not associated with a particular neighborhood or work site to take the 
> Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training may provide an 
> opportunity for interested amateurs to become more involved. In other 
> parts of the country hams from ARES or RACES are detailed to existing 
> CERT teams to assist with comms.  In Los Angeles and a few other 
> places all-amateur, ACS communications strike teams assist CERTs by 
> relaying traffic received via FRS or cell phone to incident command 
> posts or EOCs using amateur radio voice or packet.
>
> Local amateur leadership needs to attract the best operators, train 
> them to a high standard, and encourage them to mentor others. There is 
> a danger that if you "set the bar too high" or expect too much from 
> volunteers you will scare many away. I don't have any really good 
> answers for that. Recruiting hams for CERT takes a long term 
> committment because of it requires eight weeks of training, done at 
> the fire academy evenings from 7-10 pm, plus class exercises and
> annual refresher training to keep current. Many hams don't spend that 
> much time with ARES and RACES.
>
> In my regular job I am a mid-level public works emergency planner. 
> During a local disaster I need to coordinate debris clearance among 
> multiple private resources. When the cell phones and Nextel quit 
> working, if they either have no radios or incompatible systems that 
> can't inter-operate, I'll gladly take 20 hams that I can count on to 
> show up well equipped and ready, who can do a the job out in the field 
> safely, instead of a hundred plus clueless masses out there at home 
> warm and cozy listening to the repeater.
> My two cents. Yours? 


-- 


Lloyd Colston             Mayes County Emergency Management
Pryor, OK USA           http://www.mayescem.us

"...rights of man come not from the generosity of the state
 but from the hand of God."  JFK  1961