[ARRL-OK] [ARES-OK] Moving Forward - Public Service Communications

[k5okb--- via ARRL-OK]

Well said Jay...

Sent from my U.S. Cellular® Android-powered device

-----Original message-----
From: "'AD5PE' ad5pe at sbcglobal.net [aresoklahoma]" <aresoklahoma at yahoogroups.com>
To: 'Ben' <benj1 at aol.com>, 'ARRL Oklahoma Section List' <arrl-ok at mailman.qth.net>, aresoklahoma at yahoogroups.com
Cc: n5aus at arrl.org, k5rav at arrl.org
Sent: Sun, 01 Jun 2014, 23:16:52 GMT+00:00
Subject: RE: [ARRL-OK] [ARES-OK] Moving Forward - Public Service	Communications

I think this is just a realignment in terminology - mostly based on some confusion over mis-aligned terminology to begin with.

These are Emergency, Disaster, and Communications Emergency.

First - Emergency.  When public safety agencies talk about "emergency communications", that is, communications that are critical in dealing with an emergency, they mean when a police officer calls "shots fired" or a firefighter calls Mayday.  When this is the case, the LAST thing any public safety official is thinking of involving is outsiders, bystanders, or "amateurs".

Second - Disaster.  FEMA has gotten a lot of bad press in the aftermath of disasters, because they are mis-named.  "Emergency" response to a hurricane is picking people off roofs with helicopters.  Disaster response to a hurricane is getting the roads opened back up and re-establishing the infrastructure (electricity and telephones first, then running water, then anything else, up to and including rebuilding houses, etc.).  FEMA got knocked during Katrina and Sandy because their "emergency" response was very poor - but that's unrealistic - the Federal government - and any assets NOT in the immediate area can NOT be expected to provide real-time "emergency" assistance.  In other words, FEMA is really the Federal DISASTER Management Agency.

Finally - Communications Emergency.  A communications emergency is anything from "a backhoe just cut phone lines into the dispatch center, so the public gets a busy