[CTSARA] Conn. plans 2-day preparedness drill

[Jon Perelstein]

Contrary to how the Advocate is reporting it, technically it's not a two
day drill.  Each town is required to do a one day drill, but has the choice
of conducting the drill on either Saturday or Monday.  Stamford has elected
to conduct the drill on Monday.  Region One (lower Fairfield County) is not
required to open shelters because of our experience for real during Irene
and Sandy.  Pretty much every town in the other four regions does have to
open a shelter.  The towns of Region One -- including Stamford -- will each
be doing separate table-top simulations.

I've been asked by the Public Safety Director to participate in the drill
representing SARA and will be in the EOC for the entire drill on Monday.
 Despite the fact that Stamford is doing only a table-top simulation, I
have been asked to demo data comms between shelters and the EOC.  They're
going to give us access to Stamford High and we will be sending ICS-213
forms and some standard Red Cross forms from Stamford High to the EOC using
Winlink P2P on VHF and also Winmor email via HF (Winlink email VHF is not
currently available here in Stamford).  I've been told to expect that the
Public Safety Director and some of the senior police/fire/EMS/public health
leadership will observe the demo, and I've been told that there is a good
chance the Mayor will also be there for the demo.

SARA has been working with Red Cross and the City to provide comms (voice
and data) between the shelters, Red Cross, and the EOC since 2010 -- and
did so for real during Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012 (in 2012, we added
Salvation Army to the net because of their importance in feeding people at
the shelters).  This year, in many cases for the first time, towns in other
Regions will simulate ham radio backup comms from shelters to the EOCs.

The Public Safety Director has asked me to set aside some time during the
drill to have a conversation with the Executive Director of Smith House to
talk about using ham radio for backup comms to/from Smith House during
hurricanes and similar disasters.  Being way up in North Stamford as they
are, they did suffer land-line, internet and cell phone outages during both
Irene and Sandy.

73s,
Jon, WB2RYV


On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 8:49 PM, John Sabini Jr. <wb1grb at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I thought you might be interested in this story: Conn. plans 2-day
> preparedness drill
> http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Conn-plans-2-day-statewide-preparedness-drill-5569358.php
>
> Sent via the The Advocate iOS app. Download the app:
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>