[FARC] FW: [telpac-paclink] FW: San Luis Obispo County Emergency Drill

[Eric G.]

fyi

  _____  

From: k4cjx at comcast.net [mailto:k4cjx at comcast.net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 4:19 PM
To: Wl2kemcomm; Telpac-Paclink
Subject: [telpac-paclink] FW: San Luis Obispo County Emergency Drill

 

FYI,

 

Steve, k4cjx

 

-----Original Message-----
From: msicher at co.slo.]
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 12:54
To: john_hudson at oes.ca.gov; n6kzb at winlink.org; k4cjx at comcast.net
Subject: San Luis Obispo County Emergency Drill



Biennially the County of San Luis Obispo, CA participates in a FEMA
evaluated emergency exercise concerning the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power
Plant.  This is required to test our County's and Pacific Gas & Electric's
emergency response plan as part of continuing licensing of the plant by the
NRC.  In alternate years our County Office of Emergency Services, OES,
normally schedules an exercise scenario involving an earthquake or major
catastrophic type incident.  These exercises can involve one to two hundred
personnel from various agencies and always includes ARES/RACES
participation. 

This after action report concerns only the amateur radio portion of last
Wednesday's exercise.  It should be noted that this was a dry run  for the
real exercise which will be conducted in December.  FEMA personnel were not
on site, however, we were being monitored by State OES personnel. 

Amateur radio operators were assigned to the following locations within the
County:   County Emergency Operations Center,  Joint Media Center,  County
Office of Education,  County Health Office,  Red Cross Headquarters,
Sheriff's   South County Station and the Arroyo Grande Fire Department.  The
staffing of these facilities was dictated by the exercise scenario and is
not necessarily indicative at what may occur in December. 

All of our Emergency Communications Centers, ECC's, are equipped with both
VHF and UHF voice radios and 1200 baud VHF packet stations.  We also have a
portable packet station for deployment ,where needed, plus three portable
cross band repeaters.  Except for the portable stations all equipment is
permanently mounted in dedicated rooms or areas with permanently mounted
antennas.  As a policy all ECCs must be within  line of site  communication
with the County EOC.  Where this is not possible due to our mountainous
terrain, we add HF radio. 

Since this is earthquake country we have looked at various  "what if"
scenarios.   The main one being loss of all communications particularly in
and out of our EOC.  With the various quakes we have experienced in recent
years it is a forgone conclusion this could happen.  As an example the Loma
Prieta earthquake left us without communication to Sacramento. As a result
our county Health Officer was not able to contact his counterpart at the
State level.  We then brought him to the EOC and assisted him getting
through on 40 meter side band using our permanently installed HF radio. 

This brings up the point that all agencies need to prepare for alternate
methods of communication, particularly digital.  In this County we have
solved this problem by installing an all band HF Pactor 3 station in our
EOC.  We now have the ability to e-mail in and out with all other
communications being down.  During last Wednesday's exercise we were able to
pass approximately 20 e-mail messages using gateway stations in Dallas,TX,
Olympia, WA, Riverside CA and San Diego CA.  Most of this traffic was to OES
Southern region 300 mile away.  However, in some cases it was being relayed
through other states which would not have been effected by an earthquake or
catastrophic communication loss. 

As was commented on during the test by both "hams" and knowledgeable
emergency personnel the Pactor 3 Winlink system was "bulletproof."  The
lesson learned here was that all EOCs and OES facilities need a similar
system with the following characteristics:  All band HF for 24 hour distant
and local communications, Pactor 3 for the speed of transmission and ability
to send attachments and lastly utilization of the winlink system. 

Max Sicher,  WD6Z 
ARES/RACES Coordinator 
San Luis Obispo County