[FARC] Relief efforts

[n8aay at verizon.net]

from arrl web:
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 9, 2005--Amateur Radio operators from states along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the US continue to volunteer their skills and expertise as the Hurricane Katrina relief effort heads into its third week. ARRL Section Managers (SMs) and Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs) across and around the affected region have been teleconferencing daily to keep their efforts on the same page. In the field, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and other volunteers are assisting as needed to support communication for relief agencies as well as for state and local government and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, reports that earlier this week Amateur Radio was the only means for state officials at the state emergency operations center (EOC) in Baton Rouge to communicate with the so-called "Florida parishes" above Lake Pontchartrain. 

"We have had praise from one end of Louisiana to the other about Amateur Radio operators," Stratton said. "There was a communication to the EOC in Baton Rouge from FEMA that said, 'Ham radio is our prime communications with you, and they should get anything they need,' so FEMA recognizes the importance of ham radio." 

Stratton recounted how state officials arriving at the EOC would walk into the Amateur Radio room at the EOC asking if they could get through to hard-hit Washington Parish. "We give 'em the mike, and they're able to talk to their people over there," he said, noting that enough VHF repeaters had been restored to permit the officials to get their messages through. 

A marshaling center has been established in Covington, Louisiana. ARES has been continuing to support Red Cross shelter and Southern Baptist Convention debris-clearing in St Tammany parish, as well as Baptist Men's Kitchen canteen operations. In Washington Parish, ARES volunteers--including more than a dozen from South Texas--have been arriving to provide critical communication among hospitals and the parish EOC, among other functions. Field teams were continuing to use HF to maintain communication with the EOC in Baton Rouge. Stratton hopes to install a temporary VHF repeater in Washington Parish this weekend. 

Stratton, who's temporarily handed over his SEC duties to former Louisiana SM Al Oubre, K5SDG, said that while things are going along okay right now, he foresees a need for additional operators. "We really don't have enough operators," he said, especially once New Orleans and Plaquemines and St Bernard parishes are reopened. 

"One of the biggest problems we're going to have is relief for the operators who have been down there [in the affected parishes]," he said. In one instance, an operator deployed from Shreveport to Baton Rouge returned home only to be redeployed to Washington Parish. 

"New Orleans is, of course, our next thrust, and we're going to have to have to staff recovery efforts down there, but it'll be a different kind of recovery effort," Stratton predicted. "We'll be supporting the EOC in Baton Rouge with temporary communications until the National Guard can get in." 

Stratton said Amateur Radio has even had to loan some government agencies their communication gear because their own didn't function. "It's been an eye-opener to me operating in the EOC down there how terribly their equipment operates," he said. "We had to loan the Coast Guard an HT that was opened up for government frequencies because their equipment failed in the ops center." 

In Mississippi, ARES operators have been helping to maintain communication among hospitals, EOCs and shelters. ARES District Emergency Coordinator Tom Hammack, W4WLF, reported operators were sleeping on the floor when off duty. State RACES Officer and ARES DEC Ron Brown, AB5WF, was reported working on a staging area for Amateur Radio volunteers near the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in Jackson. 

SECs in the US Gulf say volunteers signing up for duty in the hurricane-stricken zones should coordinate with their home SECs and, once given the go-ahead, arrive as self-sufficient as possible. "If you need it, you bring it," said Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN. 

The Red Cross staging area in Montgomery, Alabama, continues to process and orient Amateur Radio volunteers for duty in Louisiana and Mississippi. Some volunteers will help support communication at Red Cross shelters set up for evacuees, while others will provide tactical communication for feeding stations. Alabama SM Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, has been coordinating ham radio volunteers at the Montgomery site, where an HF station has been set up to keep in touch with operations in the field. 

Norm North Jr, WA1DBR, of Springdale, Arkansas, reported for duty earlier this week. He was deployed to a Red Cross shelter in Biloxi, Mississippi, which had no outside communication before he arrived. "There I continued to relay as much message traffic as I could," he told ARRL. "Sometimes it was difficult to get out health-and-welfare inquiries with all the streams of emergency traffic." 

North says typical requests included pleas from mothers trying to find missing children, youngsters looking for parents and other trying to get word to families and loved ones that they'd survived the storm and were at the shelter. "Many messages got through," North said, "and I received many thanks and hugs." 

North said it was gratifying to play a small role in the aftermath of the disaster. "EOC officials let me know in no uncertain terms that Mississippi had greatly appreciated me coming to them and offering a little help and comfort," he added. "I was very happy just to do my small bit." 

Isbell said each Red Cross feeding unit was turning out 25,000 to 30,000 meals a day. "They still need communication," he said. Local amateurs in the affected areas were handling some of the tactical communication on VHF. 

Amateur Radio volunteers deployed from Florida to Mississippi will get relief over the next couple of days with new operators from the Sunshine State. The fresh Florida Task Force ham radio volunteers will spend four to five days in Mississippi before returning home next week, when telephone and cellular systems are back in working order. 

As the conventional telecommunications network starts coming back to life, traffic has been slowing on the major regional HF emergency net--the West Gulf ARES Emergency Net on 7.285 MHz days and 3.873 MHz nights. As a result, the net has begun shutting down between 1 and 7 AM CDT. Still, said Net Manager Lee Franks, N5FP (ex-AD5IS), the net passed traffic September 7 about a man trapped in an attic in Arabi [Louisiana]. 

"We're still getting a trickle of messages like this," he added. "As communications are reestablished via landline and VHF-UHF links in that area, there has been less demand on our net--but I'd call it an absolute, tremendous success what we have done."