[FLARES] Statewide SET

Tue, 7 Oct 2003 09:18:47 -0400

Yeah, the silence IS deafening isn't it?  That ought to tell you
something right there.

I think it did offer a test of the HF gateway system.

We didn't do much here in Seminole.  I was in St. Pete working Wed and
Thursday when I found out that they had actually announced the start of
the SET on Thursday.  I tried accessing Pinellas and Hillsborough ARES
freqs but never found them and/or never heard anything related to the
SET being discussed.  I was going to use them to get word back to my
county.

When I was able to, I had a message put out on a couple of local
repeaters as to the scenario and some general instructions to go to
emergency power sources and monitor the ARES freq for the next couple of
days.  I had not planned, with the type notice we had about the whole
thing, to actually deploy anyone anywhere as we usually have a SET with
our County served agencies earlier in the year where we do that.  My
County DEM knew nothing about the SET, other than what I had told them,
and would have appreciated a calldown from Tallahassee, then they could
have played the game to activate us locally.

In sitting down with my local County EM, we discussed the scenario and
what he would have us to do.  One thing we agreed on was that Shelter
ops, other than maybe 1 or 2 Special Needs Shelters, was not in the plan
for this type scenario.

The shelter residence space in schools are not necessarily or usually on
emergency power so it's not a good idea to open them and attempt to send
citizens out on the roads where there's no traffic signals to a place
that has no electric just like home.  Everyone's better off staying off
the road, staying put and toughing it out with the exception of some
special medical needs citizens.  Our Special Needs Shelters could
accommodate them with emergency power but you also have to look at the
potential longevity of the event.

I would probably have dispatched ARES to our 3 hospitals to provide
emergency backup communications.  Our EOC would have been activated.  We
might have placed ARES at key fire stations to help provide backup
comms.  We've practiced those deployments before, some earlier this year
in fact, and a "last moment" surprise test doesn't sit well with members
when the weather is good and they've got personal plans made.

I know the SET was scheduled for Saturday, but we weren't planning on
participating in that SET date as we usually don't, but just found out 2
weeks ago that it was requested to be a statewide participatory event.
In the event of a REAL, ACTUAL emergency, everything changes and people
are available to help.  When I was Chief of a small-community Volunteer
Fire Department, we didn't set the pagers off for an unannounced,
unplanned, surprise drill.  Plans were made and leadership knew what was
supposed to happen.  Consideration must be given to the value of our
ARES members time and efforts and some advance planning on the part of
the leadership team should take place, in my opinion, to make such
drills worthwhile on the part of the team.  I was awaiting some word as
to further instructions from the NFL ARES net on Saturday morning but
heard nothing.  As it turns out, they closed the statewide portion of
the SET within a couple of hours leaving us to continue on our own.  All
I did was to request those monitoring to continue to go about their
normal activity but to keep using their emergency power sources for
radio use for the rest of the day or longer if possible to get an idea
how it would hold up.

I don't think "planning" to have an SET with no "plan" is a good idea.
A "planned" SET is not the time to be fumbling around developing it.
Time is too short and too valuable.  A real emergency is very different
and people react to it much differently.  They understand that in a real
emergency, actions develop as the situation matures.  In an SET, they
like to have decisions go quickly.  "Let's get this going and over with
and on to the football games, yard work, shopping, etc."

As you can tell, I wasn't real thrilled about the whole thing.

Keith, KF4BXT
Seminole Co. ARES EC

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Ron Wetjen
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 8:31 AM
To: Florida ARES/RACES list
Subject: [FLARES] Statewide SET

Wasn't there a Statewide SET last Saturday?  I've yet to read a report 
on what happened and who did what.  What's up?

Ron

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