[FLARES] Sarasota County Pan-Flu Exercise

[Ron Wetjen]

On March 7th, Sarasota County Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) was 
represented at a joint Sarasota County Emergency Management/Sarasota 
County Health Department Pandemic Influenza Table Top Exercise.

ACS, representing ESF 2, worked with the Logistics Chief and other 
ESF's, to address the issues of lack of food deliveries and volunteers 
wanting to help.

Since no communications issues arose during this exercise, we determined 
that affiliated volunteers (amateurs and other groups working with the 
County) could still be used to help out in other areas, such as food 
distribution and other assignments as needed.

As we discovered a long time ago, in order to make ourselves a more 
valuable resource, amateurs need to think outside the "amateur radio 
box" and expand our services into other areas.  We get to work with 
other groups, observe how these groups work together, what other 
functions and operations take place during incidents, and most 
importantly, it's another way for us to stay active and involved, even 
if communications isn't an issue.  This is something we do and works 
very well for us.

73, Ron  WD4AHZ
EC Sarasota County