[K3PZN-List] Hurricane Charley 2004 pictures online

[Andrew Leeds]

Kevin P. Inscoe wrote:

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Good pictures ... I didn't get any of my activities during the storm 
which wasn't nearly as bad over here.  I got off the engineering job at 
1100 and went home to get changed into my uniform. I took the south 
county net for a while (Brevard County is split into North, Central, and 
South areas) when others were getting in position then I went to work at 
the PD around 1500.

The PD decided on Thursday that the storm would miss us in Melbourne and 
they didn't need the shutters on the building. Well Friday afternoon 
they changed their mind when it became Cat-IV and took that turn to the 
East earlier than planned. I got pressed into service putting the $#@$% 
shutters on the long windows in the center of the building (there is a 
courtyard in the middle of the building with glass on all sides). There 
is nothing better than heavy labor in the hot sun wearing a black 
uniform (soon after we started there was a large pile of guns, tasers, 
duty belts, ballistic vests, etc on a table in the hallway). The good 
news is that after we got done with the shutters the cmdr decided we 
could stay on call and not go back out on the road.  I got cleared to go 
home about 2000 and on my way stopped at our club station at the Red 
Cross. The op there needed relief later on so I went home and got some 
sleep until 0200. I went back to the Red Cross at 0300 and took over as 
south county ncs. We passed mostly administrative traffic for the 
shelters (how many people, food situations, etc) in the early hours. 
After day break we handled a little H/W for people on HF and closed down 
about 0800 after the last of our shelters closed down.  I called into 
the PD and once again they had enough people showing up for day shift so 
I went on call status and went home hoping I didn't get told to go 
direct traffic someplace.

Our lessons learned (so far) were that no matter how much you think of 
the guys at the NHC don't trust the forecast track to be 100% accurate. 
 From the radio side of things the importance of getting operators 
scheduled for relief shifts ahead of time was brought home. We also 
realized too late that we need to make better use of the operators who 
are staying at home - they make good alternate NCS and can be used to 
great effect monitoring adjacent nets and relaying when necessary.

In the irony department the most interesting piece of traffic we had was 
a message to the Red Cross disaster director informing him that his 
house had just been destroyed, the only one in the county that I know of.

73, Andy