[KYHAM] KEN Training for Feb. 24: How Was It???

[Ron Dodson]

Before this past weekend, I had planned to do a segment this
week on WMD Incident Command.  However, as we all know, this
week has not been "just another week" for many Kentucky
communities. As this is being written, Fayette County alone
still has roughly 30,000 homes in the dark after 6 days of
repair efforts. Some communities have lost communications
towers which were home to not only amateur equipment, but
cell phones, pager services, public service communications
and even radio/tv broadcast media.  Still others have faced
flooding and other hazards. There are, at this writing, 54
of our 120 counties in a declared state of emergency. 49
cities are also under disaster declarations.

As operations wind down in the affected communities where
amateur radio was employed in recovery efforts I know they
will be asking a lot of questions of themselves about their
operation in the days that follow.  Likewise, individual
amateurs can use this as an opportunity to assess their own
station's preparedness and their operator skills.  Amateurs
not affected at all can look to the lessons learned from
those who were and use their findings as a "yardstick" to
evaluate their own current readiness to face similar perils.

Some of the questions they will be looking at, among others,
would be;

1.  What worked flawlessly beyond our expectations?

2.  What worked, but could have been better?

3.  What did not work well and needs changed/revised or
replanned out?

4.  Did anything fail miserably?
 
5.  Is there equipment or something else that was needed,
but we did not have? Is it practical? Can we afford it? 
How? 

6.  Other concerns. 


This is a process we call "a critique" in emergency
management circles.  It should be done immediately following
exercises and most definitely after real events.  The time
to do this, at least preliminarily, is not a week or month
from now, but immediately afterward while the events that
occurred (or failed to occur) are fresh on everyone's mind. 
Memory is a volatile thing.  Make note of things that you
can think of in each category I just mentioned and any
others that come to mind.  Do it NOW! Be honest.  Be
thoughtful.

What a better way to make the next operation even better for
your own group and others?  Lessons learned from events such
as those we have seen this week are one of the greatest
learning tools we have available to us. Don't let the chance
to learn from them and improve your stations and your
plans/procedures go to waste.
  

73, 
Ron, KA4MAP
SEC Ky