[MDC-EC] MDC Section Tsunami Response Status

[n3sb at qis.net]

Hi Folks;

I've attached our current Section response status below. Thanks to everyone for
taking the time (from their sleep, in many cases) to participate in this
exercise. If you have any comments, please feel free to send them to me. Dennis
Dura K2DCD from the ARRL will welcome them.

Below our current status report is a brief email exchange I had with Dennis. He
gave me his permission to pass it along to all of you. I think you'll find it
interesting reading.

73; Steve, N3SB
SEC-MDC

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La Palma Landslide Tsunami Resource Report #2	  	    02-Dec-2008

1. Section name, reporting individual/call/title, time/date of report

Maryland/DC, Steve Beckman N3SB SEC, 1920L 02-Dec-2008

2. Time SM contacted SEC

8:53PM Local 01-Dec-2008

3. Method of contact with SEC

Telephone and email

4. Was contact successful?

Yes

5. If contact was not established with SEC, what action(s) did the SM take to
notify the emergency communications resources in the Section?

N/A

6. How long after the original contact with the SEC was the Required resource
information developed and returned?

Resource information started to become available within an hour. 

7. Resource information: total ARES personnel available within Section based
upon subordinate levels (county or region)?

With 8 Counties reporting in as of 1920L 02-Dec-2008:
51 ARES Members

8. Resource information: number of available field deployable Stations for
hf/vhf/uhf to include digital modes within Section?

76 with VHF capability
76 with UHF capability
26 with HF capability
22 with Digital capability


9. Resource information: number of available mobile Communications vehicles
within section?

9 Mobile Communications Vehicles


10. Resource information: average time of response of ARES Volunteers for
deployment?

Average of 2 hours for those currently responding

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Date:   	Tue, 2 Dec 2008 13:06:22 -0500
From:  	"Dura,Dennis, K2DCD" <k2dcd at arrl.org>
To:  	n3sb at qis.net


Thanks for this information Steve and for those in your Section that
have participated.

Since Disasters do not schedule themselves...and are never convenient, I
will not announce my spontaneous drills. Future drills testing other
components may be treated differently. This was a test for a number of
factors which will be discussed in the final report when written. Each
SM will get a copy. You final comment is exactly on target Steve.
I'd also be interested in any protocols or mechanisms that are discussed
in MDC for dealing with no-notice events...and how these are
incorporated into a larger coordinated scheme in a response.

Again, thank you and all for playing in the MDC Section!


73

Dennis



-----Original Message-----
From: n3sb at qis.net [mailto:n3sb at qis.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 12:49 PM
To: Dura,Dennis, K2DCD
Cc: Cross, Jim (SM, MDC)
Subject:

Hi Dennis;

The two reports attached are submitted on behalf the the Maryland/DC
Section, managed by Jim Cross WI3N. I've included two so that you can
see how the response has developed over time.

I would be interested in knowing what you were testing for, what results
you get when the dust settles, and what your overall assessment is.

My general observations so far:

The email you distributed to the SMs at 7:00 PM didn't cause action in
the MDC Section until almost 9:00 PM. Email would not appear to be a
good way to reach SMs in a timely manner. I hope other alternatives are
considered.

To further that point, I forwarded a copy of your email to all the ECs
in the MDC Section via our email reflector. I then called each of the
ECs to make sure they were aware of the drill. I'm glad I did, because
NONE of them had seen my email. The email was sent out just fine, but
none of them happened to have stumbled across it at that time of the
evening.

As to what you were testing for -- we've seen some negative comments
about the inconvenient day and time of this test. I don't know if that
was part of your plan, but I do think it gave us an opportunity to
determine what problems may be encountered when trying to get in contact
with ARES members at an inconvenient time, when cell phones, computers, and
radios are likely to be turned off.

73; Steve Beckman, N3SB
SEC-MDC