[NevadaARES] Nevada ARES SEC Monthly Report (FSD-96)

[Dick Flanagan K7VC]

title: ARES SEC Monthly Report (FSD-96)

1. Section: Nevada (NV)

2. Month: January

3. Year: 2008

4. Total ARES members: 371 Reported

5. Changes since last month: +5

6. Number of active nets: 26

7. Total Sessions: 37

8A. Number of ECs/DECs reporting this month: 3 DEC's/10 EC's

9A. Number of nets, drills, tests & training sessions: 59

9B. Number of volunteer hours: 698

10A. Number of public service events this month: 1

10B. Number of volunteer hours: 30

11A. Number of emergency operations this month: 4

11B. Number of volunteer hours: 183

12A. Total number of ARES/RACES events this month: 44

12B. Total volunteer hours: 745

Northwest District I DEC: Reported

Carson City: Reported

Churchill County: Reported

Douglas County: Reported

Humboldt County: Not Reported

Lyon County: Reported

Mineral County: No EC

Pershing County: No EC

Storey County: Not Reported

Washoe County: Reported

Northeast District II DEC: Reported

Elko County: Reported

Eureka County: No EC

Lander County: No EC

White Pine County: No EC

Southern District III DEC: Reported

Clark County: Reported

Esmeralda County: Reported

Lincoln County: Reported

North Nye County: Reported

South Nye County: Reported

SEC's GENERAL REPORT (January 2008) Well, it s hard to believe that
another year has begun, and it came in like a lion, weather-wise. The
storm on the weekend of January 5 kept a lot of us quite busy. You
will read in the Northwest District report about the activities
regarding the flood in Fernley, which we were involved with. Great
thanks to Lyon County EC, Patty Polish, KE7JIM, who, along with her
team, responded and did a fantastic job, along with Dee

Arnold, KA7LOZ who was manning Skywarn duties for Reno's NWS most of
the weekend. Many others stood by, willing to help had it been needed
from all parts of the state, from Elko, Las Vegas, Tonopah and here in
Northwest Nevada as well. Thank you one and all for the contributions
and efforts!

Emcommwest 2008 in Reno May 2-4 at Circus Circus Hotel. Kevin, KE7BQX,
event chair reports that updates are being put on the website as they
become available, including registration for patrons, vendors and
speakers! Check it out and check back often for updates at
www.emcommwest.org. Our keynote speaker this year will be ARRL's
Emergency Response Manager from Newington, Dennis Dura, K2DCD. This
year's event promises to be the best ever! 73 Don Carlson, KQ6FM SEC.

SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORT- Glenn Hale, KB7REO, DEC Southern: Comments:
- January 2008: No major ARES/RACES news from the District. Some
discussions are underway on whether D-star digital will have any
application with ARES activities. SKYWARN spotter reports have been
sent from Tonopah to Elko NWS via the email reflectors. Seems to be a
very effective way for the Elko region NWS spotters to relay reports.

South Nye Co. EC Report by Jerry KC6ILH: Cold weather and dry moisture
with a lot of high winds covered most of the month. Did another Ham
Cram class and had 8 of 9 passing. This is a community service that we
provide with our local VE's. So far we have been doing it once a year
and it has been working out rather well. Keep your batteries charged,
fire season will soon be upon us.

Clark County EC Report by Charlie AA5QJ: Charlie AA5QJ, EC/RO attended
Training and Exercise Planning Meeting held by the Clark County Office
of Emergency Management, to determine training and exercises planned
by all of the agencies in the Valley for the next 3 years and put them
on a consolidated calendar to minimize conflicts and redundancy.

ARES/RACES supported So NV Health District and Red Cross
communications for a valley-wide functional exercise on Jan 24. Jay
Peskin KE7EGO, Bob Matthewson K7RJM, Vern Garman K0EGA, Jack Cook
N8RRL, Keith Aurich KD7TOF, and Charlie Kunz AA5QJ participated.

The quarterly ARES/RACES meeting was held Jan 26 with 41 members.
Leaders updated on the current status of their areas, and a discussion
was held on the concept of Amateur Radio Communications Teams.

Jay Peskin KE7EGO, AEC Henderson, and Charlie Kunz AA5QJ, EC/RO, met
with Clark County School District officials to discuss ARES/RACES
support.

ARES/RACES members participated in communications support for the
Southern Nevada Stage Bike Race on Hwy 165 leading to Nelson's
Landing. It was a cold and rainy day, yet over 100 riders braved the
course.

There were 54 checkins to the GMRS Emergency Net in January.

North Nye Co. EC Report by AEC Randy KB7TRI: Acting EC organized
paperwork for ARES, filled out form. Members participated in Skywarn
and ARES Nets. Acting EC still in communication with regional hospital
to encourage making ARES part of their disaster plan.

NORTHEAST DISTRICT REPORT: Comments: Joe Giraudo - N7JEH NE. DEC
Comments: January was a pretty quiet month in the northeast portion of
the State. The Elko Volunteer Examiner team held an exam session on
Saturday January 19. The Elko Red Cross office responded to one single
family fire in January, no communication support was required.

Heavy snow fall and drifting snow has caused severe travel conditions
around the area in January. Blowing ice may have damaged the link
antenna on Mt. Lewis in Battle Mountain. Signals on that repeater are
greatly diminished. Most mountain-top locations are inaccessible
except by snow cat or helicopter.

Joe Giraudo, NE NV DEC attended the Elko County Local Emergency
Planning Committee's, (LEPC) meeting on Thursday January 24.

The annual review and update of the County's Emergency Response Plan
was performed for submittal to the State Emergency Response
Commission, (CERT). This is a hazardous material spill response plan.
In attendance were the various local emergency response and relief
agencies as well as NOAA and US Public Health Service representatives.

The Saturday Section HF Net continues. Particpation is steadily
growing. New members check in weekly. Propagation is holding steady.
The net now has an NTS liaison which it hasn't had in several years.

NORTHWEST DISTRICT REPORT (Don Carlson, KQ6FM Acting DEC: Comments:
January was an active month, with 2 major events at roughly the same
time which was the weekend of January 4-6. A major winter storm hit
Northern Nevada and the Sierra to our west in California. A large rain
storm hit, followed by heavy snow. There were road closures, NWS
activation and of course, the flooding on Saturday January 5 in
Fernley, Lyon County.

Rather than be redundant, the EC reports will speak for themselves. It
was quite gratifying to note that during that weekend, we had monitors
and weather information from nearly every area of the state/section.
That, mostly thanks to the IRLP intercom via Western Reflector Channel
8 and repeaters located all over the state simulcast for statewide
input. This has been an enormous resource for us and has brought the
entire Nevada Section closer together. Thanks again to Kent, W7AOR for
helping put this together and keeping it well maintained.

Ski, AB6FD, Humbolt County EC has been organizing a group there, and
preparing to put in an IRLP Node in Winnemucca area. He will be
updating us soon on progress soon. The rest will be covered by the ECs
in their reports.

Churchill County Paul Wilcoxen - KE7CRZ: January started off a bit
busy with the Fernley flood and the weather. Several Churchill County
members were available for assistance with both events. I thank them
all for their assistance.

We had our regular meeting on January 19th and it was a pleasure to
have SEC/DEC Don Carlson, KQ6FM attend. Along with Don, were Otto Tune
KV7J and Cynthia Bagley from Carson City, who regularly attend our
meetings. Thank you all for being there. Our next meeting will be at
the Churchill County EOC and the date for that meeting is yet to be
determined.

It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of Bob Moore-AD7CP and
Rich Gibitz-KE6QK as Assistant RACES Officers for Churchill County. I
thank them both for stepping up to the plate and accepting the
positions.

Lyon County Patti Polish, KE7JIV - With the threat of the impending
storms, the Lyon County Emergency Manger, Jeff Page, requested a
teleconference call on Friday, January 4th, with all the key players
within Lyon County. After this teleconference I contacted the members
of the Lyon County Amateur Radio Emergency Services Group (LCARES) to
ensure all had their gear together and that their batteries were
charged.

Saturday morning at approximately 0430 hours the call came that
Fernley was experiencing a major flood. My first thought was that it
must have started raining, but as I came to find out it was worse than
rain. In fact the Bureau of Reclamation's canal that runs from Derby
Dam to Fallon had a major break and was dumping thousands of gallons
of water into several housing developments in Fernley. Bob Freeman
(KE7ATZ), John Abrott (KD7NHC), Leonard Mitchell (KC7PET), Jim
Berryman-Shaffer (KD7ZKO), Brian Freitag (KE7JIO), Gene Willard
(KE6VIM), and I (KE7JIV) responded initially.

As the day continued we requested mutual aid. Washoe County ARES
(WCARES) sent Doug Abramson (KA7FOO) and Darrell Upson (WA6ADZ) to
assist. We had Gretchen Penaluna (N7RAB) of LCARES on standby if
needed. So we used 8 LCARES and 2 WCARES for a total of 10 hams. We
put in a total of 106 hours based on travel time from portal to
portal. We were stood down at 1730 hours. Essentially we were the
backup communications. It was a good thing we responded. As you can
imagine the phone lines to various county contacts were almost always
busy, so our communications network was a good way to pass on
information.

We had one operator at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in
Yerington, two operators in Silver Springs, one to two operators at
the Evacuation Shelter at the Fernley High School, and three operators
at the Incident Command Post (ICP) located at the Fire Station in
Fernley. The ICP relayed information to the Evacuation Shelter
regarding the number of people coming to the shelter via the
evacuation vehicles. The evacuation shelter relayed inf ormation about
their needs from dry clothes to heaters to diapers.

The ICP kept the EOC informed of resources being used and additional
resources needed. Some of the communication between me and the EOC
occurred over a cell phone but primarily were passed through the ICP
operators.

The ICP operators informed Command when a person requiring medical
assistance was in route via helicopter or ground, as they were
monitoring 155.160 (National Search and Rescue frequency). Red Cross
was in contact with us after they set up at the Evacuation Shelter.

Bob Freeman (KE7ATZ) requested that the National Weather Service call
us every 15 minutes with a weather update rather than us trying to
chase down the weather. In addition when Bob Freeman (KE7ATZ)
attempted to call our SEC / District Emergency Coordinator (DEC), Don
Carlson (KQ6FM) to request assistance cellular service went down. Good
thing we have these darn radios. THEY WORK!!

I wish to personally thank all of the members of LCARES, Doug
Abramson, (KA7FOO), Darrell Upson, (WA6ADZ) and Don Carlson, (KQ6FM)
for their assistance in making the flow of information a seamless
operation. I can tell you that our training paid off. We were familiar
with our equipment and the players involved which makes communicating
easier. It was a very humbling experience and our success is based on
the commitment of our members.

After the incident and then again at our January 28th Meeting we
debriefed, identified, and discussed what problems we had. These items
are: 1. We should have established the net quicker than we did. 2.
When we were switching back and forth on alternate frequencies we had
some folks following us and doing radio checks. This could have been
avoided had we used our tactical frequency numbers rather than
spelling out what specific frequency we were switching to. 3. We
discussed placing antennas and wiring in the major evacuation centers
and fire houses in the County. This led to the discussion of
purchasing radios. We are putting together a grant request for
antennas, wiring, and radios through the County Emergency Manager.

We had two new prospective members turn in their paperwork. We also
voted in a new member, Ed Montano, KE7JIT. Ed will be a welcomed
asset.

Douglas County Acting EC, Dick Creley, KJ7UK: DCART members were asked
by John KC7AGI EC S. Lake Tahoe in SV Section area to monitor the
repeaters in the Northewest District local area in case of mutual aid
being needed in the large mountain snow storm in the Sierra over the
weekend of Jan 4 and 5. DCART had 7 members respond and they listened
for about 60 man hours total, and perhaps even more. Frequencies
monitored were: 147.24, 147 33, 146.610 and a local Truckee, CA
repeater as well. No response was sought.

Washoe County Bob Miller, WA6MTY EC: Busy month NVOAD Meeting: January
8th I attended the NVOAD meeting discussing the members support of the
Fernley flood victims

ARES TRAINING SESSION: Because of the storm on January 2nd, we held
our ARES Training Session on January 12th where we discussed the
donation of computers by IGT and the planned distribution. Also
briefly reviewed the Nevada State Emergency Communications Plan and
discussed potential participation with the Inter-Hospital Coordinating
Council.

POD EXERCISE WRAP-UP: January 10th was the Health Department POD
exercise Wrap-up Meeting where Dan Mackie presented us with the
statistics of their exercise. Plans are in the works for a statewide
POD exercise this October.

IHCC: On January 11th Bill AA7WB my hospital AEC and I attended the
2008 planning meeting of goals for the year. There are potentially
four items on the list that may include ARES. The council will be
voting this Friday at the February meeting.

BROKEN WING PLANNING MEETING: On January 14th I attended the Broken
Wing (aka Broken Propeller) Exercise preliminary planning meeting.
Broken Wing is the required airport training exercise. We were
informed of the scenario and are to provide our goals for our
participation in the exercise at the next meeting.

NEVADA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION MEETING: Also on January 14th I did an
ARES presentation to the Nevada Hospital Association meeting. The NHA
is very interested in ARES supporting their Interoperability
communications.

VIGILANT GUARD: January 16th attended the pre-planning meeting for the
Vigilant Guard exercise of June 12-20th. This is the week-long exercise
in conjunction with the Nevada Army Guard's training.

14. Signature: Don Carlson, KQ6FM - SEC

15. E-mail: kq6fm at charter.net

--
Dick Flanagan K7VC NV SM
k7vc at arrl.org