[South Florida DX Association] Fwd: Update from Allen Pitts

[baldybaer at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: csjursen at bellsouth.net
To: browardcountyares at yahoogroups.com,  pbcares at yahoogroups.com
Sent: 1/17/2010 11:15:57 A.M. Eastern Standard  Time
Subj: Update from Allen Pitts



Hello Everyone, 
The message below was sent out yesterday by Allen Pitts  from ARRL 
Headquarters.  Wanted to pass it along.  As a side note,  if you or anyone you know 
are interested in deployment, please contact your  ARES Emergency 
Coordinator and they will run it up the chain of command and  make sure the proper 
individuals have the information.  In our Section,  there is more than one 
individual who needs the information. 
Broward County – Contact Carol Sjursen, KJ4AWB – _KJ4AWB at arrl.net_ 
(mailto:KJ4AWB at arrl.net)  
Palm Beach County – Contact David Fowler, K4DLF – _K4DLF at arrl.net_ 
(mailto:K4DLF at arrl.net)  
Miami-Dade County – Contact Felipe Calderone, K4FLC – _K4FLC at arrl.net_ 
(mailto:K4FLC at arrl.net)  
73, 
Carol Sjursen, KJ4AWB 
Broward County ARES Emergency Coordinator 
>From Allen Pitts: 
If  you are aware of people considering volunteering for a deployment, 
please  make sure they contact your SEC and the SEC is aware of that, the  
capabilities and experience.  I do not know just what will happen - no  one does. 
 But anything we do with ARES deployments supporting our served  agencies 
will go through the SECs. 
As  you may know (or surely guessed) , there is a LOT going on at ARRL HQ,  
IARU and in other Amateur Radio groups as we address the Haitian  disaster. 
 This is truly an international response, and many countries  are involved, 
not just the USA.  In these first days, there were very few  Amateur Radio 
operators operating n Haiti.  In the coming week there will  be more as 
international assessment teams are expected to arrive  from several countries 
and will have embedded hams with them.  There  will be even more in the weeks 
after that as recovery groups arrive.   This will not be a short campaign 
and it is still unclear what may be  the situation outside of metropolitan 
areas in the hill and mountain  country.   
I  appreciate the work of the PIOs so far.  While there is little coming 
out  of Haiti so far, the country is ringed by many excellent AR  stations of 
many nationalities who will hear anything that might  come up on the air. 
I  know that you are getting requests for information regarding relatives 
and  friends in Haiti.  These can be heartbreaking.... I am getting them too  
and it can be really rough emotionally.  The best I have at this point is  
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Salvation Army's 
 websites.  H&W going OUT of Haiti can be channeled through several  
programs.  (Yes, I know from Katrina a lot of hams like to make THOSE  calls 
themselves - that's also emotional but on the good side - but do it  right) 
If  you send me an email and I do not reply, it's only that I am getting 
hundreds  of them now,  Yes, I see them all but may not be able to respond  
individually.  (Triage of email?)  I have other ARRL staff now  aiding me in 
the office, so that we can stay on top of the major  developments.    
I  note the posts on the reflector to be careful not to "oversell"  things 
- they are correct.  This one is different from  Katrina.  It will take more 
time, different problems (hard to  believe things could be worse, but they 
are), and is international in  scope.  I expect Amateur Radio related 
issues, activities and events  to grow in the coming weeks and we're working hard 
to get out the best,  VERIFIED information on the main ARRL website.  We may 
not be the fastest  ones with a headline, but we're going to be sure of 
things to prevent rumor  and speculation.  I have spoken to most of the other 
major Amateur Radio  related publications people and we're all in this 
together.    
Thanks  for all you are doing.