[SIERA] (no subject)

[Dick Young]

FOR THOSE SIERA MEMBERS, NOT MEMBERS OF ARRL, FOLLOWING EXCERPT FROM THE MONTHLY ARRL NEWSLETTER IS A TESTIMONIAL TO ARES PARTICIPATION IN THE WATERFALL FIRE AND, ESPECIALLY, THE CLOSE COORDINATION BETWEEN THE WASHOE ARES GROUP AND DCART.  "Training does count"


"After the Waterfall Fire broke out in mid-July, Bruce Wade, NZ7A, the
American Red Cross disaster relief operation director, contacted Northern
Nevada District Emergency Coordinator Don Carlson, KQ6FM, seeking ARES
assistance.

"An evacuation center was being set up, and he wanted staffing for both
the evacuation center and at the Red Cross chapter headquarters in Reno,"
Carlson said. Amateurs were deployed at the chapter headquarters and at
the evacuation center in Carson City--the state's capital.

"In less than an hour from the initial call," Don Carlson said, "Amateur
Radio communication through ARES had been established, and messages were
beginning to pass between the two locations." Meanwhile, Washoe County EC
Doug Abramson, KA7FOO, put out a successful plea for operators via the
Western Nevada Noon Net.

"The operations continued as the fire raged out of control, coming
dangerously close to the state capital city itself," Carlson said. "At one
point the fire was about a quarter mile from the governor's mansion and a
local college."

The Carson City Sheriff's Office ordered evacuations, and by the evening
of July 15, hundreds of residents from communities west and northwest of
Carson City started arriving at the evacuation center--by then an official
Red Cross shelter. A second shelter opened the next day at a high school
in southern Washoe County and immediately got Amateur Radio support.

Carlson said the ARES activation continued until July 18. During the
four-day event, more than 35 amateur operators from three Northern Nevada
counties participated. The Waterfall Fire charred some 8700 acres and
destroyed more than a dozen homes. The ARES activation drew words of
praise from Wade on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Chapter, American Red
Cross.

"At all times your operators were on the ball and helped make the disaster
relief operation go much smoother," Wade wrote. "Because it took a long
time to get cell phones to all the our key people, many times you were the
only link between the headquarters and the shelters."

Carlson noted that many of the participating ARES volunteers had taken the
ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1 course, and several
had completed Level 2. He said their performance during the fire
activation was testimony to their effectiveness."