[W1SMH] Fwd: The ARES E-Letter for August 19, 2015

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On Wednesday, August 19, 2015, ARRL Web site <memberlist at www.arrl.org> wrote:

If you are having trouble reading this message, you can see the original at:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/?issue=2015-08-19



August 19, 2015       Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
ARES E-Letter Archive ARES Home ARRL Home Page 

 

ARES® Supports 60,000 Runners in Atlanta for Peachtree Road Race
LZ Drill in Washington State: Joint Emergency Exercises Work on a Small Scale
Anatomy of a CERT: East Lake (West Central Florida) CERT
Letters: An Emergency Paging Method
Letters: Georgia County Interfaces with Emergency Management via Planning Committee
Letters: San Diego Winlink Net Marks Five Years
ARRL Staff Developing Patch Display at HQ; Send in your Group's Patch!
Connecticut ARES Region Conducts Simplex Test
Georgia Group to Conduct 9/11 Memorial Special Event
Remembering Hurricane Katrina Ten Years Ago This Month
ARES® Briefs, Links

Katrina 10th Anniversary Mississippi Memorial Event Set (8/10/2015); Amateur Radio Volunteers Support Michigan's Premier Bicycle Tour (7/22/2015). September is National Preparedness Month. This year FEMA is asking you to take action now - make a plan with your community, your family, and for your pets. Plan how to stay safe and communicate during the disasters that can affect your community. FEMA asks everyone to participate in America's PrepareAthon! and the national day of action, National PrepareAthon! Day, which culminates National Preparedness Month on September 30.

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ARES® Supports 60,000 Runners in Atlanta for Peachtree Road Race
For the last 45 years, Atlantans have celebrated Independence Day in the United States in unique fashion: by closing one of the City's busiest thoroughfares and allowing 60,000 runners, supported by 5000 volunteers, including over 50 Amateur Radio volunteers, and nearly 200,000 spectators for the Peachtree Road Race, sponsored by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Atlanta Track Club.

The Amateur Radio response is coordinated by Race Committee Members David Ziskind, KE4QLH, and Chris Balch, KS4MM (ARRL Volunteer Counsel and AEC for Atlanta ARES). Operators come from ARES groups and Amateur Radio clubs all over the metropolitan Atlanta area.

Working closely with the Atlanta Fulton County Emergency Management Agency (AFCEMA), Atlanta Police and Fire Departments, as well as numerous federal and state law enforcement and public safety agencies, the Amateur Radio contingent provides crucial on course intelligence and safety reports for injured runners, race conditions, and even the occasional suspicious package. Learning from the experience of colleagues in Boston, net control operations for the race are located at AFCEMA's underground Emergency Operations Center. AFCEMA Director Matthew Kallmayer has worked closely with Atlanta ARES EC Ken Reid, KG4USN, to stock the EOC with 3 dual band radios (2 Kenwood V71s and an ICOM IC-2820). Accordingly, we were able to run and respond to 3 different nets (as well as a D-STAR link to the Atlanta Police Headquarters) providing coordination among public safety, Atlanta Track Club organizers, and media outlets. Race communications benefited from the loaned repeaters of the Atlanta Radio Club, the Metropolitan Atlanta Telephone Pioneers Amateur Radio Club, and the Georgia Tech Amateur Radio Club.

This year provided a particularly challenging environment as July 4 saw Atlanta hit by a long line of severe and dangerous thunderstorms just as the race got underway. As the storms intensified, Track Club officials made the decision to hold the last half of the runners (half the field was already on the course) and move those waiting to start indoors for safety. After a 30-minute delay, 25,000 race participants emerged into the rainy late morning and completed their annual jog down Peachtree Street. - Chris Balch, KS4MM, AEC Atlanta ARES

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LZ Drill in Washington State: Joint Emergency Exercises Work on a Small Scale
One hour before the Airlift Northwest medical helicopter was due to arrive, the rain was coming down so hard, cars were pulling off the streets because wipers couldn't clear their windshields. The wind was gusting and heavy thunder shook the area. Yet, by 6:30 PM, the storm had cleared for the most part, and the training exercise began.

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Riverside Fire Authority, Centralia (Washington) ARES, Lewis County 911 center and Airlift Northwest had planned this joint exercise for weeks. Several years earlier, Centralia ARES established eleven emergency helicopter landing zones (LZ) around the community of 16,000 located in southwest Washington State. The local hospital had been the only designated landing spot for medical helicopters, but the community is divided by two large rivers and Interstate 5. Any large earthquake would likely collapse all or most of the overpasses and bridges creating small pockets within the city that would be difficult to reach by normal disaster response services.

The helicopter landing zone project began by locating open fields, school yards and vacant lots that could be used as alternate landing zones. Level landing zones of at least 100' x 100' were needed. The fields could be grass, packed dirt, a roadway or even snow. Identifiable structures such as water towers needed to be marked. High tension lines, trees, fences, light poles and other hazards had to be assessed. Each year, the Centralia ARES team checks each landing zone to be sure it still meets requirements.

The landing zones were in place but had never been needed nor had a helicopter ever landed on any of them - until now. The joint exercise began to take form when we asked Riverside Fire Authority Chief Mike Kytta if he thought we could get Airlift Northwest, the local medical helicopter service located 25 miles to the north of Olympia, to fly in as a practice drill. Coincidentally, Riverside Fire was planning an exercise for their volunteers that could easily be turned into a request for a medical aircraft response. A quick e-mail to Airlift Northwest brought the response "We can make that happen." The joint exercise was set for a month later.

Excitement was in the air at the next ARES meeting as the exercise was discussed. The team retrained on how to set up a landing zone, helicopter landing procedures and LZ safety. While Chief Kytta would be the overall Incident Commander, the ARES team designated a communications supervisor, landing zone supervisor, aircraft communicator and safety officers. Remaining volunteers were assigned positions around the perimeter of the landing zone as this would be in a residential area and the landing of a helicopter was sure to attract spectators. Chief Kytta asked that ARES members provide notification to those homeowners living around the landing zone, and a simple flyer was created for distribution accordingly.

The Centralia Street Department agreed to provide barricades to block off an adjacent street so we would have adequate parking for emergency vehicles. They also provided orange traffic cones to help identify the 100' x 100' landing area from the air. Since it was possible that a delay might mean a night landing, ARES also purchased traffic flares and chemical lights just in case.

Also, the Centralia ARES group had just completed a one year project of creating an ARES communications vehicle and this event would be the first real test of its equipment. During its last training meeting before the exercise, the team went over safety procedures again, established where team members would park the communications vehicle, the fire department aid truck and a fire engine and marked the 100' x 100' landing zone. A simplex frequency was designated for all landing zone personnel. The team felt ready to make the exercise a success, but hadn't thought about the weather.

Exercise Commences

On the day of the event and in the middle of the storm, a text message to Fire Chief Kytta brought back the reply that they were ready to go if the weather permitted. As the storm passed, Riverside Fire Authority began their part of the exercise. Fire Department volunteers were dispatched to a simulated vehicle accident where the people in the car had been ejected from the vehicle. Fire Department personnel arrived on scene and began a search of the wooded area for victims. In this simulation, they were to locate four victims. One had minor injuries, two were "walking wounded," and one was in critical condition and would, as planned, need airlift out by medical helicopter to a trauma center.

As the drill progressed, Centralia ARES began setting up the landing zone and prepared to communicate with both the fire personnel and the aircraft. Riverside Fire and crews located their "victims" and began transporting them towards the landing zone after requesting the local 911 center call for a medical helicopter.

Inside the ARES communications vehicle, team members took updated information on the patient's condition from the aid crew in the field. It is approximately a 10 minute flight from the Olympia airport to the landing


Lyle Olmsted, KB7PI, waits to meet Airlift Northwest flight nurse. (photo courtesy KD7OWN)

zone and it was timed to have the fire department aid vehicle arrive at the landing zone a few minutes before the helicopter. As the fire truck and aid vehicle arrived and parked, ARES members could hear the aircraft approaching in the distance.

When the Airlift Northwest helicopter was in sight, the ARES aircraft communicator made contact and provided updated landing zone information that included wind direction, identifiable landmarks, landing zone coordinates and known hazards to the aircraft. In moments, the aircraft was circling the field and settling down to a safe landing.

Everyone waited as the helicopter shut down and the flight nurse got out and approached the fire department aid crew. They simulated patient transfer procedures and then everyone wa