Training
tip for 5-3-06
In
the earliest phases of many disasters, there is usually no immediate need for
emcomm services, although widespread or intense disasters, such as earthquakes
and tornados are obvious exceptions. Sometimes you’ll get advance warning, if
it’s a weather-related emergency, for example. The local National Weather
Service Skywarn net on 146.76 MHz in Columbus is the place to tune when severe
weather threatens, and we can form our own weather net on 146.88 when
necessary. Listening there can prompt you to be ready to deploy if it looks
like your emcomm services will be needed. Once a served agency puts out a call,
you and other volunteers will swing into action. Locations will be decided upon
by the served agency and the ARES EC and Assistant EC’s.
Rapid
Response Teams – those hams with VHF gear and a small but ready go-kit, might
be deployed to provide a quick but minimal response, and be on the air, ready
to pass traffic almost immediately. They would be backed up by a more robust
effort by hams with more gear and provisions a few hours later. A resource net
or logistics net might be established on another frequency to handle incoming
emcomm volunteers and direct them where they’re most needed.
Once
operations begin, chaos and confusion might reign for a while. The volume of
messages may grow quickly as emergency officials and the public begin to
realize the extent of the disaster. You’ll have more than emcomm to think about.
ARES will need to provide for replacement operators when fatigue sets in. Food,
water, sleeping facilities, batteries, fuel for generators, and replacement
gear for whatever fails will need to be arranged. The logistics challenge may
escalate quickly. ARES and served agencies will need to provide for the needs
of the ham volunteers.
Emcomm
assignments might include staffing one or more shelters, shadowing emergency
officials to act as their communications link, gathering weather information,
passing damage reports, passing messages regarding logistical and resource
needs of served agencies, and handling health and welfare inquiries, both
incoming and outgoing. In a widespread and serious disaster, after emergency
and priority traffic is passed, only outgoing health and welfare messages, from
those in the disaster zone to loved ones outside, will be allowed. Later, when
that is taken care of, incoming health and welfare inquiries from loved one
outside the disaster zone to those inside, can be accommodated. The reason for
this order is that in the chaos of a disaster zone, it’s much more difficult to
contact or find the message recipients than it is to find their loved ones
outside the disaster zone.
You,
as an emcomm volunteer, need to remain flexible. Nets will be established and
shut down as needs change. Your assignments will vary from hour to hour and
minute to minute. The old expression “painting a moving train” describes this
activity quite well. Stress levels will be high, but you need to stay cool. As
the emergency gets under control and normal communications methods are
gradually restored to handle the traffic, the net activity diminishes and the
nets are finally deactivated.
You
can bet that the disaster services agencies will conduct extensive reviews and
analysis of what they did right and wrong in order to be better prepared in the
future. ARES, likewise, will review and analyze the effectiveness of the emcomm
activity. This task should be done soon after the disaster, while it is still fresh
in everyone’s mind. Constructive critique of the events can greatly improve
ARES’s effectiveness next time the “big one hits.”