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 Previous: In Brief |  Next: ARRL Continuing Education Program Unveils Antenna Modeling Course |
The National Weather Service Kansas City/Pleasant Hill, Missouri, office was not spared from the recent winter storm. [NOAA Photo] |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 6, 2002--Some Amateur Radio Emergency Service teams activated in Missouri following an intense winter storm January 29-31 that cut off power to some 300,000 residents, many in the Kansas City area. The snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain affected west-central and north-central Missouri, knocking down utility lines and bending or snapping trees. As utility crews stepped in to restore electrical power and telephone service, dozens of shelters opened within the affected region to house victims left in the cold and dark. Gov Bob Holden declared a state of emergency in more than 30 Missouri counties.
Missouri Section Emergency Coordinator Patrick Boyle, K0JPB, reports that two ARES groups activated in his section. "Apparently, most of the radio and telephone systems are continuing to operate well," he said this week.
Boyle said that on January 31, Cass County Emergency Coordinator Irv Ostrich, WB7VQH--in one of the hardest hit areas--put his team on standby at the request of the County Office of Emergency Management. The team stood down the following day without incident, Boyle said.
Shelby County EC Thad Huff, KC0AQG, and his ARES team provided communication between the sheriff's office and the 911 dispatch center to the local water plant--which had one of the few working telephones in the area.
Boyle said Missouri ARES activated a special session of the Missouri Emergency Operations and Weather (MEOW) Net on January 30 and had checkins from Schuyler County in the northeastern corner of the state through McDonald County in the southwestern corner. "The nightly Missouri traffic net has also had additional check-ins with local weather reports," he said.
District A Emergency Coordinator Mike Bellinger, K0UAA, in west-central Missouri, reported that power to his home in Kansas City was restored February 5 after being out since the middle of the previous week.
A utility crew works on damaged lines along a Missouri roadway. [NOAA Photo] |
Buchanan County EC John Bowser Jr, N0YXG, reported that the St. Joseph area was handling the storm's aftermath well but was sending emergency utility crews to assist Kansas City with its recovery efforts.
Portions of Kansas also were affected by the severe weather, and a state of emergency was declared in some 20 counties there. Kansas SEC Joseph Plankinton, WD0DMV, said he'd received reports so far from three ARRL field appointees who did not have electricity and had lost their antennas--Kansas Section Traffic Manager and Linn County EC Ron Cowan, KB0DTI; Del Norte County EC Morris Bennett, WD0DDG, and Kansas Morning and Evening Weather Net Manager Louis Hayward, WB0YWZ.
Plankinton said February 5 that he had not yet heard from Kansas SM Orlan Cook, W0OYH, or from Alameda County EC June Jeffers, KB0WEQ. He also said he had not been apprised of any ARES activations in his section.
| Previous: In Brief | Next: ARRL Continuing Education Program Unveils Antenna Modeling Course |
