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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 15, 2003--When a blip on the electricity distribution grid August 14 took out power to at least a half dozen states in the eastern US, many Amateur Radio operators were ready and able to provide whatever assistance they could. Hardest hit were metropolitan areas like New York City, Detroit and Cleveland. In New York, residents and commuters found themselves stranded in electricity-dependent elevators and subway or rail cars while visitors ended up stuck at airports, which were forced to shut down. With the cellular telephone system overloaded or out altogether, the incident turned into a test of Amateur Radio's capabilities to operate without commercial power.
"It was a good drill," said New York City-Long Island Section Emergency Coordinator Tom Carrubba, KA2D. But, he adds, it was a cautionary tale too. "The lesson is that everybody gets a little complacent," he said. "Have emergency power backup and make sure it's working!" Some repeaters in the blacked-out Greater New York City area--including the primary 147.000 "TAC 2" machine--were down, but several others remained on the air with emergency power.
By and large, Carrubba said, the system worked according to plan, and ARES members did what they were trained to do.
"It's going to show the worth of Amateur Radio," he said of the blackout response. "There were people on the air immediately."
Diane Ortiz, K2DO, the Public Information Coordinator for NYC-Long Island was one of them. When power went down in her Suffolk County community, she started up an informal net on the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club's 146.85 repeater. Over the next 20 hours or so, the net passed approximately 500 pieces of what Ortiz described as largely "health-and-welfare traffic." A lot of it was on behalf of individuals stuck in the city and needing to contact family members.
"People are getting on and helping," she said. In addition to handling messages, amateurs also relayed useful information, such as which stores or filling stations were open and operating. Many radio and TV stations went dark as a result of the power failure, and hams were able to help fill the information void, Ortiz said.
In the Big Apple itself, ARES New York City-Long Island District Emergency Coordinator Charles Hargrove, N2NOV, remained at the city's Red Cross Headquarters in Manhattan, where power was restored around 5 AM.
"There are some power fluctuations going on, and that is the main concern right now--that power may go off again," Hargrove told ARRL.
ARES support of Red Cross operations, which began yesterday, continues. ARES teams are providing communication for the Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) set up at main transportation centers in Manhattan--Grand Central Station, Penn Station and at the Port Authority Terminal. ARES members also accompanied ERVs called into action to follow New York Fire Department personnel on more than two dozen fire calls.
"After a long night of operations, some ARES members went home to get some rest around 6 AM," Hargrove said.
RACES organizations activated in most Greater New York City area counties after a state of emergency was declared. Some ARES teams--including a few across the Hudson River in New Jersey--activated or remained on standby to help if called upon. In New Jersey, a net set up on a back-up repeater established communication with the Red Cross lead chapter's N2ARC in Princeton--staffed by members of Mercer County ARES/RACES--and other New Jersey ARC chapters.
The state of emergency included five counties in northern new Jersey, said SEC Steve Ostrove, K2SO. He spent about four hours at the EOC in Elizabeth after the blackout began. "The Elizabeth Police were impressed with the information I was able to provide," he said. The net stood down at about 10 PM after telephone communication among the Red Cross chapters had been reestablished and power began to be restored.
In upstate New York, Fred Stevens, K2FRD, says the situation reminded him of the 1964 power blackout in the eastern US. "This is an emergency communicator's wildest fantasy: a major power outage in which we can demonstrate our preparedness," he said.
In his county, Chenango, ARES has been activated and the local EOC is staffed by Amateur Radio operators and the Chenango Amateur Radio Emergency Service net is up and running with stations on battery power and standing by. "We are ready for whatever might happen," Stevens said.
Comments posted on the HamsEF reflector by Ken Davis, KB2KFV, who's president of the Rensselaer, New York, County ARES/RACES Club reflected that attitude.
"It seems that the amateurs were better prepared than the government sector," he said. "Amateurs in this area were up and on the air before there was any response from local government." Davis said Rensselaer County EC and Chief RACES Officer Jim Noble, K2ZP, activated ARES and mustered a net on the Troy Radio Club RACES repeater, requesting stations to standby and monitor the frequency for updates.
Michigan Section Manager Dale Williams, WA8EFK, reports scattered ARES activations in his state. Williams, who lives in Dundee south of Detroit, was without power this morning and relying on his emergency generator. "It could be another 48 hours before power is restored," he said. Some ARES teams in Michigan were providing assistance to emergency operations centers and to the Red Cross, because the relief agency's telephone system relies on commercial power. Nets have been brought up on both HF and VHF frequencies.
In Ohio, Section Emergency Coordinator Larry Rain, WD8IHP, reports that all ARES organizations in northern Ohio were activated after the power grid went down. Still going strong are ARES teams in Cleveland and Akron--both still without power. "ARES is handling communication support for Ohio Emergency Management in the affected cities and communities," Rain said. Power has been restored in Toledo, however.
Rain reports a power surge that occurred when the electricity came back on disrupted the Richland County Hospital's telephone system. "Amateur Radio was there to provide back-up communication until 4:30 this morning," he said. Ohio VHF and UHF nets and the Ohio SSB net on HF have been handling blackout-related traffic.
Nancy Hall, KC4IYD--who lives 20 miles west of Cleveland--said she's glad of two things: That she had taken the ARRL Emergency Communications Level I class, and that she and her husband have an emergency generator. "We used it to run the fridge for about two hours and then used it to run the 2-meter rig and HF rig to listen to the ARES nets," she said.
She said she just received a follow-up survey on the emergency communications class that asked if she had used any of the information she learned.
"I can now say, 'yes,'" said Hall, who noted that she's now signed up for the Level II class.
"I will again highly recommend them to anyone who wants to learn more about emergency communication."
She and her husband also made use of their BayGen windup radio to listen to local broadcasts. "We also own a hand-crank flashlight," she added.
She said the family put aside drinking water early in the blackout--which turned out to be a good thing, because their community's emergency generator was only good for about two hours to run the water supply's pumps.
"I have to say that being a ham and knowing about emergency preparedness did make life easier for me and my family," Hall said.
New England states were far less affected by the blackout since most operate on an altogether different power grid than the one that failed. New England area ARES/RACES operators were in standby mode after the blackout rippled through the system to the south and west. Only Connecticut and sections of Western Massachusetts reported significant outages, and ARES nets activated in both states.
ARRL Eastern Massachusetts PIC Jim Duarte, N1IV, reports the ARES/RACES response in the Bay State was "quick and organized, showing that our recent drills and training sessions have proved beneficial."
Western Massachusetts SM Bill Voedisch, W1UD, reports the Leominster EOC was activated on a standby basis. Although he is equipped with a diesel-powered generator to supply his house and ham shack, his part of Massachusetts suffered no power losses.
Parts of Berkshire County in extreme western Massachusetts suffered from the blackout, although power was restored fairly promptly there. Bill Sexton, N1IN/AAR1FP, an Army MARS member, said his emergency power capability permitted him to run his station and maintain e-mail contact.
"We had the Northeast SHARES (National Communications System HF Shared Resources Program) up and running cross-country on a Condition Two readiness alert," Sexton said. He reports that when he called in on the SHARES channel, a MARS station in Nebraska responded to say he was ready to handle any relays.
"The experience proved once gain the great strength of ham radio in an emergency," Sexton said. "It is self-starting, and it is everywhere."--Steve Ewald, WV1X, contributed information for this story
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