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 Previous: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters for the Period Ending Oct 18, 2003 |  Next: A One-Hour, No-Solder Code Practice Oscillator |
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 29, 2003--Ham radio volunteers continue to play a role in the ongoing fire emergency in Southern California. A dozen fires, some of them massive, now have burned some 600,000 acres and claimed 16 lives, most of them in the hard-hit San Diego area. Thousands of residents have been evacuated. ARRL San Diego Section Manager Kent Tiburski, K6FQ, says a shift in winds has moved the fire danger away from San Diego proper, but hams continue to supplement communication at two of nine shelters in the area--one at Mountain Empire and a second in Borrego Springs, where hams from Imperial County have been assisting.
"We've been busy," Tiburski said October 29. "This is by far the worst disaster we've ever experienced." He estimated that approximately 200 Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) volunteers have participated so far in the fire emergency with about 100 in the field at any given time.
Tiburski says hams have been assisting American Red Cross relief efforts, primarily in terms of logistics and working with damage assessment teams. Others have provided liaison between the California Department of Forestry and the Red Cross, which is providing meals and shelter for firefighters. Nearly 13,000 firefighters and support personnel have been deployed in California to battle the fires.
The fires have claimed nearly 1200 homes in San Diego County alone, Tiburski reported, and burned some 450,000 acres. "Everybody I've talked with knows someone personally or knows of someone who has lost a house," he said. Mount Palomar--home of the famous observatory--was evacuated, Tiburski said, and firefighters were making a special effort to protect telecommunications sites there as well.
Although the hot, dry Santa Ana winds have abated, Tiburski notes that a stiff onshore breeze is now driving the fires to the east.
San Diego Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) Coordinator Paul Cook, N6RPF, reports he and other SATERN members have been providing communication assistance for The Salvation Army's relief efforts. They've had help from other amateurs as well, he said.
At least a half-dozen Salvation Army emergency disaster services canteens are providing meals to evacuees and firefighters. SATERN National Director Pat McPherson, WW9E, said SATERN is keeping relief teams in contact with each other as well as supporting communication for firefighters, police and emergency responders.
Elsewhere in California, ARRL Orange Section Manager Carl Gardenias, WU6D, says that Amateur Radio operators continue working with relief agencies in that part of the state. "We actually have more Amateur Radio operators available than the Red Cross shelters can use," he said. With ARES teams and other ham radio volunteers from Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties available, the hams have been able to rotate shifts.
"The intensity of these fires has never been at this level before," Gardenias said, comparing the current situation with fire emergencies in the recent past.
At the Red Cross shelters--where more and more displaced people are showing up--hams have been "shadowing" shelter managers, communicating shelter supply requests, and helping with health-and-welfare inquiries for shelter clients, Gardenias said. Amateur Radio also is serving to keep shelters in touch with the Red Cross regional headquarters.
At least 1000 evacuees are taking refuge in a former TWA hangar at the San Bernardino airport.
Amateur Radio SSTV equipment was being used to assist firefighters in San Bernardino. The radio equipment and operators go out on the fire trucks and report what they see back to the command center, Gardenias explained.
In the Los Angeles Section SM Phineas Icenbice, W6BF, reports the Stevenson Ranch fires and Arrowhead are the "very hot spots," and firefighting helicopters and crews are using water from nearby Magic Mountain Amusement Park and from golf courses to help douse the flames. Smoke was heavy October 29 in the San Fernando Valley where Icenbice lives.
Amateur Radio operators also are assisting at Red Cross shelters in the Los Angeles area as well as helping the relief agency to locate and establish new shelters. Icenbice said the problem areas appear to be the outer areas of Los Angeles County and in the mountains. Hams have been helping to locate people left homeless because of the fires.
California Gov Gray Davis has declared states of emergency in five counties.--Steve Ewald, WV1X, contributed information for this report
| Previous: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters for the Period Ending Oct 18, 2003 | Next: A One-Hour, No-Solder Code Practice Oscillator |
