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 Previous: NTIA Head Tips Hand on Agency's Additional BPL Findings |  Next: ARISS School Group Contact a First for Astronaut, Expedition 9 |
NEWINGTON, CT, May 26, 2004--From storm spotting through recovery
support, Amateur Radio operators were on duty this week, aiding tornado-stricken
communities in Nebraska and elsewhere in the Midwest. A May 22 tornado virtually
destroyed most structures and was blamed for one death in Hallam. With a population
of approximately 300 people, Hallam--some 20 miles south of Lincoln in
Lancaster County--calls itself "The Little Town with the Big Heart." ARRL
Nebraska Section Emergency Coordinator Reynolds Davis, K0GND, said Lancaster
County ARES/SKYWARN spotters activated the evening of May 22 in response to a
report of an approaching front. Within a half-hour, W0NWS at the National
Weather Service office in Valley already was receiving tornado damage reports
via the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club's K0KKV area-wide repeater.
 One of several tornados that touched down May 22 in Nebraska. [Matt Crowther Photo, courtesy of NWS] |
"When the system moved into Lancaster County shortly after 8:30 PM, it destroyed almost every structure in the town of Hallam," Davis said, leaving the residents homeless. The NWS rated the tornado that struck Hallam as an F-4 on the five-point Fujita Scale. Davis said that as the storm moved into southeastern Lancaster County, weather-spotter Larry Ohs, KC0LXQ, about a half-mile west of Hallam, reported winds in excess of 80 MPH. "The actual tornado passed just south of him and caused a great deal of damage to his car," Davis added.
The storm also severely damaged the high school in Norris and plucked the tower supporting the K0RPT repeater's south receiver from the ground. Davis said the tornado emptied the equipment cabinet, and the tower remains missing. The tornado went on to destroy additional homes to the northeast, and its path of destruction finally ended south of Bennet, he said.
More than 50 amateurs participated in the SKYWARN net, said Davis, who also serves as Lancaster County Emergency Coordinator. The National Weather Service Omaha office logged dozens of weather and storm-damage reports from radio amateurs in several Nebraska counties on May 22.
Once the SKYWARN Nets closed, the K0RPT VHF repeater was put into service to support Red Cross communications among the tornado scene, the chapter house and a shelter set up in a Lincoln high school for residents displaced by the storm. Two ARES nets activated May 23 to coordinate damage survey and assessment. Davis said one net on the K0KKV repeater focused on damage in southern Lancaster county west of US 77, while another on the N0FER repeater covered damage east of the highway.
 An example of the sort of damage wrought by the tornados that swept through southern Nebraska May 22. [Carl Morones, N0CRL/Lisa Morones, KC0KGW] |
"Operators were assigned to each county road within selected grids," he said. "Two operating positions at K0EOC at the Lancaster County Emergency Operations Center logged all damage reports received." Davis said that by the time both damage survey nets shut down, 41 operators had driven nearly 2200 miles and surveyed 100 square miles.
Nebraska Gov Mike Johanns declared a state of emergency in several of the state's counties after more than a dozen tornados swept across southern Nebraska. Davis said Johanns and US Sen Chuck Hagel accompanied Federal Emergency Management Agency officials led by FEMA Director Dick Hainje in touring Hallam May 24.
In Missouri, Grundy County EC Glen Briggs, KB0RPJ, reports that Amateur Radio groups in the northern part of the state served as storm spotters following a threat of severe weather. The hams relayed severe weather reports to the National Weather Service and to local emergency management and law enforcement officials.
"The hardest hit areas were near
Chillicothe and Brookfield," Briggs said." The K0MPT repeater in Chillicothe
was knocked off the air by the storms as a tornado passed near the repeater
site." He said the amateurs switched to backup repeaters and simplex channels
until power was restored. Some 18 operators in nine Missouri counties
participated, he said.
| Previous: NTIA Head Tips Hand on Agency's Additional BPL Findings | Next: ARISS School Group Contact a First for Astronaut, Expedition 9 |
