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 Previous: Ham Radio Supporting Flood Relief in Appalachian Communities |  Next: Late May Weather Keeps Kentucky ARES, SKYWARN Hopping |
NEWINGTON, CT, Jun 3, 2004--Georgia Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) members were drilling May 25 to assist state and federal agencies with this month's G8 Summit on Sea Island when a real emergency broke out. With much of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) staff deployed to the Georgia coast--some 250 miles away from their Atlanta headquarters--for the drill, a fire broke out in a pool and spa chemical plant in Conyers, an Atlanta suburb.
"We were handling routine drill traffic when we learned that an actual emergency had occurred," said Georgia Section Emergency Coordinator Mike Boatright, KO4WX. The fire had begun just before dawn, but the ARES drill participants didn't learn about it until a dense cloud of toxic smoke a half-mile wide and eventually some 30 miles long forced the closing of I-20 during morning rush hour and the evacuation of hundreds of residents from an approximately five-square mile area, primarily in Conyers.
Georgia Section Emergency Coordinator Mike Boatright, KO4WX (foreground) and Southeast District Emergency Coordinator Jim Cote, N4PJR, operate HF and VHF from the GEMA mobile communications vehicle during the G8 drill. [Jacob Trujillo, KI4BVN, Photo] |
David Wagner, KG4WVP, uses his battery-powered 2-meter jump kit to pass shelter-related traffic from Heritage High School in Conyers. [Tim Rosing, KC4ELV, Photo] |
James Wiseman, KF4ASC, provide 2-meter communication from the City of Conyers Command Center. [Tim Rosing, KC4ELV, Photo] |
Earl Immel, KD4SLT (left), and Mike Lamb, WB9TBY, at the City of Conyers Command Center. [Tim Rosing, KC4ELV, Photo] |
Because the emergency required resources from Rockdale, Dekalb and Gwinnett counties as well as from state and federal agencies, GEMA--in the midst of its full-up preparedness drill for the G8--had to respond, Boatright said. "As is typical in the early stages of a HAZMAT (hazardous materials) incident, there was conflicting information about evacuations and other critical information." Boatright said the relocated GEMA staff had communication capabilities, but the Amateur Radio link to the City of Conyers command center was considered reliable--and one not yet established by conventional telephone circuits.
While still in drill session, Boatright said, the net handled priority traffic between the command center and GEMA officials, assisting GEMA to assess how to respond to the event. Boatright says HF contact was established between the GEMA MCV and Earl Immel, KD4SLT, in Rockdale County. Immel was later dispatched directly to the command center.
"For approximately one hour, the ARES net moved from drill session to emergency session at GEMA's request," Boatright said, "until it was asked to stand down once it was assessed that the threat of a communications emergency had passed."
On the local level, at around 5 AM, Rockdale County ARES member Leonard Thorne, KG4SED, had called Emergency Coordinator Tim Rosing, KC4ELV, to tell him a huge gray cloud was hovering above the city and something was wrong. Once it was determined there was a fire at the Bio-Lab chemical plant, Rockdale ARES went on alert to help with a possible evacuation operation.
At 9:15 AM, Conyers Emergency Communications Director Trish Woodward, WA4ZOT, requested that Rosing's team establish communications between the two shelters and the city's command center. A little later communications were requested for a back-up command center several miles south of the city, since the cloud threatened to force the city's primary command center to evacuate. The cloud shifted, however, and the relocated dispatchers were recalled.
At midday the cloud threatened the local hospital for a short time, but a shift in wind headed off the need to evacuate.
The emergency ended the next day, May 26, at 2:15 PM , when authorities reopened the restricted area and allowed residents to return home.
During the local ARES callup, Rosing says 25 amateurs from Rockdale, Newton and DeKalb county ARES groups logged more than 226 work hours. ARES volunteers in the shelters and command center handled health-and-welfare requests, food distribution, special care/medicine coordination and shelter capacity information requests. Some 800 evacuees received care and housing at the shelters during the emergency.
"In his post-drill assessment meeting with GEMA staff, GEMA State Operations Center Chief Dan Brown took special notice of the role of Amateur Radio during the drill, as well as of our ability to quickly respond to an actual disaster at the same time," Boatright said.
Georgia ARES and the G8 Summit
Each year, leaders from the world's major industrial democracies gather for the "Group of Eight"--or G8--summit. This year's summit takes place on Georgia's Sea Island, June 8-10. The G8 Summit has been designated as a National Special Security Event (NSSE), and the US Secret Service is the lead agency for the design and implementation of the operational security plan.
"Georgia ARES has been working closely with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and local emergency management agencies on the Georgia Coast to provide backup communications and monitoring capabilities and to provide consequence management should the need occur," says Boatright.
Georgia ARES will go on full alert June 5 at 8 AM and remain on full alert through the conclusion of the G8 Summit June 10. ARES members will be active in Savannah, St Simons Island, Atlanta, and most coastal counties.
"Because of violent protests at similar conferences in the past and due to increased threat from terrorist activities and our capabilities to provide backup communications and monitoring on behalf of law enforcement," Boatright says, "ARES preparations have gotten strong support from our served agencies."
| Previous: Ham Radio Supporting Flood Relief in Appalachian Communities | Next: Late May Weather Keeps Kentucky ARES, SKYWARN Hopping |
