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 Previous: Hams Continue to Aid Hurricane Ivan Recovery and Cleanup |  Next: Morse Family Meets Members of Warminster ARC |
 John Brown, KE4HIE--one of many volunteers--staffs the Amateur Radio station at the Covington County, Alabama, Emergency Operations Center. He relayed information to the NWS Office in Mobile and to the State EOC in Clanton. Brown also assisted in relaying information from stations still on the air in the Florida Panhandle. [KG4CNA Photo] |
 Hurricane Ivan laid waste to entire neighborhoods in the Florida Panhandle. |
 Storm damage at the home of John Brown, KE4HIE, in Andalusia, Alabama. [KB4FSK Photo] |
 As a tropical storm, Ivan dumped a lot of rain in the Tennessee Valley, particularly across northeast Alabama. The West Fork Little River flooded well out of its banks in Desoto State Park. The river at this area is normally just 3 feet wide. [NOAA |
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 22, 2004--Amateur Radio's role in the Hurricane Ivan relief and recovery effort is winding down as conventional telecommunications systems are slowly being restored throughout the stricken regions--primarily the Florida Panhandle and South Alabama. ARRL Northern Florida Section Traffic Manager Dale Sewell, N4SGQ, this week said Amateur Radio communication support operations are expected to stand down by this weekend.
"The request for additional operators for assistance in the Hurricane Ivan affected area is discontinued," he said. "Thanks to all who have helped in this critical operation."
Sewell told ARRL that he was gratified and inspired by the response to the calls for assistance over the past week since Hurricane Ivan struck. He noted that several of the radio amateurs who turned out to assist in Northern Florida were from the ARRL West Central Florida and Southern Florida sections. Among them were some of the same individuals and groups that had helped after hurricanes Charley and Frances.
Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were among the most severely affected in Northern Florida. Amateur Radio Emergency Service volunteers there have been supporting American Red Cross and The Salvation Army relief operations as well as food distribution centers and evacuation centers.
Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, says Hurricane Ivan reports continue to trickle in from South Alabama, where the cleanup and recovery continue, although Alabama Emergency Net Manager Chris Sells, AC4CS, says parts of Mobile and Baldwin counties remain flooded and inaccessible. He says devastation was nearly total in some areas.
"A lot of places that were there are not," he told ARRL. "For example, Gulf Shores is there, but it's not Gulf Shores anymore."
Sells said HF nets aided local Amateur Radio relief and recovery communication by providing a link from the hard-hit areas to the state emergency operations center near Birmingham. He said net members have stood down from continuous operation but are still monitoring 3965 kHz in case anything comes up.
The National Traffic System in South Alabama still was not taking any health-and-welfare inquiries, Sells said, because "they're just not equipped to do it." Inquiries now in the system are being held until the situation settles down and they can be passed, and with emergency traffic now slowing, Sells thinks the H&W traffic will start to flow. The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) on 14.265 MHz has been handling some H&W traffic as it is able, on the air and via its Web site.
Significant damage also occurred in central and northern Alabama, where high winds felled trees and power lines, and heavy rains caused flooding. The storm also spawned some tornadoes.
Sarratt reports that a federal disaster declaration covers nearly half of the state's 67 counties. More than 14,000 Alabamans took refuge in the nearly 150 shelters, and many remain there. More than 1 million households were left without electrical power, and dozens of roads had to be closed to traffic.
Sells
said he believes that storm damage and a lack of available power at Amateur
Radio stations in South Alabama has inhibited traffic from that region.
"Alabama has not seen a major hurricane of this magnitude in about 25
years--not since Hurricane Frederick in 1979," he said.
| Previous: Hams Continue to Aid Hurricane Ivan Recovery and Cleanup | Next: Morse Family Meets Members of Warminster ARC |
