ARRL President Urges Orderly Amateur Radio Response in Katrina Recovery

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 1, 2005--ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, today called on the Amateur Radio community to exercise patience as the Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans flooding relief and recovery efforts move into high gear.

"I know many people would like to move now," Haynie said. "Please don't. I know many of you want to enter the fray, come to the coast and get involved. Please, not yet." Haynie instead advised hams eager to assist to make sure they're prepared, refresh their skills and knowledge of protocols and procedures and let emergency management and relief agencies determine who is needed and where.

"For now, the area is simply too dangerous and no one is being allowed in," Haynie went on to say. "Transportation and logistics, including volunteer groups coming in, must be done in an orderly manner or we may only add to the chaos and confusion." He recommended that ARES members and teams work through their Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs).

"Information and coordination for such a historically large response is being developed and will be made available soon," he said.

Haynie also reminded volunteers to be "professional and disciplined" whenever checking into a net. "Net control is a difficult job at best, so be respectful," he said. "If you have traffic fine, but if not , please stand by."

Meanwhile, Amateur Radio operators have been deployed from Houston, Texas, to New Orleans to assist in the trouble-plagued evacuation of flooding refugees from the Louisiana Superdome. Because of additional flooding, damage to the facility and other problems at the Superdome, authorities have been convoying the 25,000 flood evacuees in the sports stadium to the Houston Astrodome.

Louisiana Section Emergency Coordinator Gary Stratton, K5GLS, says ham radio communication between Houston and the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, emergency operations center (EOC) today was able to clarify some logistical issues involved with the refugee relocation effort. "They needed ETAs and that sort of thing, because they needed police escorts to go with the convoy," he said. "They were also working with the management at the Superdome and police support for the people that are being moved in there."

While Amateur Radio is providing scattered support in Louisiana for various relief organizations, Stratton said most of the hams' efforts so far have gone toward assisting with emergency management and search-and-rescue operations. He says he has ARES members ready to roll once state authorities reopen the hardest-hit parishes that have been closed off to outsiders.

"We have people on standby from all over northern Louisiana and from the South Texas Section basically champing at the bit trying to find out when they can go," Stratton told ARRL. "It's a very tough wait."

Volunteers have been or will be deployed into the areas that are not cordoned off, he said. "People are beginning to come back up," to he said, referring to radio amateurs who were themselves storm victims. Stratton says Louisiana Assistant SM Mike King, W5MP, rode out the storm at a hospital on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, from which he's been providing communication. "He basically lost everything down there," Stratton said, "but he's carrying health-and-welfare traffic out of Slidell at this point and also coming up to the tactical frequency from time to time."

Stratton said most of the emergency activity has been on HF, as repeaters were knocked out or have exhausted emergency power resources. He noted that some systems north of Lake Pontchartrain were coming back on line, however, as power is restored. ARES volunteers from Bossier and Caddo parishes are being deployed into areas that are still open.

"We're handling a lot of traffic from down there that ends up being made by cell phones from people in the affected area to relatives to people up here in Shreveport," Stratton explained, "and they call the 911 center in the Bossier area, and we have a radio link from our EOC to Bossier." From there the traffic goes onto the HF net.

Mississippi

Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX, in Vicksburg, told ARRL today that ARES members have been active in the three hardest-hit counties--Harrison, Hancock and Jackson. Assistant Mississippi SM Edwin Franks, AD5IS, reported this week that people have been calling him to get information about friends and relatives in the stricken area. District Emergency Coordinator Thomas Hammack, W4WLF, in Gulfport, has been among those volunteering at the Harrison County EOC.

Amateurs in the three counties have been using HF, VHF and UHF resources to support emergency management as well as the Red Cross, The Salvation Army and the Baptist Men's Kitchen. Amateurs also have been handling considerable health-and-welfare traffic, Keown said.

Alabama

In combination with his role as an ARES member, Alabama SM Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, is volunteering at a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Organization encampment on his state's hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast--and he's using his vacation time to do it. Sarratt is planning to spend the rest of the week in Mobile supporting communication for the Red Cross, The Salvation Army and Southern Baptist relief organizations who are helping to feed flood victims and supply them with necessities.

"There's still a lot of power outages, still a lot of damage--trees down, roads blocked, a lot of streets under water in the downtown Mobile area, and a lot of people who don't have food, electricity or phones here," Sarratt told ARRL. "Until I got down here, I didn't know the magnitude of the Mobile situation." He said Amateur Radio volunteers at the encampment, who include Jim Garrison, KL0LN, are coordinating on HF with Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN, and providing logistical communication support for Red Cross emergency response vehicles on VHF FM simplex.

Sarratt says he's planning to head to Mississippi and Louisiana's ravaged coastal areas over the holiday weekend to help out ARES volunteers already there. "Those guys down there have found massive devastation--no power, no cell phones." As Hurricane Katrina approached Monday, Sarratt was at the National Weather Service office in Huntsville.

Nets

The West Gulf ARES Emergency Net--organized under an agreement among Louisiana, Mississippi and South Texas sections--remains active on 7.285 MHz days and 3.873 MHz nights, handling emergency and priority traffic only. The net has been operating 24/7 according to Keown. Health-and-welfare traffic is being handled on 7.290 MHz days and 3.935 MHz nights. Stratton said he'd heard that some 40,000 health-and-welfare requests had been received via Amateur Radio already, but no way to deliver them at this point. "We've not had anything like this, and it was so widespread," he said.

The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) on 14.265 MHz has begun concentrating on emergency and priority traffic and shuttling health-and-welfare requests to its Web site. As of this morning, SATERN reported it had received more than 12,000 health-and-welfare requests, most via the Web site, and it's had to update its server to handle the overwhelming volume of requests. The Salvation Army also is using Amateur Radio for its tactical communications.

SATERN National Net Director Jim Adams, WA0LSB, says the net is activating daily at 1400 UTC and continuing until 20 meters closes. "We estimate that approximately 1000 Amateur Radio operator operators are checking into the SATERN net each day," he said. "Most of them have traffic and are an excellent source for relays and traffic handling. Each day, we are able to pass many pieces of traffic." He said QRM and jamming problems have been minimal so far.

The American Red Cross advises it's also handling health-and-welfare inquiries via its toll-free "Get Info" hotline, 866-GET INFO (866-438-4636).

Radio amateurs not involved in emergency communication are being asked to keep the West Gulf Emergency Net and SATERN frequencies clear, plus or minus 5 kHz. ARRL advises that stations not initiate any additional traffic into the storm-affected areas at this time, since the primary activity is focused on supporting ongoing search-and-rescue, relief and recovery operations.

Statement from ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP. My fellow Amateur Radio Operators: There is no doubt that the recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina will be the largest and longest emergency actions that hams have ever undertaken. It will also be one of the hardest, not simply due to the large areas involved, but also because many of us have friends and relatives directly impacted by this catastrophe. For them, and all the people of the Gulf region, we ask divine aid and comfort in this time of sorrows. But we are also hardened and resolved to turn this event into one of the most glorious opportunities to show the unique attributes of ham radio--it works! You know that. We can again show the world that we have the best trained, most ingenious and dedicated ARES and RACES operators ever in history. We have the attention of the world press, and we will show what ham radio can do. This will not happen in a week, not even in a month. The recovery efforts will be drawn out over numerous states and are expected to go well into the winter. Hams will grow weary and need relief and replacement from all across America. The ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio, is already working on strategic plans to make it possible for these volunteers to come. Our goal is to provide the SECs with all the support we can muster and allow them to do their jobs. There is a curious coincidence in the fact that the United Technologies grant, which allowed the ARRL to train so many thousands of hams in emergency communications, ends this week. Now we are seeing the results of that effort. Disciplined hams, using correct procedures have already saved many lives, and will save hundreds more by providing timely, accurate and critical communications to our served agencies. To the students, mentors, organizers, funders and teachers of those courses we can only say, "Well done!" I know many people would like to move now. Please don't. I know many of you want to enter the fray, come to the coast and get involved. Please, not yet. Instead, get yourself ready. Refresh your skills and knowledge of protocols and procedures. Once the agencies are able to complete a preliminary needs assessment, we will know who is needed and where. For now, the area is simply too dangerous and no one is being allowed in. Transportation and logistics, including volunteer groups coming in, must be done in an orderly manner or we may only add to the chaos and confusion. Information and coordination for such a historically large response is being developed and will be made available soon. But for now, work through your SECs and follow their lead. I would also ask that you be professional and disciplined whenever checking into an HF net. Net control is a difficult job at best, so be respectful. If you have traffic fine, but if not, please stand by. There is already no doubt that when the history of this event is written, the role of Amateur Radio will be one of honor. Unpaid volunteers who came through for their country and communities when all other systems failed or were overwhelmed. By working together and mutually supporting each other, we can perhaps give these very dark days a small glint of glory. Let these be the days that hams, decades from now, remember with pride. Together we can--and will--make it happen because, after all, we are hams.

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