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 Previous: Surfin': Distaff Amateur Radio | ![Next (later) Story](/images/sty-up.gif "Federal Grant Augments "Ham Aid" Fund for Hurricane Volunteers"){kind=small} Next: Federal Grant Augments "Ham Aid" Fund for Hurricane Volunteers |
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 26, 2006--Amateur Radio volunteers have been utilizing a variety of modes, including HF, VHF-UHF Winlink and VoIP, to pass critical Hurricane Rita-related traffic. HF net frequencies remain busy with traffic related to the emergency. The West Gulf ARES Emergency Net continues 24-hour operation on 7.285 MHz days/3.873 MHz evenings, with health-and-welfare traffic taking place on 7.290 MHz days/3.935 MHz evenings. The Salvation Army Team Emergency Net (SATERN) has been activating at 1400 UTC daily on 14.265 MHz and monitoring for emergency requests. All amateurs are requested to keep these HF net frequencies clear for Hurricane Rita emergency operations.
South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Jerry Reimer, KK5CA, who lives in the Houston area, reports that the telecommunication infrastructure in the Houston metro area seemed to be in pretty good shape in Rita's wake. Reimer says his telephone, electrical and Internet services were back up and running as of Sunday morning, September 25, as evacuees from the city slowly made their way back home.
Authorities were not yet allowing residents or relief agencies into some of the hardest-hit communities in Texas and Louisiana. Reports say downed trees and flooding are the primary reasons authorities are keeping out residents and relief agencies. Amateur Radio operators were among those who evacuated before the storm struck. As of Sunday, officials were restricting reentry to the Texas counties of Jefferson--where Beaumont and Port Arthur are located--and Orange. Because potential ham radio volunteers were among the evacuees, it's not known yet what Amateur Radio assistance will be needed for those areas.
"Included in the mandatory evacuation areas were five ARES emergency coordinators, one district emergency coordinator and nearly all their ARES registrants," Reimer noted. "To the surprise of many people, mandatory evacuation orders also applies to Amateur Radio operators, which left some key facilities short of their last-minute expectations."
He said it also left some county emergency operations centers (EOCs) without operators, although the EOC staffs knew this ahead of time.
"ARES was unable to meet a last-minute request for an HF station at the state DEM (Department of Emergency Management) regional Disaster District Committee," Reimer said. "Activation of the DDC-dedicated state RACES group met with similar result."
Reimer says an ARES volunteer from Austin hauled his travel trailer 150 miles to meet the request. Not permitted inside the building, he fired up on HF from the mobile station in his pickup truck.
Many ARES operators who had been positioned in advance at critical facilities in the Greater Houston area--including police substations and hospitals--have been released, Reimer reported over the weekend. ARES operators remained on-duty at the state EOC in Austin, Harris County EOC, Houston Emergency Center, and state DEM regional headquarters (DDC).
Late Saturday afternoon, Harris County emergency management was requesting that ARES provide reports of traffic volume on major highways leading into Harris County. "The procedure to accomplish this was developed by DEC Ken Mitchell, KD2KW, and sent via Winlink to the North and South Texas SMs for e-mail distribution to ARRL members," Reimer said.
The traffic routes of interest are US Route 59 (Humble, Kingwood, Porter, Cleveland, Livingston, Lufkin), Interstate 45 (Spring, The Woodlands, Conroe, Huntsville, Madisonville, Buffalo), US Highway 290 (Cypress, Waller, Hempstead, Chappel Hill, Brenham) and Interstate 10 (Katy, Brookshire, Sealy, Columbus)
Radio clubs and ARES groups in each of these areas were being asked to form teams of local operators to report Houston bound traffic volumes by counting the number of cars on these routes for a six-minute period, once per hour.
"Winlink proved highly useful at the Harris County EOC, even though there was reliable Internet and e-mail," Reimer said. "The primary mail server also hosts the OEM Web server, a key source of information for citizens, greatly slowing the system."
In Williamson County, Texas, Tom Whiteside, N5TW, said the county EOC was staffed with ARES members and equipped with Paclink and voice capabilities. "At one point as hospitals saturated, we were asked to activate one of the hospitals," he said. "We had installed a Telpac/Paclink node and 2-meter voice setup there a few weeks ago and were able to have that going in just a few minutes. Winlink worked flawlessly."
In Louisiana, radio amateurs who live north of Interstate 10 were reported to be returning home and getting back on the air to confront any communication needs. Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, told ARRL Sunday that southwestern Louisiana was not requesting outside assistance from Amateur Radio operators at this point. DEC Alan Levine, WA5LQZ, in Lake Charles weathered the storm and was trying to get back on the air. He was said to be checking over the weekend with local governments--many relocated to other areas--to determine needs before ARES members were deployed from other areas of Louisiana. Stratton says Louisiana's 800-MHz trunking system managed to stay up through Rita.
ARRL Public Service Team Leader Steve Ewald, WV1X, says the situation is changing by the hour. "At the moment, it sounds like radio amateurs from the affected areas and those there now are handling the communication needs for the served agencies," he said. "As areas that were strongly hit by Rita begin to open up and folks can start to go into those areas to clean up and sort things out, then there's a chance of a call for volunteers from outside the region."
ARRL Maxim Memorial Station W1AW was up and running over the weekend to assist on HF if needed. As it turned out, the Hurricane Rita emergency provided some first-hand, real-life emergency communication experience for participants in the annual ARRL workshop for new section managers he was conducting.
"The SMs from the workshop were monitoring with me in the W1AW conference room," Ewald said, "including Arkansas SM David Norris, K5UZ, who got to talk with his SEC, JM Rowe, N5XFW."
The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) on 14.325 MHz secured operation Saturday at 1700 UTC after Rita had been downgraded to a tropical storm. The net works in conjunction with WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center in Miami to relay ground-level weather data to forecasters.
"Without the EchoLink and IRLP modes used on the VoIP Hurricane Net we would not have received some of these vital reports," said WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R. Commented VoIP Hurricane Net Manager Rob Macedo, KD1CY: "The ability to connect EchoLink PC users, EchoLink and IRLP repeaters and links via the same system offers a large amount of flexibility to obtain reports from Amateurs in the affected area including Amateurs who do not have HF privileges."
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