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 Previous: The K7RA Solar Update |  Next: Surfin': Take a Ride on the Wayback Machine |
NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 11, 2005--Amateur Radio volunteers continue to assist relief and recovery efforts in the wake of a November 6 tornado that left 22 people dead and hundreds injured. The twister, an F3 on the Fujita scale with winds of up to 200 MPH, originated within a line of thunderstorms that struck the region during the early morning hours. It cut a more than 40-mile swath through part of Kentucky and extreme southwestern Indiana, wiping out a section of a trailer park in Vanderburgh County where 18 of the fatalities occurred.
"It was like a thief in the night, striking and having no mercy for anyone or anything in its path," said Amateur Radio volunteer and police officer Bob Pointer, N9XAW. He said Amateur Radio initially assisted Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) in the field to communicate with their headquarters, a new facility where the communication system was not yet complete.
Pointer says Red Cross volunteer Terry Brooks, AA9MM, took the first ERV to the scene. "En route he contacted other hams to report to the center to take over net control," he said. "This was in operation for two days until the Red Cross established communications with their field units via their own methods."
Since then, Amateur Radio volunteers have been supporting relief activities of The Salvation Army, at the request of Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) National Director Maj Pat McPherson, WW9E. The need was to set up communication between mobile field and canteen units and The Salvation Army headquarters in Evansville.
"This was set up in no time," Pointer recounted. "Local hams were quick to turn on their radios to listen for calls for assistance. It did not take long to start receiving offers to volunteer." Calls from as far away as New York and other states came in with offers to volunteer, Pointer said. "It was truly a rewarding feeling. Thanks to the ARRL for putting out the call so quickly."
Pointer says that within hours of setting up, ARRL Section Manager Jim Sellers, K9ZBM, called to offer assistance and got the ball rolling. ARRL Indiana Section Emergency Coordinator David Pifer, N9YNF, contacted ARRL Headquarters to spread the word.
"ARRL Headquarters even called to check on us," Pointer said. "Everyone made the same offer: 'Tell us what you need and what we can do for you.' You see, your membership is more than a magazine a month. It is hams from all over the world ready to support you."
The Major Becomes a Ham Radio Fan
Pointer said the first day was fraught with "the usual confusion" and getting organized. "Local hams called on the repeater to offer assistance and were soon assigned to field stations," he said. "This was a good exercise in trying out the grab-it-and-go kits."
Three Salvation Army mobile kitchens and three field units have been deployed in Vandenburgh and Warrick counties, and Amateur Radio is supporting their relief activities. The daily routine involves moving food from a warehouse to mobile kitchens to feed tornado victims as well as the hundreds of volunteers deployed in several locations across a wide area. "Traffic consists of requests for supplies, messages to workers and important notices to all staff volunteers," Pointer reports.
With electricity out everywhere in the area, Pointer said, mobile operation became the norm. "As time goes on," he added, "relief workers will be utilized to give existing crews a break, and to allow newer hams a chance to participate and learn."
Pointer says even though The Salvation Army teams had cell phones available to them, Amateur Radio's communication capabilities won them over. "In at least two locations of the field units, there was no cell phone coverage," he pointed out. "In locations where cell phones worked, the circuits were often busy and unreliable." The Salvation Army workers could simply give a message to the Amateur Radio volunteer on duty and it would get sent quickly and reliably.
"Without hams they had to look up cell phone numbers on hastily written notepapers, remember who was where and when they worked, and try to dial it on a tiny keypad," Pointer said. He recalled one incident where a Salvation Army major was trying to contact a field unit but could not get through. The ham radio net control op volunteered to try, and with one call the unit answered and the traffic was handled.
"The
major was a believer after that," Pointer said.
"The Technical Stuff"
"Our initial station was my grab-it-and-go kit: A dualband transceiver, a deep-cycle battery, a homemade dualband J-pole, military surplus mast and a 100-foot roll of RG-8X," Pointer recalled. He erected an antenna on the lawn of the Evansville Salvation Army headquarters, guyed with bright yellow nylon cord, and the coax was routed through a side door.
"The radio was set up in a briefing room and, presto!, you have a station set up in 30 minutes," Pointer continued. "It didn't take long to remember to dig out the headphones while they were having a meeting. Our club had talked about such portable field equipment and had encouraged everyone to have it ready. Well, it sure worked out!"
Pointer said each member who called in initially could report to a location, set up and be handling traffic within 20 minutes of arrival.
One problem: The club's wide-coverage repeater was taken out last year when a wind shear incident brought down the state police tower where it had been mounted. The back-up repeater, a low-power unit on the roof of a local hospital, would not fill the needs of the wide geographical area involved, and handheld transceivers "were out of the question," Pointer said.
Local radio amateur and electronics shop owner James Utley, KC9EMT, learned of the problem and pulled a Kenwood repeater from his inventory, programmed it and delivered it to the club for the volunteers' use. Pointer and Brooks took it to a remote receiver site and put it on the VHF antenna.
"That unit saved the day," Pointer said. "Solid copy from almost everywhere on a handheld. Now the field hams did not have to be tethered to their mobile units." One of the volunteers in the field who had to communicate over some distance configured a spare transceiver as a crossband repeater so he could move about his area using the mobile to link back to net control. "That is what Amateur Radio is all about," Pointer said, "using what you have to face the challenge and get the job done."
Pointer said he expected the Amateur Radio tornado relief support operation to continue at least through week's end and possibly longer. He said the hams have been checking in with the local Federal Emergency Management Office each day to provide updates and get information.
Communications Pool
Pointer says local radio amateurs consider themselves to be a pool of communicators. "When someone calls for assistance, we--the local ham community--respond. Club affiliation is not considered. All local clubs help each other." Any organization that requests assistance receives help from all hams in the area.
"I am privileged to work with a great bunch of people down here," he concluded.
Kentucky Response
Kentucky SEC Ron Dodson, KA4MAP, says SKYWARN was active as the storms approached early last Sunday. "I had our Amateur Radio net going with National Weather Service (NWS) Louisville and monitored those in the counties west of me as it approached," he told ARRL. SKYWARN nets were active in Daviess and Hancock counties.
On the Kentucky side, Breckinridge, Grayson and Meade counties west of Louisville were active with the linked Wide Area Repeaters Net (WARN) as the storms moved eastward, Dodson said. NWS Louisville's amateur station WX4NWS was staffed for three hours as the storms moved across counties on both sides of the Ohio River. "Their operators were Pete Womack, KF4VCC, and Mark Jarvis, KI4KGY, who both did an excellent job moving around the 2-meter and 440 bands to find info on the hot spots," Dodson noted.
"Any emergency manager can quickly see the advantage of Amateur
Radio for both early warning and response," he continued. "It gave my county
almost an hour to evaluate the threat, make decisions and then to alert
personnel for pre-deployment in case of the worst. As the storms passed over,
we had lots of trained eyes and ears on guard--amateur and public safety. You
can't ask for more than that!"
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