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![Previous (earlier) Story](/images/sty-down.gif "Riley Hollingsworth to Amateur Radio Community: "Lighten up!""){kind=small} Previous: Riley Hollingsworth to Amateur Radio Community: "Lighten up!" |  Next: SuitSat-1: Round and Round It Goes, When It'll Drop, Nobody Knows |
REVISED May 25, 2006 08:21 ET
 Matt Chaves, KB1FLH, types an ARES activation report at the Peabody chapter of the American Red Cross. |
 Dave Belsky, K1DBB, Red Cross Communications Officer, looks on while Jim Palmer, KB1KQW, and Matt Dempsey, KB1MRH, coordinate the activation from the Beverly chapter of the American Red Cross. |
 In Peabody, Massachusetts, Gardner Street suffered much damage, including downed trees and power lines. |
 A neighborhood restaurant under water. |
 Many towns in Massachusetts were greatly affected by the flooding, the worst the area has seen in more than 70 years. |
NEWINGTON, CT, May 24, 2006--Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers have been wrapping up response-phase operations in the wake of major flooding earlier this month in New England, as well as assisting in damage assessment operations. The flooding in southeastern New Hampshire and northeastern Massachusetts has been called the region's worst in 70 years.
On May 18 and 19, the Massachusetts Bay Red Cross Chapter requested Amateur Radio communication support for damage assessment, and on May 20, the Northeast Massachusetts Red Cross Chapter--through David Belsky, K1DBB, Red Cross Communications Officer--requested ARES support for vehicle-to-vehicle communication to help facilitate the distribution of clean-up and care kits to several North Shore communities. The North Shore comprises coastal communities north of Boston.
Amateur Radio volunteers utilized the North Shore Radio Association 145.47 NS1RA repeater in Danvers as well as the 145.13 repeater in Gloucester, with permission from trustee Charles Anderson, WI1U. Some 20 ham radio volunteers took part in this effort, which was headed up by North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator Eric Horwitz, KA1NCF, and North Shore ARES Emergency Coordinator Jim Palmer, KB1KQW.
Net control was established at the Town of Bridgewater EOC for portions of the operation. Eastern Massachusetts ARES was given open access to the EOC through the efforts of Herb Lemon, KC1ZW, the town's Emergency Management Director, and Carl Aveni, N1FY, who's ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Assistant Section Manager and South Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator.
"We are lucky to have a strong relationship with the Bridgewater EMA and to have the EOC as a hub for Eastern Massachusetts ARES Emergency Communications when required," Aveni said.
Just when flood operations were winding down, the first widespread severe weather outbreak of 2006 began later that evening. This resulted in SKYWARN self-activating to support reports of damaging winds and large hail for the region.
Recounted Eastern Massachusetts Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, "The incident happened so quickly, we self-activated our nets and fed reports of damaging winds and large hail via the spotter line and the Web as there was not enough time to get to the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Taunton, Massachusetts to activate the station once things started happening." Macedo, who's also SKYWARN coordinator, said he and Steve Silvestre, KB1NAR, deployed to the Southeastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association (SEMARA) club station W1AEC to reach repeaters across the county warning area to forward criteria reports to the NWS in Taunton from the various nets.
Reports of downed trees and wires, including some that had fallen on cars and houses, were received in eastern and central Massachusetts. Penny to quarter-sized hail was reported in communities in northern Connecticut, Rhode Island and central and eastern Massachusetts along with scattered small power outages. There were also reports of a waterspout offshore of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and a waterspout over a lake in Hardwick, Massachusetts at the Barre Sportsman Club. SKYWARN nets took to the airwaves on almost a dozen repeaters in the NWS Taunton County warning area.
"This was the last thing that was needed after the floods last week. Thankfully, the weather is expected to be quiet this week," Macedo said. "We've had a long 10-day siege of activations during and after the floods and then the severe weather event from Sunday." On May 21, a brief but intense F2 tornado was reported in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, about five miles north of the NWS Taunton County warning area.
Four injuries were reported in the NWS Taunton County warning area as a result of the severe weather on May 21.
The weather has been dry and cool this week in Southern New England and a warming trend has been predicted toward the Memorial Day
weekend, providing a welcome break from ARES and SKYWARN activations in the
region.--Rob Macedo, KD1CY
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