ARRLWeb: Michigan Hams Activated Due to Storms and Tornado

Fred Moses, Sr, KC8UMP, of Holly, Michigan, does ARES duty at the Fenton fire station. [Fred Moses, Jr, W8FSM, Photo]

The parking lot at Deerfield Center had lots of downed trees due to the storm. [Fred Moses, Jr, W8FSM, Photo]

On Friday, August 24 at 5:15 PM (EDT), the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Genesee County. This storm produced two tornados in the mid-Michigan area that caused severe damage to several towns. The greatest damage occurred in the City of Fenton located just south of Flint. The NWS confirmed that an EF2 tornado had touched down and had torn a path 26 miles long and up to 0.5 miles wide through Livingston, Oakland, Genesee and Lapeer County, damaging at least 250 homes and businesses. An EF2 tornado, using the enhanced Fujita scale, is a wind estimate of 110-135 MPH in a three-second gust. More than 12,000 people lost power due to the storms.

Michigan's Genesee County ARES and SKYWARN were activated due to a severe thunderstorm watch. The storm moved into the county with such heavy rain that visibility dropped down to zero at several points. Funnel clouds were seen in the western part of the county, but these could not be confirmed. The NWS issued a Tornado Warning based on confirmed sightings in the adjacent counties to the west, as well as reports from their Doppler radar.

As spotters continued to watch the storm, Randy Bond, N8VDS, spotted the funnel heading for Fenton and reported it to the NWS via his ham radio; Fred Moses Jr, W8FSM, confirmed the sighting. Moments later, the Genesee County 911 central dispatch center received a call that the roof on the brand new Tractor Supply Company store in Fenton had caved in and that the tornado had touched down. About half of the Fenton Community Center's roof was blown off, and debris from the building blew across the road to Fenton United Methodist Church.

Genesee County 911 called out the fire departments and activated their Fire Coordination Plan. Ham radio spotters have an agreement with Genesee County fire departments to provide supplemental communications for the departments. Hams were providing communications via the SKYWARN net and the Fire Coordination net.

As the county's fire departments started to move toward the building collapse in Fenton, hams were already on the scene. Bond and Mike Schafer, KB8RVP, shifted gears from weather spotters to Fire Coordination operators. At the request of the fire chief at the scene, Bond went to the Fenton City fire station and, using ham radio, assisted their dispatch center; the storm had damaged their radio fire communications tower, so Bond and Schafer started working dispatch for them using their ham radios until the dispatch center was able to resume normal fire communications.

Jerry Baker, KD8AYL, was next to arrive on the scene at the collapsed building and after meeting with the Incident Commander, Baker was assigned the task to set up radio communications with more ARES volunteers in the Flint region.

As more reports of damage came in, the Fenton City and Township Fire Department became overloaded; their crippled communications tower did not help matters. ARES Emergency Coordinator for Genesee County Greg Ybarra, N8HXQ, coordinated the response during this incident and put out a call for help to District 3 Emergency Coordinator Greg Allinger, WA8OGJ. Allinger contacted other ARES units in the state, and Amateur Radio operators from nine Michigan counties responded to the Fenton area to help.

Evaluation of the damage started immediately after the storm. Baker was reassigned to a relief shelter to aid the Red Cross. What would normally have been a drive of less then 10 minutes took almost an hour due to trees and power lines down everywhere. "Trees as much as 36 inches in diameter and more than 100 years old had been ripped out of the ground by the storm; regular electric power was out and the damage reports just never seemed to end," he said.

The Genesee County Office of Emergency Management activated their Mobile Command Unit. The MCU has an Amateur Radio station in it, as well as radios for all public service organizations. The city set up a command post in the parking lot of the Fenton City fire department and began operations from there. Michigan State Police responded to the area and instituted an 8 PM curfew for everyone. State and local police set up road blocks. Access was restricted to police, fire, National Guard, Red Cross, Salvation Army or ARES.

ARES volunteers worked with all aspects of the incident. Damage reports and assessments continued until 1:30 AM Saturday morning when the Incident Commander determined everyone should break until 5:30 AM to get some rest.

The following morning presented a dilemma for the ARES personnel: They were asked to continue assisting with communications in the clean-up of the tornado, but they also needed to take care of a prior commitment. The Crim Festival of Races was scheduled that day, and ARES traditionally has supplied the communications support, as well as Amateur Radio Television (ARTV) for the Race. "The 'Crim,' as it is known locally, is a festival of races that appeals to just about anyone from the world class runners to little tikes that enjoy the Teddy Bear trot. Each year, ARES volunteers serve in the Med Tent, Command Center, Start and Finish Line, and up to 120 positions through out the course," Baker said.

In the tradition of Amateur Radio, the ham volunteers found ways to cover both activities. The race went on, with hams manning as many stations as possible and supplying ARTV pictures both for the race and County and City 911 dispatch. Those not working the Crim (after only a couple of hours' sleep) were back at the clean-up efforts in Fenton.

The clean-up efforts in Fenton began again at 5:30 AM with ham radio operators joining with fire department members and local utility crews split into eight task force units that went throughout the city, cleaning up the fallen trees and down power lines. Clean-up efforts continued all day Saturday until 8 PM. By then, the great majority of roads through out Fenton and the immediate neighborhoods had been cleared by the team effort of ARES personnel, power company workers and the fire department personnel.

One of the informal mottos of Amateur Radio is "Semper Gumby!" -- always flexible. The flexibility of the Amateur Radio volunteers, using their own equipment, allowed them to respond to the call beginning with a SKYWARN operation, then changing to a Fire Coordination activity, to 911 coverage, then damage assessment and finally to a clean-up operation. -- Information supplied by Jerry Baker, KD8AYL, Public Information Officer for Genesee County ARES