Hello to all….
From the ARRL web site, new information has been received concerning the potential for deployment for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. We’ve also received some information from Mass. Bay Red Cross on possible plans for activation of their Rapid Action Team. Given these developments, it is time to update everyone once again on the current Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief effort.
Friday showed some rays of hope in a sea of despair in the affected areas. The first significant convoy of US National Guard troops arrived in the area passing out food and water along with a fleet of buses to move affected people out of the area and getting supplies to those people until they are moved out of the area. National Guard troops are also gradually bringing back a sense of order to New Orleans as well. While this is occurring, there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done and thousands people remain in New Orleans to be rescued. The media continues extensive coverage of the situation to keep the nation informed.
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve seen some developments of significance that I wanted everyone to be aware of and also provide important instructions and reiterate some of the thoughts in my last coordination message. Let’s start off with a posting on the ARRL web site.
If you look at the national web site, at the following link: http://www.arrl.org
You will now see that there is a call for Amateur Radio Emergency Communication volunteers for the affected area and the ARRL is asking for emails to be sent to Katrina@arrl.org so that you can be considered for deployment. You are asked to provide your name, call sign, contact information, equipment you can bring down and I’d also recommend providing training and previous experience in emergency communications for the mission in such a note. I would strongly recommend working through your ARES EC/DEC or myself before sending an email to that address. There are many things to consider including the fact that lodging and other conditions may be extremely poor and there will most likely be a lot of coordination issues given the fact that this is such a large disaster relief effort for served agencies to manage and our leadership wants to make certain you are aware of the risks and are fully prepared to be involved if you consider deployment. As Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, quoted from Westchester County Red Cross, “Blessed are the flexible, for they will not get bent out of shape” and this very true for this major relief effort. Once that is complete and if you decide to accept such a mission, if you decide to send an email to that address the ARRL provided, please copy your ARES DEC and myself to such an email so that we know you are being considered for going to the region and keep us posted on whether you are accepted for deployment. That way our leadership can assist in communication to your family and friends if required. It will also
help to make sure that we do not displace too many resources to the region. As I’ve stated previously, hurricane season is far from over and there remains an ever present threat through at least the first week of October of a hurricane striking our region. We also need to keep in the back of our minds that ever present threat of terrorism to our region and having resources available to tend to that unexpected threat if it occurs.
Once again, there should be absolutely, positively, no self-deployments to the region. The situation down there is extremely tense and anyone who is down there without proper authorization despite their best intentions is likely to receive a very bad reception. Please work through our ARES leadership as we will continue to work very hard to keep you informed of changes in a situation that is changing by the hour and minute as the situation slowly becomes more stable and proper assistance can be provided.
The second update that I wanted to provide is that the Massachusetts Bay Red Cross Rapid Action Team (RAT) is considering becoming active this weekend for supporting relief operations. There are no further details available at this time. While it is unclear where and how Eastern Massachusetts ARES can help at present, I’ve sent a note to the Associate Director of Preparedness and Response for Disaster Services, Erin Sarris, who posted the note on RAT team availability, to see if Eastern Massachusetts ARES can assist in anyway. Updates will be posted via email and given to your ARES DEC’s when they become available. This maybe an excellent way for our section to contribute to the effort remotely. I will also be contacting our NTS leadership to get an update on the status of health and welfare traffic out of the affected area and how ARES can support that effort from here as required and if there are updates on that situation, I will pass that along to everyone.
The ARRL has started an ARES E-letter that people can sign up for that gives updates on ARES happenings across the country. The ARES E-Letter is typically issued monthly but for Hurricane Katrina, a special e-letter was posted this morning and contains fantastic information on frequencies in the affected area and updates from each state affected by Katrina. It also features the response efforts of neighboring sections. The link to the ARES E-Letter is listed below:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/index.html?issue=2005-09-03
For those interested in signing up for the ARES E-letter, please see the link below:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/about.html#get
I plan on leaving coordination message #1 posted on the ARES web site along with this message so that people can follow the history of communication on this effort and pick up on any previous information that will be useful to them in this effort. I will be away from the PC for much of this afternoon and evening. I will be monitoring emails for much of this morning through early afternoon closely and can have limited access to email later this afternoon and evening. Please contact myself or your ARES DEC with any questions, comments or offers for support during this time period both here at home for any assistance that we can provide from here in the relief effort or for actual deployment to the affected area. On behalf of the entire Eastern Massachusetts ARES staff, we look forward to working with everyone to properly make a difference in this trying time for the United States caused by one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Pager #: (508) 354-3142
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: (508) 346-2929
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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