Hello to all….
….Amateur Radio Operators Continue to be Active in the city of Taunton due to the potential collapse of Whittenton Pond Dam on the Mill River in Taunton Massachusetts….
….SEMARA ARES To Send One Amateur To Support Overnight Operations. There is Potential for Further Requests for ARES/RACES Amateurs within the Eastern Massachusetts Section to Deploy in small numbers….
….Deployment is solely dependent on the Taunton Emergency Management and Taunton ARES/RACES leadership. Do NOT Self-Deploy. Await instructions from your ARES DEC, EC, or myself for any deployments that may be needed….
During the day today, the dam situation has stabilized to some extent but there remains a significant threat for the dam to breach and flood portions of the city of Taunton. After conditions on the dam got worse overnight, there has been no further degradation of the dam but there remains significant vibration of the dam and damage to wooden stanchion at the bottom is suspected with the wood structure totally rotted away providing a lack of support for the dam to hold up. It remains unclear whether the dam will collapse but a significant risk of the dam collapsing remains.
Amateur Radio Operators continue to support operations at the city of Taunton EOC and at the Taunton High School shelter. There are approximately 90-95 evacuees in the shelter. There are a total of 12 Amateurs assisting in the operation including the EMA Director and Assistant EMA Director who are both Amateurs. This was reported by Bruce Hayden, NI1X, Taunton RACES Radio Officer through Carl Aveni, N1FY, ARES District Emergency Coordinator for South Shore ARES. In addition, 5 Amateurs from the Bridgewater ARES Team have been monitoring the situation. As reported earlier, W1JOE-Joe Serilla donated a mattress to the effort on Monday Night and offered his skills as a communicator as well as a certified cook for the operation. SEMARA ARES monitored through the club station at W1AEC through the efforts of Chris Washburn-W1EAV who was requested to go to the club and monitor the situation for as long as possible.
Taunton Emergency Management requested a relief Ham to man the Taunton EOC for the Midnight shift. That request was funneled by Bruce Hayden-NI1X to Carl Aveni-N1FY. After conferring with Carl, Brad Anselmo-N1VUF from SEMARA ARES will be manning the EOC during the 3rd shift timeframe. This also means that there maybe a need for additional deployment of Hams from the various ARES teams in Eastern Massachusetts in small numbers. Remember the rules that Eastern Massachusetts ARES has regarding deployments, do NOT self-deploy and wait for instructions from your ARES, EC, DEC or myself for any deployments. Checks on availability may get sent to various ARES teams by ARES leadership over the next day or so pending the threat from the dam and future operations in the city of Taunton.
ARES and RACES leadership continue to monitor the situation through the efforts of Bob Mims-WA1OEZ, MEMA Region II RACES Radio Officer, Carl Aveni-N1FY, South Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator and myself. Continued updates through these sitreps will be posted to keep everyone informed with ongoing operations as changes develop and time allows.
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 #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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