Eastern Massachusetts ARES Stands Down From North Shore Red Cross Assistance

Hello to all…

….Eastern Massachusetts ARES stands down from support of the Northeast Massachusetts and Massachusetts Bay Red Cross Chapters from the Floods of May 2006….

After over a week of support for the NWS Taunton SKYWARN program and ARES activations for Masaschusetts Bay Red Cross damage assessment and distribution of care and clean up kits by the Northeast Massachusetts Red Cross chapter, ARES is standing down its operations as assistance is no longer required.

Eastern Massachusetts ARES had been reactivated to support the Northeast Massachusetts Red Cross distribution of comfort and supply kits to people in Ipswich and Gloucester, Massachusetts and possibly other surrounding areas. At 10 AM Saturday, Dave Belsky-K1DBB requested ARES support for their operations of doing community outreach and distribution of comfort and clean-up kits to various cities and towns including Ipswich and Gloucester by contacting Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF and Jim Palmer-KB1KQW. This latest assistance occurring after working with Mass. Bay Red Cross and completing the damage assessment work in the Peabody, Danvers, North Reading, Salem, Saugus and surrounding areas of Central and Southern Essex County and Eastern Middlesex Counties.

Participating in the operations for the Northeast Massachusetts Red Cross Chapter on Saturday included the following Amateurs:

N1VUX-Bill Ricker
W1KPI-Rich Moroni
KB1MRH-Matt Dempsey
KX1KTY-Gordon Gravelese
K1BTH-Blake Haskell (Home Station Support)

Coordinating Saturday’s efforts were Jim Palmer-KB1KQW, North Shore ARES Emergency Coordinator and Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF, North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator. Rob Macedo-KD1CY, Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator also visited the base of operations which was at the Beverly office of the Northeast Massachusetts Red Cross chapter.

On Friday, Eastern Massachusetts ARES was able to cover the needs for damage assessment on Friday. The following Amateurs participated in the operation Friday:

N1ZJ-John Zornig
W1CAC-Colin Campbell
W1LN-Bud Hartman
K1YTS-Gary Busler
W1KPI-Rich Moroni
K1DYO-Dan Howard

Net Control at the town of Brigewater EOC, which serves as the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Command Center, was done by Carl Aveni-N1FY and Dan Howard-K1DYO. When Carl-N1FY left at 3 PM, Blake Haskell-K1BTH took over net control duties from his home location. In addition, KB1KQW-Jim Palmer, North Shore ARES Emergency Coordinator and KA1NCF-Eric Horwitz, North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator went to the Peabody office and assisted with coordination and planning for the potential weekend operations.

Below are those Amateurs that participated in Thursday’s Operation:

W1FBI-Ed Gustat
K1DAC-Dave Cuscuna
KB1FLH-Matt Chaves
K3GRN-BK DeLong
N1QEH-Al Williams

Overseeing the operations and coordination with Massachusetts Bay Red Cross at the Peabody Office on Thursday were KA1NCF-Eric Horwitz, North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator, and KB1KQW-Jim Palmer, North Shore ARES Emergency Coordinator. Jim and Eric worked the phones and coordination with Red Cross and recruited Amateur Radio Operators. Net Control was done by Carl Aveni-N1FY from the town of Bridgewater EOC.

All Damage Assessment operations were on the 145.47-Danvers Repeater PL: 136.5 Hz. Special thanks to the NSRA Club for their use of the repeater for ARES Damage Assessment and SKYWARN Operations during the Floods of 2006. Also, special thanks to WI1U-Charles Anderson for use of the 145.13-Gloucester Repeater on Saturday for outreach and distribution of supplies in the Gloucester area as the Gloucester Repeater has better coverage in that area.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES!!

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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