Hello to all..
While this may be a bit off topic for some SKYWARN Spotters, Amateur Radio Operators and Red Cross volunteers, many of which are SKYWARN Spotters, will be involved in the Boston Marathon on Monday April 21st. To reach out to the highest level of Amateur Radio Operators involved in the event, this coordination message is being sent out to the SKYWARN email list and posted to the various Amateur Radio lists. We appreciate everyone’s patience with this message. This is likely to be the only coordination message on the Marathon unless a significant change in the weather forecast occurs. See information below:
Eastern Massachusetts ARES members not participating in the Boston Marathon are requested to be on standby for marathon activities on Monday April 21st from 12 AM-8 PM for any significant issues outside of the Boston Marathon that may require Amateur Radio Emergency Communications support and for any unexpected issues on the Boston Marathon route. With over 300 Amateur Radio Operators staffing the Boston Marathon route, the start line and the finish line, if an issue arises needing Amateur Radio support outside of the Marathon route or an unexpected issue arises in marathon operations, it is important that any ARES members not involved in the marathon can help with any response that is required. There will be two backup communication centers including the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net Control Center at the town of Bridgewater EOC.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC) at the SEOC (State Emergency Operations Center) will be active for the Boston Marathon. Amateur Radio Operators will be at the SEOC to support Amateur Radio communications while many agencies will be there performing primary operations for the marathon.
With all of the significant security provisions and additional resources being provided for 2014, this should greatly reduce the chance of an issue along the Boston Marathon route. Nonetheless, being one year after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the fact that even more resources are being deployed to the Boston Marathon route, placing Eastern Massachusetts ARES on standby for any possible significant issue along the Boston Marathon route or any issue within the Eastern Massachusetts section outside of the Marathon route is prudent given the situation.
The weather outlook for the Boston Marathon is one that should be favorable for volunteers and slightly warm for the runners. The Weather Forecast across the Boston Marathon is for mostly sunny conditions throughout the day. There will be a 5-10 MPH breeze with isolated higher gusts. Temperatures will range in the mid 30s across the inland portion of the Boston Marathon route to mid-40’s in the Boston area early in the morning warming to the 55-60 degree range by mid to late morning to the mid to upper 60s by afternoon. This means that conditions for the runners should be reasonable with an ‘average’ amount of ambulance requests along the route versus some prior years where warmer weather conditions resulted in some of the highest amounts of ambulance requests since Amateur Radio Operators have handled the event. It is noted that conditions this year are slightly warmer than last year but still fairly comfortable for the runners.
For Amateur Radio, Red Cross and all other volunteers along the route, it is recommended that you dress in layers for this event so that you can put on or take off clothes as needed for comfort. Be sure to drink liquids and eat properly during the event and that you are self-sufficient so that you can be of full help to the function and not distract everyone from the main purpose of supporting the runners by having a health issue on your end that can be avoided. No rain is expected at this time so there should be no need for rain gear.
For those people that are planning to go to the Boston Marathon as spectators, the following link details guidelines for spectators given the tragedy that occurred at the 2013 Boston Marathon:
http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/mema/baa-spectator-and-participant-information.pdf
Barring a significant change in the weather forecast, this will be the only coordination message on the Boston Marathon. We appreciate everyone’s support in this event and hope those that volunteer enjoy themselves and feel the self-satisfaction of supporting this historic event and those that are monitoring the Marathon or events outside of the Marathon realize that the monitoring is an important function as well and is a testament to being able to scale other incidents beyond the marathon if required. Thanks to all for their support!
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
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