In District 1, Stanwood/Camano Island reports Team Members were on standby for the December 14 wind storm at the Camano Island EOC ( Terry's Corner Fire

station). San Juan County was also on standby but not activated. Island County reports the December wind storm brought out most of the Team to help

with Health and Welfare requests and local information to be passed to the EOC. It was a learning situation for all those involved.

District 2 reports that Peter Apgar, from Medical Services, made a resentation on the Medical Services organization at the regular meeting of Jefferson County ARES/RACES. The team was activated December 14th in response to high winds and associated damage. They manned the five fire stations and the EOC that form the County Area Command Emergency Strategy. Their support continued until about 0400 on 12/15 and that gave them one shift change which had recently practiced in the Crystal Thunder exercise. The City of Port Townsend's Central Command Center is co-located at one of the fire stations so they also supported backup communications from the city to the county EOC.

Their efforts were recognized by a letter of thanks from the City of Port Townsend. Clallam County ARES was also was also called up by CEMD for the

Dec.15 storm watch and team members were deployed to EOC. Kitsap County ARES/RACES/ACS was called out Thursday evening, December 14, by the Kitsap

County Department of Emergency Management in response to the massive windstorm. Alternate communications system stations at the county EOC and

five area command centers were activated. They brought up their emergency net on the Kitsap County ARES/RACES/ACS repeater, which was running on backup

power for the duration of the event. Emergency communications volunteers were on duty and ready, but fortunately normal communications facilities did not

suffer any outages and no need arose to pass traffic on their communications circuits.

After the wind storm on Dec 14th District 3 teams in Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties were activated for various tasks from setting up generators and manning shelters to being on "warm standby". The Grays Harbor team was out helping people set up their weather radios, and unfortunately had to release four members for failing to pass their NIMS requirements. Pacific County participated in the EOC to EOC drill from their home stations this quarter.

Down in District 4, the Clark County Team continued to provide the CEM NET Tuesday check-ins for the county. The Clark County EOC was activated on Thursday December 13th and ARES/RACES was put in standby mode with over 35 operators standing by until 11:30 PM at which time they were released.

Members of the Silver Star Search and Rescue team provided a snow cat and operator, Rick, KE7FHK, to assist in locating 3 missing climbers on Mt. Hood December 16th and 17th. On December 15, Cowlitz County EC Randy, NU7D was contacted by Columbia County Oregon EC/RO, Martin Anderson, KC7ILK to see if Cowlitz County could help in case they needed any assistance. The previous nights wind storm left most of Columbia County without power. They also lost their primary and backup 2 Meter Repeaters during the storm. The ARES/RACES Team was put the on standby but not needed.

District 5 activities included a District meeting, the EOC-EOC drill, and support for the December Windstorm (Operation Blowhard). Once again ARES members received high praise and heartfelt thanks from Emergency Management and other served agencies for the quality of support provided.

In District 6, All of the King Co. teams reporting for December assisted their local served agencies in the wake of the windstorms and power outages that occurred during the 12th through the 15th. Several Sammamish team members were activated by East Side Fire & Rescue on Dec.15 due phone system outages related to the wind storm. They were stationed at Carnation Station 85 and S. Issaquah Station 76. Their mission was to provide communications for any individuals that walked in. Because there was no 911 service available, they relayed incidents to net control to notify 911 officials. Puget Sound Energy ARES was activated to "Code Yellow" alert once during the wind storm of December 13th, and to "Code Red"; to assist Eastside Fire & Rescue during the power/communications outage to their fire stations on December 15th. The North Bend ARES Team supported Eastside Fire & Rescue by manning Stations 87 & 88 in North Bend during the power and communications outages December 12 and 13th. The Fire Dist. 40 Team was activated for the December 14, 2006 Windstorm. They supported 2 fire stations, 2 fire engines and an aid car. 18 team members were activated.

In District M, the Medical Services team in King Co had a joint training meeting with Seattle ACS which included a holiday award luncheon and HIPAA training. While the hospitals did not require communications support, several team members responded to local EOCs for short periods. Lots of lessons can be learned from the bad weather. They are planning another ham class which is scheduled for early February.

The SEC wishes to thank all of those who provided support for the various missions during the past year, especially the time spent on the December windstorm. This is a valuable resource to make available to our customers. Even when we are just on standby, (an especially boring activity) we are giving up time which could have been used for other activities.

Have a great 2007! 73 de K7TAG