Computer World – 9/26/05
Volunteer ham radio operators are coming to the aid of relief agencies and emergency officials to help with badly needed communications in areas of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi ravaged early last week by Hurricane Katrina.
With power still out in much of the region and telephone service restored in limited areas of New Orleans, the Mississippi cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, and other hard-hit areas, ham radio operators have been asked by the American Red Cross and other agencies to supplement communications at more than 200 storm shelters in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle.
Some 700 ham radio volunteers from around the nation are already at work helping in the efforts, with more on the way, said Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the 157,000-member American Radio Relay League, Inc. (ARRL), a nationwide amateur radio organization based in Newington, CN. "This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint," Pitts said. "We have people there; we have more people coming."
On Sunday, the American Red Cross asked for about 500 more radio operators to assist at shelters and food kitchens set up to aid evacuees, he said. The volunteers are driving to needed areas and meeting with officials at staging areas in Montgomery, AL, and in Oklahoma and Texas, where they are being dispatched to disaster shelters, Pitts said. The ham radio operators travel to the disaster areas using their own vehicles and pay their own way, he said. Many of the volunteers sprung into action even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, broadcasting as part of a "Hurricane Watch-Net" three days before deadly Hurricane Katrina slammed into the coast on Aug. 29, Pitts said.
Ham radio equipment can be used in disaster areas even when power is out and phone lines, relays and other communications systems are down because the radios run on their own battery or generator power, Pitts said. "Each one is a complete transmission and reception center unto itself," he said. "It works when other stuff is broken. You give an amateur radio operator a battery, a radio and a piece of a coat hanger and they'll find a way to make it work."
The volunteers carry their own fuel for their generators and bring all the equipment they need. Ham radio operators can also use their equipment with laptop-based computer software to help re-establish e-mail access over the Internet to further assist with communications, Pitts said.
Other disaster assistance agencies, including the Salvation Army, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security, have also sought help from ham radio operators, Pitts said.
Late last week, the Washington-based Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency for volunteer service, announced a supplemental $100,000 grant to help ARRL volunteers with their expenses as they travel to and stay in the areas where hurricane victims are receiving assistance.
In another media article, MSNBC said some kind words.
MSNBC Columnist Gary Krakow
With telephones down and wireless service disrupted, at least one group of people did manage last week to use technology to come to the rescue of those in need.
Often unsung, amateur radio operators regularly assist in emergency situations. Hurricane Katrina was no exception. For the past week, operators of amateur, or ham, radio have been instrumental in helping residents in the hardest hit areas, including saving stranded flood victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. Public service has always been a large part of being an amateur radio operator. All operators, who use two-way radios on special frequencies set aside for amateur use, must be tested and licensed by the federal government, which then issues them a unique call sign. (Mine is W2GSK.)
Ham operators communicate using voice, computers, televisions and Morse code (the original digital communication mode.) Some hams bounce their signals off the upper regions of the atmosphere, so they can talk with hams on the other side of the world; others use satellites. Many use short-range, handheld radios that fit in their pockets.
When disaster strikes, ham networks spring into action. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service. In this disaster, a number of ham emergency stations and networks have been involved in providing information about this disaster--from WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center to the Hurricane Watch Net, the Waterway Net, Skywarn and the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN).
On Monday, August 29, a call for help involving a combination of cell telephone calls and amateur radio led to the rescue of 15 people stranded by floodwaters on the roof of a house in New Orleans. Unable to get through an overloaded 911 system, one of those stranded called a relative in Baton Rouge. That person called another relative, who called the local American Red Cross.
Using that Red Cross chapter's amateur radio station, Ben Joplin, WB5VST, was able to relay a request for help on the SATERN network via Russ Fillinger, W7LXR, in Oregon, and Rick Cain, W7KB, in Utah back to Louisiana, where emergency personnel were alerted. They rescued the 15 people and got them to a shelter. Such rescues were repeated over and over again.
Another ham was part of the mix that same Monday when he heard over the same Salvation Army emergency network of a family of five trapped in an attic in Diamond Head, LA. The family used a cell phone to call out. Bob Rathbone, AG4ZG, in Tampa, says he checked the address on a map and determined it was in an area struck by a storm surge. He called the Coast Guard search-and-rescue station in Clearwater, explained the situation and relayed the information. At this point, the Coast Guard office in New Orleans was out of commission. An hour later he received a return call from the South Haven Sheriff's Department in Louisiana, which informed him a rescue operation was under way.
Another search-and-rescue operation involved two adults and a child stuck on a roof. The person was able to send a text message from a cell phone to a family member in Michigan. Once again, the Coast Guard handled the call.
One last note for ham operators in the stricken area: The FCC has announced that it's extending amateur license renewal deadlines until October 31, 2005.
ARRL Letter
Hundreds of Amateur Radio operators from the Gulf Coast and elsewhere in the US continue to volunteer their skills and expertise as the Hurricane Katrina relief effort heads into its third week. ARRL Section Managers (SMs) and Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs) across and around the affected region have been teleconferencing daily to keep their efforts on the same page. In the field, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and other volunteers are assisting as needed to support communication for relief agencies as well as for state and local government and even the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, says Amateur Radio was the only means for state officials at the state emergency operations center (EOC) in Baton Rouge to communicate earlier this week with the so-called "Florida parishes" above Lake Pontchartrain.
"We have had praise from one end of Louisiana to the other about amateur radio operators," Stratton said.
"There was a communication to the EOC in Baton Rouge from FEMA that said, 'Ham radio is our prime communications with you, and they should get anything they need,' so FEMA recognizes the importance of ham radio." He also recounted how state officials arriving at the EOC were using ham radio to get through to their hard-hit parishes.
A marshaling center has been established in Covington, Louisiana. ARES has been continuing to support Red Cross shelter and Southern Baptist Convention debris-clearing in St. Tammany parish, as well as Baptist Men's Kitchen canteen operations. In Washington Parish, ARES volunteers--including more than a dozen from South Texas--have been providing critical communication among hospitals and the parish EOC, among other functions. Field teams were continuing to use HF to maintain communication with the EOC in Baton Rouge.
Stratton said amateur radio has even had to loan some government agencies their communication gear because their own didn't function. "It's been an eye-opener to me operating in the EOC down there how terribly their equipment operates," he said.
In Mississippi, ARES operators have been helping to maintain communication among hospitals, EOCs and shelters. ARES District Emergency Coordinator Tom Hammack, W4WLF, reported operators were sleeping on the floor when off duty. State RACES Officer and ARES DEC Ron Brown, AB5WF, was setting up a staging area for Amateur Radio volunteers near the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in Jackson.
SECs in the US Gulf advise volunteers signing up for duty in the hurricane-stricken zones to coordinate with their home SECs and, once given the go-ahead, arrive as self-sufficient as possible. "If you need it, you bring it," advised Alabama SEC Jay Isbell, KA4KUN. Volunteers have come from all over the US.
Isbell said each Red Cross feeding unit was turning out 25,000 to 30,000 meals a day. "They still need communication," he said. Local amateurs in the affected areas were handling some of the tactical communication on VHF.
A staging area in Montgomery, Alabama, continues to process and orient Amateur Radio volunteers for American Red Cross and other duty in Louisiana and Mississippi. Some volunteers will help support communication at Red Cross shelters set up for evacuees, while others will provide tactical communication for feeding stations or for emergency management. Alabama SM Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, has been coordinating ham radio volunteers at the Montgomery site.
Norm North Jr, WA1DBR, of Arkansas, was deployed to a Red Cross shelter in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he managed to squeeze in some health-and-welfare messages among the emergency traffic.
North says typical requests included pleas from mothers trying to find missing children, youngsters looking for parents and other trying to get word to families and loved ones that they'd survived the storm and were at the shelter.
"Many messages got through," North said, "and I received many thanks and hugs."
As conventional telecommunications starts coming back to life, traffic has been slowing on the major regional HF emergency net--the West Gulf ARES Emergency Net on 7.285 MHz days and 3.873 MHz nights. As a result, the net announced September 9 that it would secure routine operation at 0600 UTC, September 10. An open net will be maintained on 3.862 MHz after that.
West Gulf ARES Emergency Net Manager Lee Franks, N5FP (ex-AD5IS), says the net passed traffic as recently as September 7 about a man trapped in an attic in Arabi [Louisiana]. "We're still getting a trickle of messages like this," he said earlier this week. "As communications are reestablished via landline and VHF-UHF links in that area, there has been less demand on our net--but I'd call it an absolute, tremendous success what we have done."
