| As
fires raged through parts of the San Diego area and other
areas in Southern California, ham radio operators did their
part to ensure the safety of residents either affected or
threatened by the fires. ARES groups in San Diego were
activated on Monday, October 22 and continued to assist
their served agencies until early Wednesday morning. Sixty
hams were called to service by the County of San Diego's
Emergency Medical Service.
According to ARRL San Diego Section
Emergency Coordinator James J. Cammarano II, KG6R, hams
assisted at the San Diego Medical Operations Center, six
trauma centers and 16 community hospitals.
Hams served as a resource, Cammarano said, "to be
used in case primary circuits to hospital communications were lost due to
either overload or power interruptions." In addition to these 60
amateurs, another dozen or so hams were activated by the Red Cross.
ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager
Dennis Dura, K2DCD, learned that San Diego ARES volunteers were activated
and now they are in standby mode. "They are ready to go at a moment's
notice, but there are currently no plans for re-activation," he said.
As in any emergency situation, information can quickly change and the ARRL
will continue to monitor the situation and inform members if the situation
changes.
As the fires started to spread, hams started a
FIRENET on the Palomar ARC 146.73 MHz repeater. Howard White, KY6LA, of La
Jolla, who was among those who served as net control operator under
extremely stressful conditions, disseminated a preliminary log of his
experience. Excerpts follow:
“With flames starting to engulf the county and no
active single source of information, as best as I could determine Charlie
NN3V stepped into the information vacuum to start the ‘FIRENET’ as an ad
hoc operation on Sunday afternoon. Early contributors included Gayle K6GO
and Gary W6GDK. Initial operations started by collecting fire information as
to fire location, wind directions, shelter locations and initial
evacuations. Hams provided eyes and ears on the ground where the danger was.
Soon however the fires seemed to be heading down to the Poway area so
Charlie and the other Poway hams needed to evacuate….
“Day One: Is the fire near us? Where is the head
of the fire? What directions are the heads going? What are the winds doing?
Should we evacuate? What roads are closed? What about our animals? Where
should we go? What should we take? What is the route to avoid the flames?
Can you help us find missing people or pets? Can you help us get barrels of
water for animals? Can you help us find food and water? Can you get the
police to deal with looters?
“Unlike Katrina, the questions and answers did
not abate at night. It was nonstop. Terry K3PXX needed routing around the
fires to evacuate his Animal trailer. Terry reported on Fires as he drove
through Poway and back to San Marcos EOC. ROARS hams had evacuated Ramona
and the 147.03 repeater and were looking for help to be routed safely out of
the area. Fires broke out in Coronado Hills in San Marcos. People needed to
be evacuated. Brian KF6C asked where to evacuate his 4 children. San Marcos
EOC needed to be activated and FIRENET held the fort for them until they
could get there and became operational to evacuate San Marcos. George KG6IDE
tries to drive up to Ramona to evacuate elderly parents but we turn him back
to avoid the flames…
"0130 Tuesday: N9XF reports flame proceeding
down 76 from Fallbrook. Tom KI6IET, who is blind, but stays at his post as
my backup net control, needs to be evacuated. Evacuation arranged ok. Rob
WA3IHV calls from his office at Palomar hospital to tell us his family was
evacuated OK and horses survived…
"2100 Tuesday: FIRENET hams drive to Qualcomm
Stadium and load trucks with food. Dan leads ham relief convoy with food and
supplies to Mira Costa College. Fire victims at shelter express gratitude
for first food delivery…
"2350 Wednesday: KG6VVN signs off as net
control as the 146.730 repeater runs out of fuel and goes off the air…”
Orange County Update
Acting Section Emergency Coordinator Cathy
Gardenias, K6VC, provided this update on the situation in the ARRL Orange
Section as of October 25: “Slide Fire/Green Valley is 17% contained; Grass
Fire is 70% contained. Santiago Canyon Fire was 50% but was reduced last
night as it turned and headed for the Riverside County border of the
Cleveland National Forest.
“Amateur Radio operators have been utilized. The
San Bernardino County Fire EOC has been using ECS and ARES members in the
EOC to monitor communications and other jobs needed. At the command post at
the Rim of The World High School near Lake Arrowhead, ECS and ARES members
who have been fully trained in all ICS and S190 (bush training) are handling
communications and other needs. This is according to Jeff W6JJR DEC for ARES
San Bernardino County and a Public Information Officer (Miles) from the EOC
in San Bernardino. The EOC is at Level III at this time.
“SATERN [Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio
Network] Amateur Radio operators at all the shelters have been volunteering
their time as non communicators, but as helpers for those who are in
need.”
Fallbrook Update
Ken Dickson, W6MF, reported late Thursday on the
Rice Fire in the Fallbrook area between Los Angeles and San Diego.
"We were notified this morning by our club president, Bigs Parker,
KG6GIU, that his home had been destroyed. Bigs was on the Fallbrook Hospital
Evacuation team on Monday....At the EOC briefing this morning our people
were informed that approximately 9,000 acres had been consumed in the fire.
One of the major concerns is "hanging" electric lines...Our
Amateur Radio EOC is still up and operating at this hour. There have been
some replacement amateurs that have returned to Fallbrook and have offered
to provide some relief to the operators that have been there long term.”
As of Friday afternoon, CNN reported that 14 of the
nearly two dozen fires were under control. Nearly 800 square miles has
burned in Southern California, and seven deaths have been blamed on the
fires, with dozens of injuries.
Ron Roberts, Chairman of the San Diego Board of
Supervisors estimates that 560,000 people were ordered to evacuate their
homes, and thousands more were evacuated in San Bernardino, Los Angeles and
Orange counties.
Firefighters received help from Mexico, the state
and federal governments and even inmates from California's prisons. About
7000 firefighters were battling the blazes, including 2300 inmates from
California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to
Governor Schwarzenegger.
President Bush visited the area on Thursday and
declared a federal emergency for seven counties: Los Angeles, Orange,
Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura. FEMA
Administrator David Paulison said that the President's action authorizes
FEMA to "coordinate all disaster relief efforts, which have the purpose
of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the
local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required
emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save
lives, protect property and public health and safety and lessen or avert the
threat of a catastrophe." Schwarzenegger estimated that at least $75
million in federal aid would be needed. -- some information from The
Weather Channel and CNN
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