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State of California OES ACS Newsletter |
December 30, 2002
Published weekly (except for vacations and emergencies) by the Auxiliary Communications
Service, State of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.
Editor: Ken Bourne, W6HK, Southern Region ACS Officer
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Articles in this Issue
Huntington Beach RACES Responds to Gas Leak
RACES, SKYWARN, and ARES Activate for Arkansas and Missouri Storms
EMCOMM Bulletin EMC374, EMCOMM Officers Handbook 8b
Forwarding/Subscribing/Unsubscribing
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This will be my last "ACS Newsletter," as I am stepping away from my position
as State of California OES Southern Region ACS Officer and returning to County
of Orange RACES as a Radio Officer.
Stepping up to the position of Southern Region ACS Officer is Arnie Lewin, W7BIA,
who has performed admirably as Southern Region ACS Administration Officer. Arnie
will also maintain the Southern Region ACS Web site, which was one of my duties.
The new Web address will be http://www.swtraffic.com/sca/.
I will continue to maintain the national RACES
Website , and am once again maintaining the OCRACES
Website.
Gary Crowe, Ph.D., KG6HIM, an engineer with Pacific Bell, will be the new
"ACS Newsletter" editor.
As an experienced newsletter publisher for his group at PacBell and an author of three telecommunications texts, he will do an outstanding job on this newsletter. You may send material to him at his email address. It has been a pleasure to share information with you through this newsletter, and to serve with the finest emergency management agency in the United States. Happy New Year to you all! Ken Bourne, W6HK
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Huntington Beach RACES Responds to Gas Leak
Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, reported in "Amateur Radio Newsline" #1324 (December 27, 2002) that amateur radio provided communications after a gas leak hit Huntington Beach, California. Huntington Beach California Fire Department Emergency Services Coordinator Glorria Morrison, KE6ATG, activated the city's RACES after she received a report of a natural gas leak. Nine fire companies, Public Works, and Police responded to the incident. A nearby 55-unit apartment complex had to be evacuated immediately. Fire Battalion Chief Jacques Pelletier requested that a Care and Reception Center be set up for displaced residents. Huntington Beach RACES established a net and 20 members reported they were available.
Meanwhile, a call was made to the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Shelter Leader to activate five volunteers for service at the Care and Reception Center location. Tim Sawyer, WD6AWP, was net control. HBRACES Chief Radio Officer Steven Graboff, W6GOS, responded to provide amateur radio, cell phone, Red Cross, and fire radio communications. Other RACES operators were deployed to the Emergency Operations Center and the Fire Incident Command post at the gas leak scene. Within 90 minutes the incident was over. The shelter was closed down and the residents went home. No injuries to the firefighters or the RACES members were reported. (Thanks to "Amateur Radio Newsline," #1324, December 27, 2002, http://www.arnewsline.org/.)
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RACES, SKYWARN, and ARES Activate for Arkansas and Missouri
Storms
(From "The ARRL Letter," Vol. 21, No. 50, December 27, 2002)
The same front that produced tornado activity in Mississippi on December 19 earlier touched Arkansas and Missouri with devastating and deadly effect. After nearly a year without any significant tornado activity, Arkansas was again at the heart of severe weather on December 18. Tornadoes hit several counties in Missouri on December 17 and 18. One person died in each state as a direct result of the severe weather. The National Weather Service (NWS) activated SKYWARN at approximately 2 PM in Arkansas, and participants remained active until after 11 PM. Little Rock Emergency Coordinator Dale Temple, W5RXU, reports that the NWS issued 48 warnings during the nine- hour net. Temple also is president of Arkansas SKYWARN.
Temple said NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist John Robinson and Meteorologist-In-Charge Renee Fair praised the accuracy and dedication of the Arkansas SKYWARN volunteers. In Arkansas, hail up to 2 inches in diameter, heavy rain up to 6 inches, damaging straight-line winds, and tornadoes developed in Desha, Faulkner, Lincoln, Prairie, Saline, Woodruff, Jackson, Lonoke, White, and Cross counties. At the request of American Red Cross Arkansas State Disaster Director Roger Elliot, Richard Thompson, W5SUB, fired up the amateur radio station at Red Cross Headquarters to help coordinate the organization's efforts to provide needed services to about 85 families whose homes had been damaged or destroyed by the severe weather. "Mr Elliot credited ham radio operators in assisting the Red Cross to mobilize more quickly and accurately to needy victims," Temple said.
Arkansas SKYWARN, the Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net, Pulaski County, and Little Rock and North Little Rock ARES/RACES actively supported state and local emergency management agencies as well as the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and area hospitals. In central and southern Missouri, several ARES teams activated the night of December 17 when severe weather struck. There were multiple instances of rainfall greater than 1 inch per hour, and hail was reported in several counties. Missouri SEC Don Moore, KM0R, said that in a couple of instances, the NWS issued severe thunderstorm warnings shortly after ARES reports came in. Reports filed with the St Louis NWS Office included heavy rain, hail, and damaging wind speeds.
"There was a tornado reported in Laclede County that moved into Pulaski County, along with damaging wind speeds in excess of 75 mph in another area during the early morning hours of December 18," Moore said. Tornado activity was also reported in Springfield and the surrounding area. Hams also worked with the Springfield NWS Office. Linked repeater systems were used to pass information to the respective NWS offices and among local nets. Some five dozen hams involved in the response in three ARES districts logged double- digit work hours. Several county emergency coordinators said they monitored the statewide HF frequency for the Missouri Emergency Services Net in case there was traffic to pass. They also kept in contact with local governments and other served agencies in case amateur radio volunteers were needed. (Thanks to "The ARRL Letter," Vol. 21, No. 50, December 27, 2002, and The American Radio Relay League.)
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This Week's EMCOMM Bulletin EMC374
EMCOMM Officers Handbook 8b
To: Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To: Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the California Governor's Office
of Emergency Services
EMC374 EMCOMM Officers Handbook 8b Release 12/30//02 MUTUAL AID OPERATIONS - PART 2
This Mutual Aid information is generic and nonspecific, as it can vary state to state. For example, California legislation has created systems that must be used under the force of state law, so it will not be covered here. Typically the jurisdiction flow for mutual aid to government is city--county--state and then to federal when it comes to obtaining mutual aid for Fire and Law disciplines. Whether this applies to communications may depend on past experience and local policy. Thus, if a city's communications resources are committed to the limit, the city (local) emergency agency can go outside its area or jurisdiction to the county (or parish) and request mutual aid. In some cases there are pre-established mutual-aid agreements with adjoining neighboring jurisdictions. So if the county can not meet the mutual-aid requirements, the county will go to adjacent county(s) for both urgent or planned needs (resources). If requirements exceed the resources available from the adjacent county(s), then they normally go to their State OES for assistance.
The mutual-aid system in each state may be somewhat different than another state, so it is imperative to know the local system. To illustrate a typical state EOC, its primary responsibility is to establish a single point-of-contact for providing both an urgent and planned mutual-aid response from other organizations located within the State for any jurisdiction as required. The state EOC also handles federal agency relationships and direct contact with the state governor, and communications with other states. It is also the channel for the flow of federal mutual aid, as from FEMA, or coordination of events involving federal agencies, such as the FBI, Department of Treasury, etc., with the state. Resource order control is typically used by all states as a matter of identifying events and responsibilities. A designated lead agency (likely the SOC--State Operations Center) will issue such control numbers.
This may be a resource order/mission/incident number. Most states and local governments require these to be on the resource order of the mutual-aid organization along with that organization's resource order/mission/incident number. Again, local practices control, and no two state situations may a be exactly the same. There may be times when an operator wants to operate outside their organization's jurisdiction without an OFFICIAL request for agency mutual aid or a resource order from the outside agency in the normal mutual-aid channels. Based on past experience we urge extreme caution in "outside activity situations," as there are several variables that can lead to severe problems that cannot be covered in this bulletin; and that does not include the so-called "convergent volunteer" situation. At the very least, in such situations, the volunteer should check with their agency representative and organizational officer for an official okay before responding.
See next bulletin: EXERCISE OR INCIDENT OPERATIONS ---
To subscribe to bulletins send a blank E-mail to emcomm-bulletin-sub@cesra.org
Bulletins archives: ACS Website: or ftp.ucsd.edu/emcomm or ftp.oes.ca.gov/ACS/EMCOMM and a landline BBS at 916-255-0798 (graphical and standard interface) EOM
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Submitting News and Articles Send news and articles for the "ACS Newsletter" to the new editor (effective January 1, 2003):
Gary Crowe, Ph.D., KG6HIM, State of California OES Inland Region ACS.
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Forwarding/Subscribing/Unsubscribing
To avoid subscribing and unsubscribing confusion, please do not forward the "ACS Newsletter" automatically to other readers. If you forward a particular issue, attach a note that it is forwarded, and refer to the instructions below on how to subscribe. "ACS Newsletter" and "EMCOMM Bulletin" Subscription URL: http://www.cesra.org/subscribe/ "ACS Newsletter" Subscription: acs-newsletter-sub@cesra.org (send message from address where you will receive Newsletters) "EMCOMM Bulletin"
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If your old address is not available for unsubscribing, or if the above procedures do not work, send message to listmaster@cesra.org, with "Manual request" in the subject line. Include old and/or new addresses in the message text.
Thanks to the ACS Listmaster, Mark Hartman, AA6MH, for this fine service.
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California OES URL: http://www.oes.ca.gov/
California OES ACS URL: http://acs.oes.ca.gov/
California OES ACS Coastal Region URL:
http://www.oes-acs.org/
California OES ACS Inland Region URL: http://www.acs.oes.ca.gov/Inland/
California OES ACS Southern Region URL: http://www.swtraffic.com/sca/
National RACES URL: http://www.races.net/
ICQ RACES Chat Room: ICQ#40163274 (Sundays 1000-1200 Pacific Time)
RACES Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RACES
"ACS Newsletters" since 2/7/98 and old "RACES Bulletins" and "EMCOMM Bulletins":
http://acs.oes.ca.gov/
California OES ACS HQ facility contact information:
Governor's Office of Emergency Services Auxiliary Communications,
Room A-139 Governor's Office of Emergency Services
P.O. Box 419047,
Rancho Cordova, CA 95741-9047
Warning Center (24/7): (916) 845-8911
ACS Fax: (916) 845-8627
ACS Net Operations: (916) 845-8621
State ACS Officer: (916) 845-8619
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Copyright 2002 by State of California OES ACS.
All or any part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or quoted, provided that credit be given to this issue of the State of California "ACS Newsletter." Opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of State of California OES ACS. State of California Office of Emergency Services and its "ACS Newsletter" editor, Kenneth M. Bourne, W6HK, do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material contained herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident, or any other cause whatsoever.
73, Ken Bourne, W6HK "ACS Newsletter" Editor (until January 1, 2003)
Southern Region ACS Officer (until January 1, 2003)
State of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services Operations Support
Branch Auxiliary Communications Service 1923 E. Palm Ave. Orange, CA 92867-7636
Tel: (714) 997-0073 Fax: (714) 997-0555 E-mail:w6hk@races.net
URL: http://www.races.net/sca/
Packet: W6HK@W6QZ.#SCA.CA.USA.NOAM ICQ#:
5869316