The drill before the storm: They’ll be there when all else fails

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Inside Olympic Hall Room 101 at the south end of South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge, those ham-radio operators and others spent several hours Saturday morning making sure they’re ready for something they hope to never have to do: Relaying emergency help needs, status information, and more to the city Emergency Operations Center when all other means of communication are out of commission. Coincidentally, the test, which was meant to simulate “a major catastrophic winter wind storm,” happened just a few hours before the first hint of fall wind blew through the area. Involved were two trained ham-radio communications teams, all volunteers, from the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) that serves the city’s Office of Emergency Management, and the Seattle Sub-Group of the Western Washington Medical Services Team. From outside Olympic Hall, these portable antennas hinted at what was going on inside:

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The radio operators can use antennas like those to transmit directly or to relay the signal via one of four “repeaters” around the area, one of which is in West Seattle. Meantime, some of the gear inside was marked with the scenario for which it was being used; the storm simulation focused on communicating with Seattle Public Utilities regarding two areas of (hypothetical) trouble, the Madison Valley area where flooding killed a woman in the December 2006 pre-windstorm deluge, and the Perkins Lane area of Magnolia, a waterfront strip beset by mudslides over the years:

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You probably won’t be surprised to hear that computers are part of the scenario these days too – one team was using battery-powered laptops to feed digital messages into radio equipment (sort of like wireless Internet), and Mark Sheppard from the city was at a computer-equipped command post overseeing the test, explaining where these volunteers would be dispatched to if disaster actually struck:

Spokesperson Dave Mann tells WSB that Seattle ACS members do drills like this about four times a year, to make sure they’re ready … just in case. More than 100 communicators belong to the Seattle ACS but there’s definitely room for more — considering they might have to assist the entire city in a time of trouble; find out more about them at their website (which also details exactly how many people are involved right now and what they’re ready to do) at seattleacs.com.

1 Reply to "The drill before the storm: They'll be there when all else fails"

  • chris brinkley WA4LSW October 7, 2008 (7:01 am)

    Hi, I was wondering what the freq’s are that you work the emergency traffic at?

    I work at the red cross office in asheboro nc.

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