East Central ARES recruiting Amateur Radio Operators for Full Scale Exercise on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. Please contact Dick Embry ARES East Central Georgia District Emergency Coordinator at KD4CK [at] arrl.net for more information.
02-17-2016 Region G Exercise ARES Positions Updated 02-14-2016
On Wednesday, February 17, 2016 there will be a full scale exercise for the East Central Public Health District of Georgia which will cover 13 counties. The event is a severe weather scenario which will have numerous accounts of damage and injuries. The weather front will move from the west or southwest to the east or north east. The plan is the weather will take about an hour to move across the district. This is especially challenging for ARES since, as in a real event, we will not know beforehand where the damage or injuries will occur or where there may be an evacuation of a facility and will have the need for communications on some type of mass transport. The exercise will begin for the counties on the east side around 0800 hrs and progress toward the west from that time. In order to make this as realistic as possible and for amateur radio to provide as much support as possible, ARES will be instituting a simulated Skywarn net at 0700 hrs and will deploy operators to at the least the local hospitals and any county EOC that is participating as soon as possible thereafter to keep them informed of the approaching weather front and any “ground observations” of damage or possible injuries as the front moves through. We will also communicate among the hospitals etc. concerning needs and incoming patients as far as we have information.
ARES will need as many operators as possible to staff the various hospital and EOC positions, operators on standby to go to areas that may need transport communications, and as many as possible to be “weather spotters/chasers.” ARES will provide a script as much as possible for the Skywarn operators, who may operate in the simulation from their home rather than from the location of the simulated weather event. Anyone that would be willing to staff any of these positions please contact Dick Embry by email at KD4CK [at] arrl.net. More details will be forth coming as they are received.