[continued from previous message]   
      
   I was deployed to a special needs shelter that cared for evacuees with serious   
   medical issues. The County Department of Health (DOH) deployed a sizable,   
   excellent professional staff to the shelter. Their care was exemplary. The   
   shelter was in a school.    
   School cafeteria workers fed residents. The custodial staff kept the shelter   
   clean. If a shelter resident had a dietary restriction, however, he/she needed   
   to bring their own food. For sleeping accommodations, the shelter staff   
   furnished cots; if you    
   wanted a sleeping pad, sheets, pillows, or blankets, you had to bring your   
   own. Under federal law, schools are gun free zones. Therefore, I was glad to   
   see that the sheriff's department officers were deployed to this shelter for   
   law enforcement.   
   Â    
   I was not going to leave my beloved dog at home, and I took her along to the   
   shelter. She stayed in my car while I set up the radio station. When I took   
   her out of the car, I had to deal with Animal Control, which treated us   
   poorly. Even when the shelter    
   manager was willing to work with me about this, Animal Control refused.   
   Â    
   There were multiple government agencies (school, health department, sheriff's   
   department, EOC, animal control) plus ARES personnel all involved at the   
   shelter. This is where the weak spot is: These agencies had other   
   responsibilities too, not just    
   disaster relief to cope with. So, multi-agency coordination is crucial, but   
   was lacking at this shelter. The shelter may or may not be under the   
   jurisdiction of the EOC, but is effectively staffed by DOH, school personnel   
   and others. DOH's disaster    
   response was flawless, but was not coordinated well with the EOC. The EOC and   
   ARES thought I was to report to the shelter manager, an employee of the school   
   district. DOH thought their field manager was the shelter manager. I got   
   caught in the middle. It    
   took an hour of phone calls from me to ARES coordinators, and from ARES to the   
   powers that be to iron this problem out.   
   Â    
   The school district administrators had not allowed a shelter inspection for a   
   couple of years and nothing pointed out in the last inspection had been   
   addressed. I had arrived at the shelter with the EOC-supplied radio (my thanks   
   to the county for    
   supplying ARES with radios), a rollup antenna, lots of coax, and two toolboxes   
   filled with miscellaneous tools and supplies. I had everything I needed but   
   the one thing that an earlier shelter inspection would have told me I needed   
   was several feet of    
   PVC pipe. A field inspection would have told me that the building is basically   
   nothing but metal, and hence I would need a PVC pipe so that I could attach my   
   antenna to a fence outside, away from the building, and thereby get the   
   antenna to work.    
   Fortunately, when I was deployed, Tony McGhee, KT4WM, who had been deployed at   
   this school previously, had been assigned as my person to call in case of   
   issues. Tony came to the rescue, bringing PVC pipe and more supplies. The   
   lesson is, when possible,   
     ARES volunteers should be deployed in pairs. If this is not possible, each   
   person deployed should have a nearby back-up person assigned to them to assist   
   with equipment, supplies, and experience to help out if necessary.   
   Â    
   As the schools do not let us make needed site inspections, I think it would be   
   a good idea if at the end of a deployment, ARES volunteers prepared a brief   
   document so that the next ARES volunteer would have a better idea of what they   
   may be getting into.    
   The following would be an example for the school where I was deployed:   
   Â    
   â€œOff the cafeteria/multi-purpose room is a storage room used by cafeteria   
   workers to store disposable items such as paper cups, plates, trays, etc. The   
   radio should be set up in that storage room. The feedline should be run   
   through the double-doors    
   to the right of that room. Outside those doors is a courtyard with a   
   chain-link fence. A non-conductive pole (PVC pipe or a 2”x4”) can be   
   attached to the fence and an antenna mounted on the pole. The doors tend to   
   pinch coax, and the doors also    
   have sharp edges. Therefore, something needs to be wrapped around the feedline   
   to protect it from being crimped, and to protect it from being cut.”   
   Â    
   Additionally, the school has a back-up generator. Do not assume it will work   
   and even if it works, it may not supply power to the part of the school where   
   your station is. Therefore, plan accordingly. That said, there is a limitation   
   to this as people in    
   the school could move things, resulting in this information being out of date.   
   Something is often better than nothing, I suppose.   
   Â    
   The next big lesson, and this is a lesson for everybody, not just ARES   
   volunteers: Disasters happen in places that you don't think they would happen.   
   Hurricane Helene destroyed a part of the country that is not prone to   
   hurricane destruction. The result    
   was unimaginable devastation, a very slow government response, and no   
   significant aid for the devastated remote areas, especially in the early days   
   of the disaster. It was citizens, not the government, who provided the first   
   significant aid and comfort    
   to the victims in that area. I am proud of the ham radio operators who stepped   
   into this breach and did all they could to help.   
   Â    
   Where I live, I have high praise for the government response. If you are going   
   to get hit by a hurricane, the best place to be is in Florida. The response in   
   Florida to Milton was textbook perfect (except for the aforementioned lack of   
   coordination    
   between agencies at the local level). That said, however, the lesson I have   
   learned is that you are largely on your own in a disaster, post-onset. Ham   
   radio is the only communication that can be counted on in an emergency. Cell   
   phones fail. The internet    
   goes down.   
   Â    
   If a hurricane doesn't get you, an earthquake might. If an earthquake doesn't   
   get you, a flood might. If the flood doesn't get you, a fire might, and so on.   
   Therefore, the lesson that Milton taught me was that you, and only you, can be   
   counted on in a    
   disaster. Help may be delayed, maybe by hours, maybe by days, maybe by weeks.   
   I say this because even before Milton made landfall, the winds were so   
   powerful that ambulance service had to be suspended. Hours after Milton made   
   landfall, the calls for    
   assistance came in hard and fast: Person after person, calling because a tree   
   fell on their house, or their house was flooding. Those calls went unanswered   
   because the roads were impassable due to flooding or debris. That is why I say   
   you need to work on    
   the assumption that you will be on your own and no help is coming.   
      
   The Go-Bag   
      
   If you are deployed, you are going to your assignment and you are not leaving   
   your assigned location for the duration. Therefore, not only do you need your   
   properly stocked go-bag, you need to secure your property. You also need to   
   safeguard important    
   legal documents, as your home could be destroyed. Also, secure your antennas.   
   Â    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)