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Author Topic: The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?  (Read 4031 times)

AC2Q

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« on: May 22, 2007, 03:54:27 PM »

OK, to preface, this thread is NOT about Background Checks, I just helped beat that topic to death in a thread of 90+ posts. The opinions are well known and appear to be cast in stone, so let's move on.

 My question is this:

 With an ever increasing amount of requirements being added in terms of Required Courses and Training, is your ARES Group "Ready"?

As an Example, my Group has 41 Members on the Roster.
Of that number, 30 are Active, as in they show up fairly regularly for meetings. Of THAT number 9 have completed the Required EmComm Courses.

SO, if your ARES Group were needed NOW, how many Members meet the requirements for Deployment?
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W0IPL

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2007, 09:05:31 PM »

About 1/3. That seems an abismal, but average number.
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KE4SKY

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2007, 05:20:01 AM »

Pat's observation is on target.  In a large urban County of over one million population where I live there are 75,000 licensed amateurs, which is above the national average. There are about 150 Skywarn spotters and 50 or enrolled who participate to any degree in either ARES or RACES.  About 20 of those are genuinely active in both groups. From that core group a cadre of a dozen worker bees can be depended upon to be there, be square, anytime, anywhere, and who have completed their IS-22, IS-55, IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, WebEOC User and regularly attend planning workshops and exercises.  There is also small, but active group of newly amateurs recruited from CERT, REACT, Neighborhood Watch and Medical Reserve Corps who are loosely associated with RACES. Their communication mission is limited to enabling the use of amateur radio as another communication tool to contact a public safety answering point when cellular or POTS are inoperative.
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K2GW

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2007, 05:41:01 AM »

1/3 would be my guess as well.  

Of course, a few years ago, no one had any formal standardized training or any background checks, so you could look at that as an improvement.   Keep drumming it in that folks need to do these things to keep folks moving towards the goal.

BTW, new hams seem to have the least resistance to getting formal training or doing background checks as they just assume it was always done that way.  Recruiting with a flyer given out at VE sessions is worthwhile.

73

Gary, K2GW
SNJ SEC
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KE4SKY

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2007, 06:45:22 AM »

Correction 7500 licensed amateurs, NOT 75000
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KC5SAS

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The NEXT Katrina or 9/11 ?
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2007, 09:23:03 PM »

Well, there's no ARESĀ® locally and nobody is interested in signing up for the ACS/RACES group with the OEP.
Katrina did more harm than good in regards to getting volunteers for EMCOMMS. Most hams I've spoken with who did any comms after Katrina have sworn off ever participating in such activites again afer several bad experiances with supported agencies and their missions.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it,
Katrina taught us nothing we didn't already know and had been saying for years. All Katrina did was amplify problems we already had and knew about.
When I sat in a shelter assisting special needs evacuees back during Hurricane Georges in 1998 we knew we had a probelm with evacing and finding beds for nursing home residents and the poor.  Promises were made to fix this and then forgotten.
Tropical Storm Isidore and Hurricane Lili in 2002 showed us other weakneses such as flooding and the need to fix contraflow problems on the highways.  We also knew that using the Superdome was a bad idea after it was looted by evacuees who used this "Shelter of last resort". We knew then that getting people out of New Orleans was better than leaving them there and we had time to prepare but nothing was done.  Others mentioned these problems in hopes changes would occur including this blog- http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2002-10-15/commentary.html . That was written in October 2002.  When Katrina hit we were in virtually the same condition.
Heck, the article even mentions the lack of adaquate building codes which we are still struggling over today.
Even so called "relief agencies" were aware of the problems but did little to fix them.  
The Baton Rouge area chapter of the Red Cross, after Lili, had formed a positive relationship with local hams, had installed radio equiptment at its chapter building and was working on identifying additional shelters and getting volunteers trained. When the chapter president was replaced by someone from the New Orleans Chapter things turned completely around.  The new president dismissed the Hams, had the radio station and all equiptment removed from the chapter and cut ties with many of those who had years of experiance volunteering during storms. When Katrina hit, evacuees flooded into the Baton Rouge area and the local Red Cross Chapter was virtually paralized in it's operations from lack of trained volunteers or planning.  No big suprise there. Those that did come out to help found the complete confusion to be further evidence that local government and private agencies are all talk and no action regarding preparing for and responding to emergencies likely to occur.  
And don't get me started on 9/11. Frigging Condi Rice telling reporters after the attack that "nobody could have forseen the use of hijacked airliners as missles".  PULESE!  
Six months before the attack the X-Files spin off The Lone Gunmen used a plot to crash an airliner into the WTC to expand the military industrial complex as part of it's pilot episode.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Gunmen_(TV_series)
Heck, after the shootings at Columbine police found a diary belonging to the shooters detailing plans to hijack a plane and crash it into New York.
So 2 loosers from Colorado can come up with this scenerio but the people in charge of our national security can stand at a podium and claim to be completely blindsided to terrorists doing something like this? Give me a break.  

I have no doubt that the "next Katrina or 9/11" will be just a big of a Chinese Firedrill as these events were.
Can you say New Madrid faultline?
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