RACES / ARES Nets So Far This Year

• 04/04/11 RACES Net Control 0345 to 0630
• 04/10/11 RACES Net activation
• 04/14/11 RACES Net activation – Net Control for a bit: 2150 to 2320
• 04/19/11 RACES activation – Net Control 1630 to 1915
• 04/23/11 RACES activation – Back-up & Net Control 1803 – 0004
• 04/24/11 RACES activation – Net Control & Back-Up 1924 – 0019
• 04/25/11 3 RACES activations – Net Control & Back-Up 0324–0513; 1153–1209; 1510 – 1557
• 05/01/11 3 RACES activations – Net Control, etc. #1 0305 – 0435; #2 ARES: 0858-0957; #3 1725 – 1835
• 05/10/11 RACES activation 1327 – 1418
• 05/19/11 RACES Net Control Back-Up 1426 – 1703; ARES Net Control 1704 – 1730
• 05/22/11 ACES activation Net Control & Back-Up 1912 – 2107
• 05/24/11 At Arlington EOC as EOC Net Control for 3 lines of severe thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes 1615 to 2315

I'm pretty sure this number already exceeds the total number of RACES activations in all of 2009 and 2010.

Be Smart, Not Tough, About Tornadoes

Professional stormchaser Jenna Blum's OpEd in the Boston Globe commenting on the recent Springfield, MA tornado and others. Jenna gave an interesting and entertaining accoun of how she became a stormchaser at TESSA in March. She's also the author of NY Times bestseller, "Those Who Save Us," and "The Stormchasers." Her website is: www.jennablum.com. I would love to be able to join her in a chase!

FEMA Head Describes Amateur Radio as "Our Last Line of Defense."

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate described the Amateur Radio operator as “the ultimate backup, the originators of what we call social media.”  Because of the resiliences of our wired and wireless infrastructure and public safety and public safety communications systems, FEMA has tended to dismiss the role of Amateur Radio but‘When Everything Else Fails.’ Amateur Radio oftentimes is our last line of defense.” But he also states that they do, have and will fail. "I think a strong Amateur Radio community [needs to be] plugged into these plans. Yes, most of the time they’re going be bored, because a lot of the time, there’s not a lot they’re going to be doing that other people aren’t doing with Twitter and Facebook and everything else. But when you need Amateur Radio, you really need them.”

Original AARL article 

Wild and Very Wicked Weather

I'll perhaps edit and be a LOT more specific, but suffice it to say that this year has been horrible weather wise with as many RACES activations so far as we've had total in the previous couple of years, and it's not even June. Everyone I know in the emergency community has been stunned and horrified by the death and destruction tornadoes have wrought throughout the country. With large tornadoes in OK, and Joplin still searching for survivors and the missing, we very much dreaded similar here. We knew 3 or 4 days in advance Tuesday, May 24 was going to be bad. How bad, was the question. I was called in to serve as radio operator for the Arlington EOC at 3:45, well in advance of rotating cells moving into northern Tarrant County.  Those had numerous wall clous and dropped a couple of small tornadoes, exploding in size. We breathed a quick breath of relief, only to a second line of even stronger and more dangerous storms start moving in. Those produced more small tornadoes, produced golf ball to baseball size hail, and had brief 70mph wind gusts and sirens sounded all over the country. A small cell popped up in East Fort Worth, exploded in growth and was dropped golf balls as it moved into Arlington. It was also rotating. The EOC was immediately on the phone ordering the authorities at The Ball Park to immediately evacuate fans to shelter. Portions of that cell went over my house and I leaned later than 1/2" hail covered the laws and that something strange caused the tress in the back to blow in opposite directions at the same time. I asked Bill Bunting at NWS if it was a possible small spin up twister, and he replied that it couldn't be ruled out, but it was more likely since many of the storms were rotating and with the hail had rear flank downdrafts, it was a brief RFD. Thankfully no damage here. Officials at DFW Airport evacuated all passengers from planes and from the terminal to safe locations due to an approaching tornado and large hail. I got a text from DD that "lrgr than golf ball hail here." Her car is a mess. Early on I'd called my sister to call my nephew who lives only 1 mile east of a location where a wall cloudo with developing funnel was spotted. They watched it go over. When the Arlington cell started moving in she called my other nephew and told them to take shelter immediately. They were at the Ball Park. That particular cell moved into Dallas County and did drop a tornado in Lancaster / DeSoto. Then a 3rd line of storms popped up in a matter of a couple of radar sweeps and moved through the country and over Arlington as well. Thankfully the second line had drained much of the energy out of the atmosphere and they were the least severe. The last vestige of storms exited Tarrant County just before 11p.m. The Tornado Watch was cancelled and we all went home to destress and eat. I hadn't even had breakfast, but did grab a bag of animal crackers from a vending machine.

Officially there were 8 NWS confirmed tornadoes in the DFW area. The only death was from electrocution when a power pole was blown over on top of someone outside.  Thankfully, I was NOT Net Control for this 8 hours period. Instead at the EOC I was monitoring 2 radio frequencies, watching radar, monitoring NWS Chat, trying to see the TV screen with local news reports way to far above my head, pass critical information to or have staff standing behind me asking questions, AND take copious notes. To say it was really more than 1 person can handle is ... well, it's practically all a blur now.  With so many people affected, it is really petty of me to grouse (but only a teeny-weenie bit and only in hindsight),  however I sat in a windowless office for 8 hours, saw almost nothing of news broadcasts and totally nothing of what was going on outside. Those storms, as bad and dangerous as they were, I would liked to have seen. Star-Telegram article here.

Tuscaloosa, Joplin, El Reno and other communities were all but wiped off the map. We had some bad weather.  My prayers for all of you affected by the storms and flooding this year. What is going on???

With yet another line of severe storms moving toward DFW, need to switch attention from ongoing process of changing look of blog.. It's been a VERY ACTIVE YEAR!  I'm now an official Back-Up Net Control for Tarrant County RACES and an unofficial member but invited guest of the Leadership Council that meets at the Fort Worth/Tarrant County Joint EOC. Other than still conducting the ham portion of the monthly Arlington OEM outdoor warning siren tests, so far this year they've not requested radio operators to be onsite during severe weather events that impact Arlington and are monitoring the radios themselves.

Hams Provide Communications Support During West Texas Wildfires

"We also sent hams to assist at the Alpine Police Department and the dispatch in Brewster County, as well as at the radio stations. Due to the fire, there was no electricity or phone service, so hams at the police department and dispatch handled traffic. The ham at the radio station received messages from the Emergency Operations Center in Brewster County concerning public safety, highway closures and evacuations to be broadcast over the air.”  Click for full article. I was not involved, but this highlights the necessity and versatility of volunteer amateur radio operators providing communications for governmental agencies during emergencies.

Yes, more hail!!

RACES Net Control. Primarily a hail event with sizes ranging from pea-size to golfballs and some 2" hail as well. Two plus solid hours of non-stop hail reports across Tarrant County. As a result I missed the CERT continuing education class about the city's emergency radio "Go Kits. Who knows. Maybe they listened to the RACES Net. Thankfully no hail at my house so baby tomatoes were safe.