TIME OF INCIDENT START: 0803 1/18/08
TIME OF INCIDENT COMPLETION REPORTED: 2320 1/18/08
15 minutes later - they were reactivated.
On Friday, 1/18/2008, Clatsop County had a communications emergency involving the 911 system being
down and no phone service in most of the county. Columbia County assisted in handling 911 calls by
rerouting as needed.
Clatsop County ARES assets activated and deployed personnel to police, fire, USCG, and medical
facilities per their standard operating procedure (SOP).
Columbia County ARES monitored the Columbia County EOC ham room, but were not activated.
At 1418, the 911 capabilities were partially restored in the southern part of the county.
The rest of the county was going through fire department communications.
At 2320, service was restored and the Clatsop County Sheriff's Office had the ARES assets stand-down.
0658 hrs 1/19/08 report from D1 DEC, David Kidd KA7OZO
Got a phone call asking me to come up on 146.66 repeater. when I did I was informed by the Clatsop
Co EC that 15 min after they told us things were fixed, something broke resulting in a total break
down of telephone communications in Clatsop Co again. The reported repair time is at least 12-hrs
from 0600 this morning.
The Clatsop Co EC asked for (6) personnel to support his operation in Clatsop Co. I have started to
meet this request by contacting Washington Co ARES since one of the requested locations is the Elsie
FS and then will be calling adjacent counties to Clatsop Co.
0915 hrs 1/19/08 report from D1 DEC, David Kidd KA7OZO
At the present time the following deployments from D-1 counties are as listed in support of the emergency:
Clackamas Co: 2 to Clatsop EOC
Washington Co: 2 to Elsie Fire Station
Columbia Co: 2 to Napa Fire Station>br>
Tillamook Co: 2 to Clatsop EOC for further deployment as needed
Multnomah Co: has 2 personnel on stand-by if needed
1224 hrs 1/19/08 report from D1 DEC, David Kidd KA7OZO
Clatsop Co EOC released all ARES assets at 1200 hrs this date after telephone communication systems
were reestablished and fully operational.
District-1 supported this even with personnel from other D-1 counties:
Columbia Co - 2 (deployed to Napa FS)
Clackamas Co - 2 (deployed but held up at Hwy #26 and tunnel per DEC instructions)
Washington Co -2 (deployed to Elsie FS)
Tillamook Co - 2 (deployed to Astoria EOC)
Multnomah Co - 2 on stand-by
and it is unknown at this time how many Clatsop CO ARES personnel were involved in this operation.
Once again ARES personnel provided a needed service at the request of a county emergency manager.
ARES personnel met the challenge and provided the needed service and manpower to minimize the
impact on Clatsop Co residents.
District-1 PIO was able to make media contacts and was interviewed by several stations during this
two day event. KE7JSS has done a great job bringing ARES to the forefront during the recent activations.
As the DEC of D-1 I am proud of what our people accomplished during this event. This event showed
the good team effort put forth by District-1 personnel by deploying manpower to needed sites and
in a proper timely manner at the request of the DEC and Clatsop Co EC.
A check with the various county ECs was made. They were informed that their personnel had been
released back to their control and were on their way back to their home counties after stopping
for lunch and refueling.
The Clatsop Co EC will be submitting the ARRL Public Service Report soon.
If you have any questions concerning this activation or any District-1 matters, please feel
free to contact me.
CUL & 73
David M. Kidd
KA7OZO
District Emergency Coordinator (ARES)
Oregon ARES District One
Posted by Bonnie Altus, Oregon SM on Saturday 19 January 2008 - 08:32:10
Source: Oregon ARRL Section News
01/18/2008 |
$250,000 OADN (Oregon ARES Digital Network) Grant
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The Governor's remarks about Ham Radio Operators being "the real heroes" are
well known and widely disseminated by now; but what you may not know is that
the Governor's Special Assistant for Emergency Preparedness spent a lot of
time observing things in the OEM ECC (Oregon Emergency Management Emergency
Communications Center) and ARU (Amateur Radio Unit) during the flood
incident.
He was particularly impressed by what he correctly identified as a "digital
message" system that was getting hard-copy messages to and from the affected
areas on the Coast. More than 170 messages in fact. Vince VanDerHyde, K7VV,
gave him a brief overview of the Winlink system, and explained that the
equipment was all personally owned by individual hams, and that the
availability of it varied greatly by county, with some parts of the state not
having any, other parts with some, but only to the extent that one of more
local hams or organizations were willing to pay for it and allow its use for
disaster purposes. Even the SCS Pactor modem at OEM was paid for by private
monies of the ARU, not the State.
A few days later he was back asking, "how much money do you need to put one of
these systems in every County EOC in the State?"
That is how it all started. A group of the ARES/RACES leadership along with
OEM staff are working on out the details and as more information is
available, it will be distributed through the ARES/RACES leadership. I will
also post appropriate details on the section website and distribute
throughout the section as more information is known.
Source: Oregon ARRL Section News
01/13/2008 |
Up Coming Winlink2000 Training Session
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Airmail, a Packet/Pactor/Telnet client software used to communicate with the Winlink2000 system,
will be the topic of a training session, Thursday January 17th at 6pm, at the Umatilla County
Emergency Operations Center in Pendelton Oregon. This session will focus on some of the back
ground highlights of Winlink2000, and the installation and configuration of the Airmail software,
to communicate into the Winlink2000 system.
User are reminded to bring their Packet gear, so that they can "connect" via RF to the TelPac
Gateway that will be provided at the session.
Umatilla County Emergency Management
4700 NW Pioneer Place
Pendleton, OR 97801
01/08/2008 |
Oregon Governor Allocates $250,000 for Digital Communications Network
|
The State of Oregon's Office of Emergency Management (OEM) received $250,000
from Governor Ted Kulongoski's Strategic Reserve Fund to further develop and
enhance a statewide Amateur Radio digital communications network, announced
ARRL Oregon Section Manager Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ.
"This network, the Oregon ARES Digital Network (OADN), already uses a combination
of different radio equipment and spectrum segments, computers and the Internet to
provide a robust backup communications system in times of disaster. With its
enhancements, all Oregon counties will be able to communicate with the state OEM,"
she said. "In December, this system proved its usefulness in the storms and floods
by utilizing Winlink stations in Lincoln and Clatsop Counties to communicate with OEM.
Early in that activation, the OEM's Amateur Radio Unit found they were not able to keep
up with maintaining a complete log of communications when using voice communications,
but Winlink activities maintained an automatic log for them."
According to Altus, the primary purpose of the OADN is to provide back-up digital communications
capabilities between county Emergency Operations Centers and Oregon Emergency Management and other
state agencies in Salem, in the event that normal communications systems fail in an emergency.
During the December storms, Amateur Radio operators were there to help. After a visit to one of
the severely affected towns, Governor Kulongoski said, "I'm going to tell you who the heroes were
from the very beginning of this...the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually
provided a tremendous communication link to us." Oregon's OEM said the radio operators were "tireless
in their efforts to keep the systems connected. When even state police had difficulty reaching some of
their own troops, ham radio worked, setting up networks so emergency officials could communicate and
relaying lists of supplies needed in stricken areas."
Through an Intergovernmental Agreement between the individual county Emergency Mangers and Oregon's
Office of Emergency Management, ARES/RACES groups in each county will be responsible for installation,
maintenance and operation the network.
Information Source - ARRL
01/04/2008 |
Umatilla County Emergency Operation Center Activated |
Pendleton, Ore. – The Umatilla County Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in Pendleton Oregon was activated
shortly after 8:30 am in response to an event involving severe winds causing extensive damage in
and around eastern Umatilla County cities.
They are coordinating response activities with the cities of Weston, Milton-Freewater, Athena,
Adams, Pilot Rock and Helix. They have also made contact with Umatilla County Public Health
and Oregon Emergency Management. Local American Red Cross representatives have also been
contacted in the event that shelters are needed for area residents.
There was no ARES/RACES activation during this event.
Source: Umatilla County Emergency Operation Center.
Images of over-turned trucks on I-84 at Cabbage Hill
Images provided by Oregon State Police
01/01/2008 |
UMESRO Communication Plan Update |
The UMESRO Emergency Communication Plan had been updated as of December 31 2007.
This update includes operation details of area Winlink2000 Gateways, HF frequencies
for both Oregon State and Washington State, along with VHF/UHF information for Operation
Centers, and Command and Control Nets.
The Updated Communication Plan can be viewed from the Plans Section of this website
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