MARC Emergency Preparedness Committee

March 2007 Report

On December 9th at approximately 0745 hours in the morning an unannounced disaster drill was held. Nine persons from the mountain area were called for the disaster training along with various Madera County agencies. Three responded to the CDF fire station on highway 49 in Ahwahnee to provide communications in support of the drill. Thanks to those operators that were able to respond. A hospital drill is planned for this spring. Don’t just stay home waiting for a call but do have your equipment standing by for that day your phone rings.

RACES Coordinator
Jerry, WA6ONA

December 2005 Report

There will be drill in early December, requiring six + operators to man a shelter, command center staging area etc. There will be minimal communications with most of the drill being a table-top exercise. You must be registered as a RACES member in Madera County, if you are interested in working this drill sent me an e-mail (wa6ona@w6bw.org). If you have limited experience in emergency drills I will place you with a more experienced operator.

Jerry WA6ONA
Radio Officer, Madera County

December 2004 Report

There was a state wide exercise and the Community Hospital (Urgent Care) in Oakhurst was one of the participants in the exercise on Thursday, November 18th. It was a table top exercise on a Bio attack, and RACES personnel observed the exercise. .

73's Dick W6RFR
Chairman, Emergency Preparedness

September 2004 Report

I had the privilege of attending a four-day Integrated Emergency Management Course at Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama with 67 other people from Madera County. This was a good opportunity for amateur radio. Many times during the four days the instructors would stress the use of our services and say “you have an operator here, don't forget to use these services”. I had the opportunity to meet and work with the leaders in emergency operations for the cities of Madera and Chowchilla and the entire county.

This training was made possible by the continued efforts of Berry Thorn, director of the Madera County Office of Emergency Services. For three years he has worked with the County and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to put this program together. A Homeland Security grant covered the cost of the course as well as the travel.

During the classes there were three training drills, each day's drill was longer and more involved than the previous day's drill. The water problem in Oakhurst, the fires near Mariposa and other problems in the valley all played a part in the drills. All aspects of the drills were based on possible emergencies in Madera County using our cities and county areas and maps. There were closed circuit TV news broadcasts covering Madera as well as other parts of the country, these all played a part in each of the drills. All in all, this was a very good training for me personally and great exposure for ham radio.

Jerry WA6ONA, Radio Officer EMC

June 2004 Report

On Saturday, May 8th, there was an emergency preparedness drill involving many groups in the mountain area. The date and time were not announced ahead of time so that this would function like a real incident. Since the drill was only to be a maximum of two hours we did call 45 minutes before the start so that some would not arrive and possibility work less than an hour. Those that said "I'll be there" showed up in a matter of minutes. In the EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS article, Dick covered some of the problems experienced. In general it was a good drill, next time we will be better prepared. Many thanks to all that participated.

Jerry WA6ONA, Radio Officer EMC

September 2003 Report

There are several emergency exercises coming up; mark your calendar for November 13, a statewide disaster drill, details to be announced. A countywide disaster drill will be in early spring 2004. I have orange vests with "COMMUNICATIONS- AMATEUR RADIO" on the back, all persons working at drills or real emergencies should have one of these vests for identification. Vests are $8.00 each and may be purchased from me, if interested call Robbie or Thelma at 559 683-2719 and have them put you on the list.

Jerry WA6ONA, Radio Officer EMC

June 2003 Report

There are at least three RACES drills scheduled for this year. The first is May 14, mainly planned as medical exercise in the Oakhurst area with two later on in the year to deal with terrorism and possible weapons of mass destruction. If you were not asked to help in the first drill don't worry I plan to include everyone who wants to participate in the future drills. Field Day 2003 is another exercise in emergency communications, all RACES/ARES persons should plan to participate in the endeavor, i.e. help in planning, setup, testing equipment, operate and/or logging, teardown & food service. There are never too many people when it comes to field day, if you can't sign up at the next club meeting call me or any board member and let us know how you would like to help.

Jerry WA6ONA, Radio Officer EMC

March 2003 Report

In RACES, an outside dual-band antenna has been ordered for the Madera County Sheriff's station in Madera, and should be installed soon. Also all the emergency antenna drops in Oakhurst and Madera are being reviewed for location, and maintenance. A detailed list will be published of the antenna locations along with pictures and instructions.

73's Dick W6RFR Chairman, Emergency Preparedness

December 2002 Report

On November 14, there was a statewide exerci-se of Emergency Medical Serv-ices; this was a small tabletop exercise with 6 of our club members participating. We manned three locations, ready to provide emergency communi-cation should the need arise. Thanks to Rich and Jean Campbell (W6GBD, KF6MZD), Bob Jaehnig (KQ6KT), Tom Canton (WB6GXQ) and Dick Rekart (W6RFR) for their service.

A larger scale exercise is being planned for early 2003, in preparation for this exercise all RACES members should check their "Ready Kit" to ensure that they have the basic communication equipment (see page 6 of the Sept.-Nov. 2002, MARC newsletter). If you don't have a "Ready Kit", now is the time to put one together. In the near future, a list of required equipment will be distributed to all RACES members.

Have a happy and safe holiday season. 73's Jerry WA6ONA

September 2002 Report

The Club has three members participating in a Search and Rescue Training Course, called SAR TECH II, which requires approximately 64 hours of training or eight Saturdays of committed time. The trainees are Jerry Thompson WA6ONA, Bob Austin KC6EZE, and Dick Rekart W6RFR. Completion is scheduled for October.

73 Dick Rekart W6RFR, RO EMC R.A.C.E.S./A.R.E.S

March 2002 Report

This last December Sheriff John Anderson put on a dinner for all volunteers in the Sheriffs dept. There were 30 people from our RACES group that attended. Those of you who didn't come sure missed out on a great TriTip dinner with all of the trimmings. We would like to thank Sheriff Anderson on behalf of all the RACES members for the great dinner.

All ARES members this is a future request for radio support for the Yosemite Sierra Winterfest which will take place next February 7,8,9, 2003. I will need about 10 operators for this event. Radio operators will be needed at the Pines Village, Goat Meadows, Cold Springs, Sivels Meadows, and Nelder Grove. Plans are now being formulated for this event. If you are interested and want to know more you can go to their web page at (www.sierrawinterfest.com) for more information.

73 Ken K6LFR, RO EMC R.A.C.E.S./A.R.E.S

December 2001 Report

The North Fork fire started on 8/20/01 at 12:25pm. At 5:00pm I received a call from Berry Thorne our OES person from the Madera County Sheriff's Office to activate and set up emergency communications at the operations center at the Bass Lake sub station, and the Little Church in the Pines at Bass Lake and also to set up a station at the North Fork Assembly of God Church at North Fork. We had these stations all up and running by 7pm that evening. We were to supply communications for the Red Cross at these evacuation centers. Seeing that traffic could be handled direct from these stations, we closed down the Bass Lake Sub Station at 9:pm on the 8/21/01 and transferred all to North Fork and on the 23rd the Little Church in the Pines was closed and all were transferred to North Fork also. On 8/25/01 we received orders from Sharon Martinez of the Red Cross to close down the radio operations there and they would handle any further communications the telephone.

There were 15 members of the R.A.C.E.S./A.R.E.S that took part in this operation for a total of about 167 hours .There were 13 active K6LFR, WB6BZZ, W6WWT, KC6EZE, KK6VS, KK6XO, KF6WYH, N6RDY, WB6GXQ, K6IX, W6FX, K6STR, KQ6KT and on standby KC6UEW, N6XOH, and Rita Peterson. My thanks to all of you who turned out and helped you were there when I needed you good job well done .

73 Ken K6LFR, RO EMC R.A.C.E.S./A.R.E.S