Blackberry REACT August 2006 NewsletterPhil Stripling, Editor
Quick Clicks Louise and I have a list of links to information on using fuel cells to extend battery life, on dealing with pandemics (and the county plans for pandemics), ham radio reports from disaster areas, and more at our blog:
http:// www.bloglines.com/blog/CivilizedExplorer,
which has an RSS feed you can subscribe to. If any members have their own pages or blogs on preparedness, let me know. For additional information, including the Santa Clara emergency frequency list and San Mateo emergency telephone number list, see our preparedness page at
www.civex.com/stuff.
For links to preparedness information, see
(NOTE: Bloglines is having database problems, I'm sorry to say, on the date of this newletter, so sometimes there are posts there and sometimes there are not. My apologies, but check back if they are down when you drop by.) The New York Times has an article on personal information, an issue emergency responders probably forget. We all have our go to bags, but what about our personal information? If our house is on the edge of a landslide or damaged after an earthquake or near a fire, what financial information do have have to save? (The article is old and you must purchase the right to view it.) The geeks at Slashdot have additional suggestions on how to get all your necessary data on a flashdrive. RTI is a company based at the well-known Research Triangle in North Carolina; the company has tested a "paint-on" antenna; see their press release. RTI tested the paint-on antenna in Nevada on an airship floating above Nevada. Among the many suggested uses is communications during disaster relief operations. I have mentioned before that repeaters in Louisiana failed both because of destruction by the hurricane and because batteries and generators ran out and could not be replenished. The RTI press release is long on how great the technology is and short on just what it is, so I'm unable to figure out why paint-on technology is better than lofting a balloon with a wire, but I'm sure someone will figure it out and post an explanation. Meanwhile, in the real world, a group of volunteers in Mississippi helped a neighborhood rebuild while the volunteers (apparently having plenty of generator power) set up their own WiFi LAN and maintained contact not only with friends and family here in the Bay Area but with their employers, continuing to work by telecommuting. See smugmug for photos of the devastation and reconstruction. See the C|Net News report on their WiFi set up at a disaster site. WiFi communications at Net Control seems very interesting, yes? With hurricane season upon us again, Hurricane Watch is up and running. See the National Hurricane Center Web site at http://www.wx4nhc.org/ for more information and frequencies. For VOIP, Echolink, and IRLP comms, see http://www.voipwx.net/ There are weekly VOIP Skywarn/Hurricane Prep Nets on Echolink and IRLP; they like to have everyone be Net Control for the experience, so visit their site and sign up for WX-TALK. (A hint: wx is an abbreviation for weather.) Iowa has a Veterinary Rapid Response Team to respond to "foreign animal disease and natural disasters; see the news report, and the Santa Clara Valley Red Cross hosted a Community Disaster Preparedness and Response Event on July 22 which, for the first time, included animals as part of the package. People in rural areas have long known that their livestock must be a part of every response to a disaster (generally wild- fires in the West and rangefires in the Midwest), but Hurricane Katrina is the first time pets have played a roll in declining to be evacuated. The event has already happened, but if you want information, see the Web page with the flyer and contact information. SAN MATEO CITY STARTS NEST CLASSES AGAINThe City of San Mateo is offering its version of CERT classes, called Neighborhood Emergency Service Team Training. Classes are free. The first round started July 11, and the second set of six classes will beging September 14. This set of classes are all on Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, with the exception of one Saturday training from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm on October 14. Classes are held at the San Mateo Senior Center, 2645 Alameda de las Pulgas, in San Mateo. See the Web site for more information and to sign up. As of the day I visited, you need to go to the Activities page and click Adult Leisure Education then page through till you get to the Community Emergency Response Team class, which is how it's called on the Web page (when I entered the course number in the search box, I got a page saying nothing was found). You'd think they didn't want people to be able to sign up or something. CIVIL GRAND JURY FINDS LACK OF PREPARATION IN SAN MATEO COUNTYA civil grand jury looked into the state of preparedness in the County of San Mateo and released its report on Wednesday, July 19, 2006. Louise and I have reviewed the report and find fault with its conclusion that the City of San Mateo has no CERT-trained residents; the problem is that, as announced in the preceding paragraph, NEST classes had stopped for some time and are resuming - the grand jury lists trainees only of the resumed classes and there were none at the time the report was drafted. We note that the grand jury report lauds the Menlo Park Fire District as a model for training. Jon Mosby, of course, is one of the trainers in Menlo Park, we are happy to remind you. An article on the grand jury report is on the Mercury News Web site The report itself (a .pdf file) is here. EventsJon Mosby reports that the Breathe California bike event was sucessful for the organizers. They reported being happy with our services, and they have our comm logs which they will use to plan for next year's event. There was one injury that happened when a cyclist fell in front of a sheriff, who called in for the ambulance. The rider is reported to have had a concussion. Lesson learned: they cut off all his clothes in the emergency room, leaving him naked. I'm not sure what the lesson is. We heard of the injury through the grapevine, but we had no idea who was hurt; the hospital would release no information under the HIPPAA rules. (The event was formerly the ALA Bike for Breath.) The Art & Wine Festival is September 9 and 10; which is not a lot of time after our September meeting. Please email Phil Henderson now to let him know whether you will be able to volunteer. ICS/SIMS/NEMS training will be provided at the Fire/Police Headquarters in Mt. View on August 26, from 10:00 am to 12:00 N. HQ is at 1000 Villa Street. This course is approved by the State of California. Check with Jerry Haag on whether you need to register before going. HAM CLASS ON OCTOBER 22Ross Peterson is offering the next ham class on October 22, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at Washington Hospital West in Fremont; the fee is $30. Takers may now register online at http://www.baears.com (the Bay Area Educational Amateur Radio Society) where you will find more information and a .pdf copy of the flyer. UpdatesOkay, here's a recursive, self-referential tautology: You'll see a Google satellite image of - er, uh, a satellite image or something. The Chinese have a 900m X 700m scale model of a mountainous terrain, with snow covered peaks and lakes. Any clues? Vanity Fair is a fashion magazine that I'm sure none of us reads. They have an article online called "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes" at VanityFair.com The article tells the story of September 11, 2001, from the small room at the Northeast Air Defense Sector near Rome, NY. The online article describes what NEADS was doing that day to track the highjacked planes, and you can play the tapes. It's a fascinating look at real communications in a real emergency that nobody saw coming. I have longer commentary on the article at http:// www.bloglines.com/blog/CivilizedExplorer |