SPARCS Ham Radio Emergency Communication

“Mean Dean” Cause For High Stakes Readiness

First it was Tropical Storm “Erin” that kicked off the 2007 hurricane season in the Rio Grande Valley. No sooner than Erin puffed ashore then “DEAN” emerge from Hurricane Alley and set sights on South Padre Island, Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley. And, just like Katrina, Rita and Emily before him Dean decided in mid-trip to visit other shores. 

District 3 ARES (8 Counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley) remained on “Condition 3″ alert for almost one week starting on August 17th. Ham Radio communications links were setup via HF and Two-Meters with the State Operations Center in Austin as well as the Joint Operations Center for Texas Military Forces including Texas National Guard and Texas State Guard Medical Rangers. On the local front our 146.70 MHz ARES repeater was thrust into action with nightly updates and infomation nets operating each evening beginning at 7 p.m. On Sunday, August 19th the local ARES net launched a “local huddle” net every three hours from noon until 9 p.m. with information from ARES operators who were set up at the City of Brownsville EOC.  At the peak of activity in anticipation of Hurricane Dean both voice and digital HF nets were operational including Winlink HF connectivity to PMBO stations in Houston, San Antonio and Austin.  Additional communications between the “Alamo Unified Command and Control Facility” in San Antonio and operators on the ground in McAllen were handled via Echolink on 146.70 repeater and in the following days as demobilization began and large amounts of equipment started to head back to original locations as far away as Dallas and Fort Worth.

Hurricane Dean set the stage for what was to be the largest evacuation in history for the State of Texas. Before the hurricane hit the Yucatan coast 88,000 barrels of gasoline in addtion to normal retail flows were pushed into Rio Grande Valley pipelines (up to 3 million gallons of gas), 2802 school buses were quickly moved into place, 10,000 Texas Military troops were activated including support equipment, and search and rescue assets including helicopters and swim teams were moved into place sufficient to provide search and rescue operations for an expected 30,000 victims as Texas Department of Emergency Management prepared for a Catagory 5 hurricane had “Dean” actually decided to make it to Brownsville and South Padre Island.

 According to local ARES Coordinators had the storm arrived at the strength originally forecast, about the only short-fall would have been in the number of local Ham Radio Operators that were available to serve. Preparations and practice had been in place on three seperate occassions from the beginning of summer 2007 forward however there would have not been enough Ham  Operators to fill  the demand. Recent exercises in which ARES participated included “Hurex 2007″ a state-wide drill of the Texas Coastal Evacuation Plan including “Special Needs” evacuations, the “Texas Interoperability Communications Plan” which tested the ability of local, state and federal agencies to communicate between one another, and finally just a couple of weeks before “Erin” and “Dean”, the annual “Operation Lone Star” deployment of Texas Military Forces over the Valley to practice delivery of medical and dental services to the less fortunate and uninsured adults and children in our part of the country in Cameron and Hidalgo counties.  Thanks to the following individuals who made the operation a success with their support and commitment to ARES:

Jeff Johnson and Staff - City of Brownsville EOC
Johnny Cavazos and Staff - Cameron County EOC
Texas Military Forces - Joint Operations Center
S.T.A.R.S. (linked and wide-area radio repeater network)
Chief Police Harlingen TX - New Telpac and PMBO
CHARRO Ham Radio Club - Brownsville Texas

And also thanks to the following ARES members for exceptional courage and follow-through and for the many hours of tireless work that has to be done when such events or other disaster is eminent:
K5RAV, WA5ZIP, K5VC, KB5TMC, KD5ZZE, N5SLI, W5CZI, KC5RFW, W6LUY, W8ELV, KC6CNN, NS5D, KK5CA, N5NAV, N5PVL, WA4BEW and many more.