UA-156993788-1

Preparing for the inevitable in Stanwood, Washington

Author:

Big Island ARRL News, 29 December 2016, 17:55 hrs, UTC, Post #81.

Source:

http://www.scnews.com/news/article_b86f2130-c95c-11e6-9621-0397016c08f4.html

http://www.eham.net/articles/38316.

Accessed on 29 December 2016, 17:55 hrs, UTC.

Reporter:  Jeremiah O’Hagan (“Standwood Camano News”).

Please click link to read the full story.

Comment:

Amateur Radio operators stand ready to help their communities in time of disaster. Whether it be assisting emergency management officials in Hawaii during tsunamis or earthquakes or planning for the devastating earthquake that will happen in the Puget Sound area of Washington State (the topic of this article), radio amateurs will provide the necessary skills to maintain emergency communications for their distressed communities.

In this article from the “Standwood Camano News”, reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan does an excellent job of describing how this small Puget Sound community in Washington state is preparing for a major shift in the Cascadia Fault that could leave the small town isolated for weeks.

According to reporter O’Hagan, leaders of the Camano Preparedness Group are training CERT (Community Emergency Teams) volunteers in subjects ranging from basic medical and triage care to maintaining emergency communications with the “outside world.”

Camano Community Group leaders Ryan and Bill Swander say Amateur Radio operators will play an important part in keeping the small community intact.

“There are over 100 ham radio operators on the island,” Swander said. “That two-way communication is important for people’s morale and psyche.”

“Recently, people from Warm Beach, Smokey Point, Stanwood and Port Townsend have contacted Camano Preparedness Group for information about starting their own versions of the organization.

Ryan and Swander said the bottom line is that Camano Preparedness Group wants to prepare people for whatever happens. Even if the Cascadia Fault doesn’t break, “Mother Nature can throw a lot of things our way,” Ryan said.

The group meets the second Thursday each month from 7-9 p.m. at the Vista/Madrona Fire Station on Camano Island. Meetings are open to “anybody who’ll sit still long enough,” Swander said.

For more information, visit camanopreparednessgroup.org.”

 In Hawaii, clubs such as the Emergency Amateur Radio Club on Oahu and ARES volunteers on the neighbor islands continually train to render communications support in times of emergencies.
If you’re a licensed Amateur Radio operator living in Hawaii, consider joining ARES and serving your local community with your communications skills.
For the latest ARRL news and events, please check out the blog sidebars. These news feeds are updated daily.
For more Amateur Radio news, please visit these websites:
http://www.kh6jrm.info (breaking news for radio amateurs).
http://kh6jrm.blogspot.com (Simple Ham Radio Antennas–in the right hand sidebar of this blog).
http://hawaiisciencedigest.com (latest science and technology news).
Please send your Hawaii Island Amateur Radio news and club activities to kh6jrm@arrl.net at least two weeks prior to your event so I can notify our local print and broadcast media in a timely fashion.
Opinions expressed in this blog are mine unless otherwise stated.
Aloha es 73 de
Russell Roberts (KH6JRM)
Public Information Coordinator
Hawaii Island, ARRL Pacific Section

 

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