American Red Cross Gold Country Region Red Cross Disaster Communications and the Amateur Radio / ARES Community 1
American Red Cross Gold Country Region ● Jim Piper, RN & N6MED Disaster Health Services Disaster Services Technology: Liaison to ARES / Amateur Radio ● American Red Cross since 2014 ● Amateur Radio interests: EmComm, Public Service Comms ● ARES 1994-2012 ● DEC Santa Cruz County late '90s ● CERT Santa Cruz County 2002-2008 ● NDMS Disaster Medical Assistance Team CA-11, Sacramento ● Numerous FEMA and other disaster training 2 courses
American Red Cross Gold Country Region 26 Counties 3
American Red Cross Gold Country Region For What Kind of Incident Does the Red Cross Activate? ● Disasters “Small” localized incidents: family burned out of their home Residents burned out of an apartment building Wide-area disasters: Wild-land fire threatening occupied structures (e.g., 2015 Calif Fires fires) Earthquake (e.g., '89 Loma Prieta and '14 Napa quakes) 4
American Red Cross Gold Country Region What Major Disaster Threats in NorCal? Wild-land fire Flooding Train Derailment (think toxics shipped by rail) Major power outage 5
American Red Cross Gold Country Region 100 Year Flood Resources spread to the limit (ya think?!?) 6
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How and By Whom is the Red Cross Activated? ● Depends on the incident Small incident (house or apartment house fire) by the Incident Commander on the scene. Call made to the Red Cross on-call Disaster Action Team 7
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How is the Red Cross Activated ... (con't)? ● Red Cross on-call Disaster Action Team 8 **Photo from the public domain
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How and By Whom is the Red Cross Activated? Large incident (earthquake, wild-land fire, etc), if EOC activated, request from EOC officials to the EOC Red Cross representative for an evacuation center or shelter close to the affected area an approx number of affected 9 individuals
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How is the Red Cross Activated ... (con't)? ● LARGE shelters: 10
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How is the Red Cross Activated ... (con't)? Small incident, the Red Cross on-call Disaster Action Team responds to the sene to attend to the disaster victims for immediate needs of shelter, clothing, food, unmet medical needs. 11
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How is the Red Cross Activated ... (con't)? ● When a large incident (earthquake, wild- land fire, etc) the Red Cross representative at the EOC contacts the Disaster Program Manager (DPM) responsible for the affected area. ● Response might be to take over a shelter already opened by the county Or ● Activate a previously unopened shelter 12
American Red Cross Gold Country Region And the Red Cross Operation Begins ... ● DPM via support from headquarters (Exposition Blvd., Sac) contacts Shelter Manager and other support staff ● Ideally, DPM or COML (Liaison to ARES) contacts ARES leadership in the area affected to request radio resources ● Contacts other partners according to the need (i.e., number of clients needing to be served) ● Contacts Nurse On Call according to client unmet medical needs 13
American Red Cross Gold Country Region How Red Cross Operates in a Disaster Response ● ICS regardless whether for a Local Response (Gold Country Region local resources) and National Response (resources from across the country) ● Part of the NIMS National Response Framework as Emergency Support Function 6: Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing, and Human Services (Ref: ICS 800 National Response Framework – An Introduction) ● Uses ICS disaster management model with positions renamed as appropriate to Red Cross 14 functions
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Red Cross ICS Structure: Primary Job Titles ● DRO or Job Director = Incident Commander ● Assistant Director (AD) External Relations ● AD, Operation = Operations Chief ● AD, Information and Planning = Planning Chief ● AD, Logistics = Logistics Chief ● AD, Finance = Finance Chief 15
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Red Cross ICS Structure Job Director (Incident Commander) AD External Relations Government Public Affairs Liaison AD Operations AD Logistics DHS Nurse (Ops Chief) (Logs Chief) Lead AD Finance AD Planning 16 (Finance Chief) (Plans Chief)
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Red Cross ICS Structure (con't) AD Operations AD Planning AD Finance AD Logistics DSH Nurse (Ops Chief) (Plans Chief) (Logs Chief) (Finance Chief) Lead Bulk Disaster Supply / Shelter DHS Distribution Assessment Procurement Nurse Manager Information Staff Services Client Services Dissemination Disaster Statistical Services Feeding Information Technology COML Sheltering Lead (Communications 17 Lead)
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Red Cross ICS Structure & Radio Comms DST sets up and manages telecom (cell phone) ● AD Logistics and datacom network at the DOC, issues cell (Logs Chief) phones to functions (e.g., Shelter Manager(s), Disaster Health Services, etc.) Disaster Services COML Reports to DST ● Technology COML ● Fills role of Incident Comm Center COML Manager Manages the tech and ops aspects of radio communications Supervises Radio Operators Develops Incident Radio Comm Plan Particiaptes in ops & planning meetings Understands the realities of deployment 18
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Disaster Response (DR) Communications ● Initial, heavy reliance on cell phone ● As support resource needs expand, Disaster Services Technology brings in equipment to support phone, intranet and internet infrastructure: cell phones, server(s), laptops, printers, and earth station. ● But for cell phones, DST equipment supports the local DOC only, not the shelters ● Verizon Wireless Crisis Response Team (VCRT) might be called which responds within 24-48 hours 19
American Red Cross Gold Country Region ARES Responds to During Red Cross Disaster Response (DR) Ideal world: DPM or COML (Liaison to ARES) contacts ARES leadership in area affected (as noted previously) ARES responds radio operators to areas of need, e.g., evacuation centers, shelters, Disaster Ops Center (DOC), Local HQ, etc. Radio Operators respond self-contained with appropriate equipment and personal items. 20
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Telecommunications Infrastructure “Normal” telecom infrastructure : POTS Cell phone Internet Most carried by fiber backhaul 21
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Telecommunications Infrastructure Disaster “event” can interrupt all Mountain Ranch (Calaveras County) lost above ground public utilities during Butte Fire 22
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Telecommunications Infrastructure Disaster “event” can interrupt all '89 Loma Prieta Quake interrupted all utilities in Santa Cruz County (POTS d/t subscribers overloading system) Fiber cut 2009 Santa Clara County interrupted all 23 telecom & datacom traffic in/out Santa Cruz County
American Red Cross Disaster Telecommunications Gold Country Region Infrastructure No “graceful degradation” built in as a major consideration/component (unfortunately the norm): Normal everyday: Dial up POTS Cell phone High Speed Internet Crash, Boom, Ka-Pow: Loss of Dial Up d/t copper and / or fiber connections to CO d/t poles down, fire burning out lines, etc. Loss of Cell phone d/t loss of tower (saturated cell sites, power utility failure, back-up power loss, cell towers physically down, etc. 24 Sneaker net is left intact
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Disaster Communications Infrastructure Ideally, with “graceful degradation” built in as a major consideration/ component: Normal everyday infrastructure: ● Dial up POTS – Cell phone – High Speed Internet – Loss of Dial Up d/t copper and / or fiber connections to CO ● d/t poles down, fire burning out lines, etc. Loss of Cell phone d/t loss of tower (saturated cell sites, ● power utility failure, back-up power loss, cell towers physically down, etc. Radio repeaters carrying both voice and data traffic ● HF radio carrying both voice and data traffic ● (Verizon Crisis Response Team) ● 25 Sneaker Net ●
American Red Cross Gold Country Region Disaster Communications Infrastructure ● Amateur Radio as an important piece of the “graceful degradation” component: Ham Radio, by carrying both voice and data traffic, can help keep the wheels of the Red Cross disaster response moving: Consider: ● Voice for “tactical” traffic between shelters, Disaster Assessment Teams, and Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) and Disaster Operations ● Data for all message traffic >25-50 words 26
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