RACES Notes 06/28/2006 News and Announcements 1) Upcoming Events July 4 - Bisbee Coaster Race July 7-9 - Williams Hamfest 2) Annual Pager Dues - Just a reminder that if you have a RACES pager that the annual payments are due by the end of June. I have recently received payments from several members and want to thank you sending those in. I am billed monthly by AZ Paging. I offer the option to pay monthly at $1.50 a month or annually at $15.00. 3) Coaster Race Reminder - We are still looking for a few volunteers for the July 4th Coaster Race in Bisbee. Minimum requirements are to have a hand-held radio and enjoy a morning in Bisbee watching the youngsters speed down Tombstone Canyon to the Finish Line at the Post Office. Please remember to wear your bright safety vest or RACES shirt, RACES hat and ID card. Our job is to assist in providing course security and notify the race organizers of potential dangerous conditions on the track. Please come by the Start line, just under the Hwy 80 overpass at the top of Tombstone Canyon about 7:30. Final assignments will be made based on those who show up. The key assignments get filled first and then we backfill. The first racer usually gets on the course between 8:00 and 8:15 in the morning and we are generally finished by 10:00. This allows plenty of time to go to the Warren District and watch one of the oldest, continuously occurring, Fourth of July Parades in Arizona. Training - At the last meeting of the Local Emergency Planning Committee I received a copy of the new draft Cochise County Emergency Operations Plan. It is a significant rewrite. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that amateur radio plays a significant role in fulfilling multiple responsibilities in the plan. That is also the bad news as there are some jobs called out for us that we may not have planned for in the past and will require significant numbers of operators to properly satisfy all these duties. Folks we need to recruit and train some more operators. Once this plan is accepted and approved by the Board of Supervisors, limited copies of it will be available, especially those parts that affect us. I will try to cover some of the additional duties that are called out for us. For those who have taken the IC Course 800, the National Response Plan (NRP) course, you will quickly recognize the structure of the new county plan. It is organized following the same basic format and includes all the Emergency Support Functions or ESF's found in the NRP. We are specifically called out in the following ESF's: ESF 2 - Communications ESF 5 - Emergency Management ESF 6 - Mass Care ESF 7 - Resource Support ESF 15 - External Affairs. Some of the duties we may be expected to assist in include: . Blue Eagle Assignments (Predesignated support locations) . Deploy the MCU as needed. . Assist manning of the state Bullfrog or Toad communications units that may deploy to our area for support. . Assist in reestablishing communications in those areas that the regular communications have been damaged or destroyed. . Provide shadow partners for key governmental personnel who do not have their own radio or communications capability. . Provide communications to emergency shelters operated by Red Cross or Salvation Army as needed. . Provide preliminary damage assessment reports. Some of you are members of the MARS program and familiar with the Essential Elements of Information or EEI report. The Arizona Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) is considering a report similar in format to the EEI but called a Situation Report or SITREP. It will contain the following basic items as a minimum. 1. TYPE OF INCIDENT: Identify the type of incident you are reporting. 2. LOCATION AND AREA IMPACTED: Where did it occur? 3. DAMAGE DESCRIPTION: Brief description of general damage characteristics. 4. MEDICAL FACILITY STATUS: Status of hospitals in your area 5. TRANSPORTATION/HIGHWAY STATUS: Are highways open or closed 6. UTILITY STATUS: ELECTRIC POWER - Service available or not, if not approximately how many customers without. NATURAL GAS - Same as Electric WATER - Same as Electric SEWER - If applicable, same as Electric 7. COMMUNICATIONS STATUS: RADIO/TV - Operational for public service announcements? PUBLIC SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE - Is it operational? 8. INFO SOURCE: How did you get the information? Who? When? 9. REMARKS: Short comments on situation. The whole Situation Report should be less than a page. Keep it short. If the EOC or IC wants more information about specifics they will come back to you with specific questions. These reports can provide the basics for the initial damage assessment as the Incident Commander and his/her staff work out the response effort. This model is still being developed but I expect it to be rounded out in the near future. We have already started testing this model and have submitted a couple reports to ADEM and the County Emergency Services Coordinator recently including the fire in the Huachuca's and the gasoline tanker incident at the East Gate. I will be looking for someone to take the net for me for the 12th of July. Let me know if you can cover for me.