2013 Simulated Emergency Test Exercise Guide

Transcription

1 2013 Simulated Emergency Test Exercise Guide 1. Exercise Rationale During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, it became apparent that our emergency communications response was overly dependent on established repeater infrastructure and commercial internet services. After several meeting topics and other drills related to this issue, this exercise is intended to be a final exam of sorts to see if we could in fact provide the needed communications support in a major local disaster. 2. The scenario 3. Schedule 4. Objectives A large severe thunderstorm has crossed through the center of Montgomery County, through the center of Bucks county, and into New Jersey. The damage from this storm was extensive, including a possible tornado through Warminster. The antennas at both the Warminster township building and county EOC are unusable. Power and commercial communications are spotty, except at the extreme Northern and Southern ends of the county. Roads are virtually impassible throughout the central part of the country, from roughly Rt. 532 to Rt The test will be conducted on Saturday, October 12, 2013 from 8am to 11am, including time for a post-exercise hotwash. This is Columbus Day weekend. Receive text message from County EM / IC requesting BCARES assistance. Activate BCARES members without the use of a repeater or listserver. Deploy an ad-hoc amateur station to the backup EOC on Almshouse Road in Doylestown (at the Bucks County Health Department). Deploy an amateur station to Ivyland firehouse. Handle simulated traffic from Centennial Station, through the backup EOC, dispatching to fire and ambulance. Handle simulated health & welfare NTS traffic. Test amateur radio stations at all Bucks County hospitals (may be done either during or outside of scheduled SET). Issue press release regarding SET. Handle emergency or priority NTS message.

2 Transmit road closure information over APRS RF. Log all communications thoroughly and accurately. 5. Frequency Plan This exercise is intended to be completed without the use of established repeaters or digipeaters (except for N3XKU-15, which is outside the exercise's disaster area and cannot be realistically disabled). Any ad-hoc cross-band repeater, digipeater, or mesh network set up during the exercise may be used. Based on activities done earlier this year, a combination of relayed FM simplex, digital modes, and USB will be used to complete all traffic. We will try to coordinate the shutdown of K3DN/R from 8am to 9:30am for purposes of the exercise. 5.1 Activation A call to activation will be issued on multiple frequencies: FM Simplex FM Simplex FM Simplex (the Fairless Hills BEARS repeater would be used if online) FM Simplex (the Hilltown repeater would be used if online) USB USB ( if a band opening is in progress) APRS NBEMS Digital over FM Simplex (Mode MT63 2K) 5.2 Roll-call / resource net Once the call to activation has been completed, primary net control frequency will settle on USB (or if a band opening is in progress). A relay station in Central Bucks will operate a secondary net on (channel 4) FM Simplex for those stations who lack either SSB or 6m capability. 5.3 Tactical nets Simplex frequency (channel 7) will be reserved for NBEMS traffic and coordination by voice. Within a township, a local net control will handle tactical communications on /025/050, depending on local interference. If band conditions on 70cm are too poor to support communications, (channel 13) FM Simplex may be used instead. Alternatively, if all stations within a local net have SSB or D-Star simplex (or Yaesu digital voice) capability, the local net control may choose a convenient local frequency and mode not on the standard list.

3 6. Map Red lines: Damage zone. Most electricity, internet, and cell phone service is offline. Roads are virtually impassible. Black line: Suspected EF-1 tornado. The towers at the Warminster township building and EOC are completely destroyed. Both sites are inaccessible. Green dots: BCARES members participating in the SET.

4 7. Roles KD3TB - Irwin Doylestown Deploy to Health Dept EOC 1282 Almshouse Rd., Doylestown, PA [ , ] K3KH - Karl Ivyland Deploy to Ivyland Firehouse KB3MTW - Michelle Warminster Deploy to Centennial Station W1HRO - Tom Warminster Deploy to Ann's Choice W3ICC Drex Wycombe Operate from home KB3GJT - Mike Bensalem Operate from home N3RAY - Jason Falls Operate from home KE3QC - Tom Levittown Deployed to Lower Bucks Hospital (if coordination is finalized) KB3MUZ Lee Bensalem Operate from home K3VJP Vinny Yardley Deployed to Aria Oxford Valley (if coordination is finalized) WA4YWM - Jim Quakertown Operate from home WA3QVU - Mark (tentative) Operate from home

5 8. General script 7:55am 8:00am Receive text message from Scott Forster. Disable K3DN/R. Begin activation rollcall on multiple frequencies. Tell deployed stations where to go. 8:20am (or earlier) Begin primary nets on and Get a (simulated) status report from all stations. Transmit simulated road closure over APRS. 8:35am 8:40am 9:00am 9:30am 10:00am 10:15am 10:45am Begin receiving emergency reports from Centennial Station. Begin receiving local injects. Process NTS messages. Begin transmitting EOC messages to hospitals. Continue with local injects and NTS traffic. Enable K3DN/R. Exercise wrap-up. Regroup on K3DN/R for hotwash. (or earlier) exercise complete. Individual scripts will be sent out closer to the exercise date.