This exercise will be managed as if the emergent level of the P.A.C.E. plan (Primary, Alternate, Contingent, Emergent) is in effect for communications - using radio frequencies for voice communication, and packet radio modes for digital communications.
The P.A.C.E. plan for the area covered by the NWCV Net is the Benson Stake plan (the communities of Amalga, Benson, Clarkston and Newton). The plan diagram is displayed at the end of this post, with frequencies included. The Newton EOC will be activated and will use the Benson Stake P.A.C.E. plan for this exercise. In short, we will use the monthly radio net frequencies - simplex and cross-band.
Radio operators who are not yet associated with a city/town communications team or faith-based communications team are encouraged to reach out to their local community organizations to see how they can join in the exercise. For radio operators residing in the northwest section of the county who do not have a city or town or faith-based affiliation, we welcome you to join us.
If you do plan to join us on the 18th, please contact me and we can work out some simulated messages you could use to incorporate in the exercise.
Background:
Cache County will use the scenario posted on the Great Utah Shakeout website as the criteria of the incident:
The scenario is based on loss modeling provided by Hazus-MH and ground motion modeling (ShakeMaps) provided by the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. Maps providing a representation of the severity of the earthquake in the scenario are available for download here.
Timeline:
April 18th, 2024
10:15 hrs: Earthquake near Logan Utah. Initial assessment of the quake is reported to be 5.7 Magnitude. Assessments are being made, with reports of some buildings being damaged. The extent is not known at this time.17:30 hrs: Cache County EOC has been activated. EOC Staff have been sent notifications to deploy to their positions at the EOC. Cache County Sheriff’s Ecomm operators have activated the emergency tones on the BARC Repeater System and will be taking check in's on Command 2 for those willing and able for deployment.
18:00 hrs: City stations, faith-based groups and unincorporated area stations will start sending digital messages between their respective organizations and to the Cache Emergency Communications Center. For stations without digital capability, please relay assessment data via voice channels.
Voice and digital messages will continue to pass back and forth between organizations until approximately 19:30 hrs, at which time a brief after action review of the exercise will occur with an expected close of the exercise at 20:00 hrs.
Objectives for the exercise:
1. Activate the county emergency communication plan.
- At 17:30 hrs, County Ecomm operators will open a net on Command 2 (146.720, negative offset, 103.5 tone) and participating stations will check in.
- Voice traffic between emergency communication centers will move to the EOC Intercom frequency (147.520 simplex). Digital communication will use established packet frequencies.
- The coordination of additional frequencies, and non-message traffic (general broadcasts from communication operators) will occur on Command 1 (147.200, positive offset, 103.5 tone).
The full Ecomm plan for Cache County is linked here. Frequency lists begin on page 3.
2. Develop a group of injects (messages that are used to drive the simulation) allowing participating organizations to exercise their Ecomm plans.
- Faith-based organizations communicate with each other.
- City/town organizations communicate within their organization and to the county emergency communications center.
- Faith-based organizations communicate with the city/town communications centers and the county emergency communications center.
- Faith-based organizations and the County ECC may pass messages to government or faith-based emergency communicators located outside of the county.
At the beginning of the exercise, the county will request impact reports from the city/town centers. City/town centers participating may use the simulated damage reports they send in to the county as a basis for follow-up resource requests.
Faith-based organizations are encouraged to complete a neighborhood survey for their congregations and report the findings to the next level of their organization, and likewise, submit resource requests based on their initial reports through those same channels.
As resource requests are received at city/town centers, or betwen operators of a faith-based organization, emergency managers are encouraged to determine the best source to obtain the needed resources, and submit the requests to that source through the established path of communication. Some requests are better managed by faith-based organizations, such as a need for food and other commodities or volunteers, vs. requests for fire and medical responders, or heavy machinery, which may better be handled by local government.
This coordination between faith-based organizations and government would happen at the stake level of the LDS Church organization, for example. At this level, the Stake Emergency Manager can reach out to the city/town center(s) where congretations are centered, or to the County center, and vice-versa.
During this exercise, initial damage reports will be formatted using the Cache County Disaster Impact / Situation Report and the ICS 213 General Message form. These forms can be sent as attachments to a Winlink message, or can be read back over voice frequencies.
Requests for assistance will be sent with the ICS 213 Resource Request form, or ICS 209 Incident Status Summary, directed to the county from a city/town center, or between operators of faith-based organizations, transmitted by Winlink, or read over a voice channel.
Forms
The following forms are fillable on a computer and can be attached to a Winlink message for submission. If Winlink is not available, the forms can be completed, then transmitted by voice message.
This is a Cache County form created with Google docs. It may be necessary to make a copy of this form on your local computer in order for it to be fillable.
If you would like to implement Winlink over telnet as part of your participation, please review the Winlink installation post on this site. I am available to help with any questions. Contact me by email at greg.fabricius@gmail.com, or by phone at 435-757-3330.
P.A.C.E. plan
