Announcements:
Upcoming Amateur Radio Exam Sessions
Thursday, June 5th at 7:00 pm
Pre-registration Required RSVP.
Training:
Tonight's training will summarize step 2 of the Stake and Ward Emergency Preparedness Guide, Gathering Critical Information. In this section of the guide, it suggests stake and ward emergency managers compile and maintain the following information:
• Contact data for all households and any missionaries living within stake or ward boundaries.
• A map of the area, including the locations of residences and resource locations in the community. (Consider using maps.lds.org or LDS Tools to assist with this task.)
• A list of persons with special needs, such as the disabled and the elderly.
• A list of persons with equipment or skills (such as medical or emergency response training) that would be critical in a disaster. In the case of an earthquake or other situation where significant structural damage could occur, it would also be wise to identify persons in the community with heavy equipment that might be available to help Fire and EMS with response and recovery operations.
• Contact information for public safety agencies (such as police, fire, or medical).
• Contact information for community organizations (such as the Red Cross or Red Crescent) that provide emergency services such as food, shelter, and medical care.
• Contact information for area welfare leaders and, where available, local Church welfare operations.
As a practical example of the Gathering Critical Information step, in preparation for the Newton EOC’s participation in the Great Utah Shakeout in April, a map of Newton’s Fire and EMS response zone was created using Google Maps.
On the map, each household in the community was identified with a marker, where additional pertinent information could be recorded, such as number of occupants, medical needs that may exist, or as suggested in the planning guide, special skills, knowledge or equipment of household members could also be noted.
Emergency managers could also prepare this information in spreadsheet form using locally produced forms, or the Gather Critical Information forms found in the Emergency Planning Guide mentioned above. A link to the planning guide is here.
Lastly, a comment on emergency communications. The units making up the Benson Stake are spread out over a large area - approximately 110 square miles. If an emergency occurred that also affected communications systems, the distances between the communities in the Stake could make delivering hand-written disaster reports to the stake emergency operations center difficult.
As an example, if the stake emergency operations center was established at the building in Amalga, the driving distance from the Clarkston building is just under 12 miles. As circumstances allow we may choose a more central location for the stake emergency operations center, but even then the traveling distance for hand-delivered reports and requests would still be significant if infrastructure was damaged.
With this in mind, using radio as our backup method to communicate between the wards and the stake makes sense.
For the Ward Emergency Communications Specialists who are not radio licensed, I encourage you to work towards licensing as a means to overcome the distances between our communities. An amateur license would be preferred, but here in the Stake we can accommodate communications over GMRS frequencies as well as the amateur bands.
GMRS licensing does not require an examination to qualify for a license and the radio equipment is just as affordable. I have a resource prepared to help those interested navigate the GMRS licensing process, and for those interested in an amateur license I can direct you to license examination study help.