On (08 Sep 96) Brian Allen wrote to All...
 BA> I'm one of the folks that was in the area where Hurricane Fran hit.
 BA> The eye came ashore about 25 miles from where I sit.
 BA> So I sat around for about 6 or 8 hours talking to the other
 BA> refugees and whatnot, until they had us move into classrooms
 BA> when the winds started gusting to about 90.  Success!!!  I
 BA> ended up in the electronics classroom!  I  "liberated" a
 BA> piece of loose wire from a parts cabinet (later returning it
 BA> intact, thank you).  I carefully squeezed the wire into the
 BA> center of the BNC, turned it on, and the ham repeater in
 BA> Wilmington started squawking with emergency communications on 2
 BA> meters.  Setting the scanner on a desk under a bulletin board,
 BA> I used a couple of thumbtacks to hold the wire "antenna" in a
 BA> vertical position.
Doesn't it just tick you off when you forget the antenna. I've done
that before, now I have an extra rubber ducky in my glove box.
 BA> Then the dangdest thing happened.  I turned it up to a reasonable
 BA> listening volume, and turned around.  Every person in the classroom
 BA> had frozen into whatever position they were in and were staring at the
 BA> scanner.  It looked for all the world like a dozen or more deer frozen
 BA> in the headlights; they even had the same blank look on their faces.
 BA> I had the hardest time trying to keep from bursting out laughing.
I've been there . The looks on some peoples faces is
priceless.
 BA> The ol' Bearcat was an instant crowd-pleaser, needless to say.  As it
 BA> turned out, there were 550 refugees in the shelter, and I was the only
 BA> one with a scanner.  There was a ham operator set up in one corner of
 BA> the cafeteria for radio communications, but he kept the volume turned
 BA> way down and kept pretty much to himself.
There is a reason he stuck to himself. The most important is that
(as you noticed) he was very busy. Another reason is that he didn't
want to be bothered by people concerning minor matters like the
safety of their dog or cat. During the time of the big Quake we had
in the SF Bay area, I spent many hours providing communications when
the county and state communications were knocked out. I was
constantly being asked to try to get someone dispatched to find out
about the safety of an animal. I love animals, and in fact, my own
cat was trapped in debris at my home but the safety and well being
of human beings must come first. The Red Cross finally moved us into
a separate room so that we could limit contact to the public. It's
amazing how many people can get very ticked off at you when all you
are doing is sacrificing your time, and (sometimes) money to help
them.
 BA> Well, the scanner had 49 channels plugged in, about 20 area ham
 BA> repeaters and the rest were for area police and special
 BA> emergency.  I set it to "scan", and the thing sat on channel 2
 BA> (the Wilmington NC ham repeater on 146.82) for over two hours
 BA> without resuming in the "scan" mode again.  LOTS of traffic.
Twenty repeaters would be too many for me to monitor. I think I
would find a "hot one" and stick with it. The ones you really want
are the RACES and ARES repeaters.
 BA> As it turned out, the ham bands gave the best and most information
 BA> _while_ the hurricane was in the area, and the police bands
 BA> (especially for the coastal townships and barrier island communities)
 BA> were the most informative and entertaining _after_ the winds and rain
 BA> died down.
That is almost always the case. When I lived in San Jose and even
here in Portland, whenever there is an earthquake, I always turn on
the two meter rig. You will immediately find people checking in and
giving an estimate of the strength as well as any damage whether it
be as minor as a plate falling off a table or something major. You
can really get a quick feel for how bad things are.
 BA> I'll have to hand it to the operator of the ham repeater; he must have
 BA> had a steady supply of cough drops and a bottomless coffee cup; that
 BA> poor fella was carrying on a constant stream of conversation for
 BA> _numerous_ hours relaying information between hams and special
 BA> emergency crews and NOAA.  The repeater ended up being right at
 BA> "ground zero".
I hope you shook his hand and thanked him. It is often a thankless
job. It does have it's rewards though. When a forest fire threatened
the town of Los Gatos California, I helped manning a shelter there,
and the town couldn't do enough to thank the people that helped and
ultimately saved the town. There were hand made signs everywhere,
and a few months later, all the volunteers were invited to a dinner
thrown in their honor. I also helped provide communications for the
fire chief that was in charge of the whole fire. At one point he
invited me to go up with him in a National Guard Jet Copter to view
the fire. Now that was a gas!
 BA> For those of y'all that are curious, I didn't have any damage to the
 BA> house _this_ time, other than a tree blown down and a small- to
 BA> medium-size lake in the back yard.  Lots of folks lost everything.  I
 BA> ain't about to complain.
I am glad to hear that. I know how curious you were, I shared the
same feeling when the quake struck. I had an estimated $5000 in
damage and no insurance, but the damage estimate was highly
inflated. One of the things listed was a new driveway, just because
it had a few cracks. Everything else was minor enough that I could
fix or ignore it. The thing that took most of my time was removing
the stuff off the floor and putting it back on the walls or shelves.
The wall to wall book shelves in my bedroom dumped everything on the
floor and the bed (trapping the cat), and that took a while to clean
up, since the shelves were history. The cat had a real problem being
shut up in a room after that. I don't blame him.
Did you feel in any danger at the shelter?
Take care,
Martin
... My computer NEVER locks u
--- PPoint 2.01
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