DELARANEWS
ARES
Stan Broadway, N8BHL Ohio SEC, Delaware EC
It may be ham radio’s number one public service- spotting and reporting on severe weather that will affect our neighbors. It is an important function locally as well as statewide. And, it’s something most of us do without being aware of how important it can be. Our Ohio weather has certainly tossed some serious attacks on our communities this year. There have been tornado outbreaks, severe storms, high winds and floods… and that’s only with half of June gone by so far. I admit to a personal bias about this, since it was a large weather net that got me back into ham radio in the 70’s. Passing Tech and General, all I wanted was a two meter rig (crystal controlled, right?) and to participate in the net. Then, a ham co-worker introduced me to the Hurricane Watch Net on HF as a major storm tore through Florida. I was hooked… and still am. I have more than ten years in the Hurricane Net now working as Assistant Net Manager, and we in Delaware County have just launched our county-level storm spotter net as a subordinate net to Central Ohio Severe Weather Net. Our local net has a couple strong storm systems under its belt, and more hams are participating. It’s gratifying to hear a need for information from a specific area and sure enough, there’s someone right where we need them! It has been busy. On June 8, six tornadoes were confirmed in Ohio, in Darke County, West Milton, Springfield, Urbana, Sardinia and Hocking County. Numerous other watches and warnings kept the nets busy. We elected to monitor the situation remotely, ready to activate the digital voice systems and HF if it got any worse. It didn’t quite grow into a statewide situation and we don’t want to monopolize the frequencies unnecessarily. Here is one summary from the Ohio EMA: • Southeast Regional Counties advised they have an area near Mercerville OH with multiple trees down, including on buildings, and advised they would be evaluating damages later this afternoon. Many counties also had localized flooding. • In Clark County local crews report downed trees on roadways, downed powerlines, and multiple trees that fell into a homes, possibly caused by a tornado-warned storm around 7:30 p.m. • Gallia County EMA Director advised she conducted further evaluation of the Mercerville area of Gallia County this morning and had been in contact with NWS Charleston. The county had 4 homes with damage to roofs, windows, and a porch. She also advised there was damage to siding on several homes. Everyone that she has spoken with did have insurance and no injuries or displacements were reported. The NWS stated they believe the damage was caused by straight line winds according to the director. • Damage to a barn was reported on open source media in Darke County, OH. • In Perry County the Somerset Reservoirs secondary levee was damaged. There is no concern of failure from the primary levee at this time. Perry County EMA reports a lot of tree damage all in one direction and it appears to be from straight line winds. The Somerset Water Department has experienced damage in their reservoir area. They received approximately 2 ½ inches of water in within 40 minutes. The reservoir has 2 dams. The first is earthen with concrete spillway and the secondary is wooden with rubber lining with a concrete spillway. The secondary wooden dam failed and they have lost 2 – 8 ft concrete wall sections of the spillway. Later, beginning around June 12, forecasters at the NWS “Storm Prediction Center” began to discuss the potential for more weather on the 13th. It wasn’t a slam-dunk forecasting situation- there were many variables (multiple pressure systems, discrepancies between upper level winds, sheer, and ground heating) that made it difficult. As the hours progressed wording became more precise and it was clear we were in for a bumpy night on a very large scale. This situation had serious potential to become a statewide event, so we manned the W8SGT station at the Ohio EOC. A DELCO Weather net was prepared early in that day, with NCS duties going to Ed, AE8Q with Joe, K8MP serving as liaison to COSWN. Other net control ops were standing by. The first wave was a group of severe storms moving across from Richmond, IN. The second wave was an even greater batch of storms quickly maturing over WI and MI, headed down into Ohio. Had the first batch spread over more of the state the second would find not enough energy and basically smooth down. But the first wave stayed below I-70, bringing warnings and damage as it drifted slightly south… leaving all that heat energy for wave number two. And it took the bait! Richard, KD8PHG, and I reported to the EOC around 6PM, and we would be there until about 1:30 AM on the 14th opening frequencies on 3.902, DMR 3139 and Fusion “Ohio Link”. By using our phased multi-element beams at around 100’ we were able to monitor spotter nets in Dayton, Bucyrus, Mansfield, Delaware, Franklin and Licking counties as the storms went through. We were also directly chatting with NWS Wilmington and Cleveland, and were talking back and forth with the Ohio “Watch Desk” staff who were also busy monitoring the situation. We were able to convey some details of activity to them. Here is an early morning summary from Ohio EMA: • Holmes County - multiple power outages and some roadways are currently impassable due to downed power lines and trees. The Sheriff issued a level 3 roadway emergency limiting access to emergency personnel only. The county is currently using snow plows to move some trees of roadways. • Ashland, Richland, and Wayne counties- no significant damages to houses, nursing homes, or any other critical facilities. • Wayne County is under a level two emergency- meaning roadways are closed unless there is an emergency. • Butler County EMA director and regional staff will be meeting officials from Duke Energy at the Butler County Fairgrounds (1715 Fair grove Ave, Hamilton, OH 45011) to work logistics for their requested staging area. Damage Assessment continues to be conducted county wide, the Midpoint library system is officially opening each of its branches (located in Liberty Twp., Middletown, Monroe, Trenton and West Chester Twp.) as cooling centers. • Clinton County is reporting as of 6am this morning they have 510 AES customers without power. No ERT currently. They are working on local clearing and marking hazards as they dispatched. • Clermont County is reporting they are monitoring power outages and damage reports. A neighborhood in Miami Township (Cross Street: Weber Road and Weber Oaks) is inaccessible due to down wires. They are working with Duke Energy to expedite this issue. There have been four structures identified with damage and multiple roads impacted due to down trees and wires. • Warren County has at least three households with displaced individuals due to storm impacts. Damage assessment Is ongoing this morning. • Energy: Department of Energy webpage currently not working. However, PowerOutage.US is reporting 334,572 statewide outages. • First Energy is reporting 48,568 affected customers. • AEP is tracking 136,062 customer outages. ERT’s range from 9:30 am to midnight tonight. • AES is reporting 10,984 customers without power. • Washington Electric Cooperative, Inc- Ohio us reporting approximately 1,100 power outages. A majority are in Washington County, several in Noble and Monroe Counties. No ERT available. • South Central Power Co is currently reporting 5,379 members without power in 17 counties. The largest outages are in Belmont, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Perry, and Pike. No ERT available. • Our partners at PUCO shared that as of 6:15am this morning that Duke Energy is reporting 93,000 customers without power. The most affected counties in their coverage is Brown (400), Butler (31,000), Clermont (5,000), Hamilton (41,000), and Warren (16,000). No ETR’s are available at this time. • First Energy has an ERT for Cuyahoga county between 8:30 and 10:30am this morning. In nearly all of these events, ham radio operators were either directly reporting damage and severe activities or at least were in a position to confirm. Delaware hams were right in place and stayed with the net until the wee hours when the storm system moved eastward. Reports were clear, concise, and professional. As Sean and his team watched from the county EOC, Joe kept in touch for any possible ARES activation. Fortunately, despite reports of 1” hail west of Delaware city, there was no significant damage. Highest regards to all who devote their time in this most important activity! Other activities in ham radio are very rewarding but cooperating to help save lives and property has to be the most important thing we all can do! Thank you!
Amateur Radio is more than
a hobby- it becomes an
important service when
other forms of
communication fail. It’s up
to all of us to stay ready,
stay trained, and stay
available. We could be
required on a moment’s
notice.
Delaware County ARES is part of the national ARRL program. We rely on our volunteers. We operate during several large public events including the national-level Ironman competition. We hold a radio net on the 145.19 repeater (no tone) on the second Thursday of every month at 8PM. We hold a training meeting on the first Thursday of every month at 7:30 usually at the Red Cross building. All amateurs are invited! For information, contact Stan, N8BHL the Delaware County Emergency Coordinator, or Joe, K8MP or Craig, W8CR.
How to be a good weather
spotter
1. Most important: Just be there! The function of a spotter net is to have eyes up in as many locations as possible. Listen for weather developments, have ways to receive alerts and when a spotter net is activated, participate! 2. In order to spot, you must be able to see. If you don’t have a wide and long view of the western sky, you should consider finding a safe place from which to report. You can’t adequately spot from a recliner -- unless you face a large picture window to the west :-) 3. Get training. Know what to look for. 4. The best net is a quiet net. If you observe a severe element report it! If you are not under severe conditions, there is nothing to report. LISTEN and keep the air clear for those who do have a report. 5. If you have a report, be professional and concise. Use as few words as required to convey what you see. a. Your exact location (or nearby intersections) b. Wind direction and speed c. Other severe conditions you witness. d. Hail in inches or specific sizes. (Quarter size is good. Marble size can mean literally anything. 2.5” is more specific!) e. Tree fall: is it a live, viable tree? What size limb/trunk in diameter? Any wires affected or damage from the fall? 6. What we DO NOT need: a. information from a public source (TV, airport listings, etc. We already have those.) b. “The sirens are sounding!” (We know) c. Lightning, unless significantly severe d. Rainfall, unless 2” per hour rate e. Generally we do not need to hear alert messages like watches and warnings, radar reports or other content- we already have that, and our operators are watching radar, thanks. 7. How do I get information about what’s going on? a. The best advice is to LISTEN. We try during regular intervals to repeat watch and warning information, along with any updates. You should be able to catch up within ten minutes or so. b. If something really serious is actually going on, you’ll hear it direct from the reporting stations- and you’ll get a great idea of where it is and where it’s going. An exception to “listen” is if you have a large gathering of people (for example) who would be seriously affected. It’s important to give a short description and an exact location. We will watch for you, and pass that on to NWS forecasters if needed so they can give us a specific alert. Know that whether you’re in the hot seat with lots of reports, or whether you’re quietly watching and listening you are vital! You are also very much appreciated. Thank you!
DELARANews
ARES
Stan Broadway, N8BHL Ohio SEC,
Delaware EC
It may be ham radio’s number one public service- spotting and reporting on severe weather that will affect our neighbors. It is an important function locally as well as statewide. And, it’s something most of us do without being aware of how important it can be. Our Ohio weather has certainly tossed some serious attacks on our communities this year. There have been tornado outbreaks, severe storms, high winds and floods… and that’s only with half of June gone by so far. I admit to a personal bias about this, since it was a large weather net that got me back into ham radio in the 70’s. Passing Tech and General, all I wanted was a two meter rig (crystal controlled, right?) and to participate in the net. Then, a ham co-worker introduced me to the Hurricane Watch Net on HF as a major storm tore through Florida. I was hooked… and still am. I have more than ten years in the Hurricane Net now working as Assistant Net Manager, and we in Delaware County have just launched our county-level storm spotter net as a subordinate net to Central Ohio Severe Weather Net. Our local net has a couple strong storm systems under its belt, and more hams are participating. It’s gratifying to hear a need for information from a specific area and sure enough, there’s someone right where we need them! It has been busy. On June 8, six tornadoes were confirmed in Ohio, in Darke County, West Milton, Springfield, Urbana, Sardinia and Hocking County. Numerous other watches and warnings kept the nets busy. We elected to monitor the situation remotely, ready to activate the digital voice systems and HF if it got any worse. It didn’t quite grow into a statewide situation and we don’t want to monopolize the frequencies unnecessarily. Here is one summary from the Ohio EMA: • Southeast Regional Counties advised they have an area near Mercerville OH with multiple trees down, including on buildings, and advised they would be evaluating damages later this afternoon. Many counties also had localized flooding. • In Clark County local crews report downed trees on roadways, downed powerlines, and multiple trees that fell into a homes, possibly caused by a tornado-warned storm around 7:30 p.m. • Gallia County EMA Director advised she conducted further evaluation of the Mercerville area of Gallia County this morning and had been in contact with NWS Charleston. The county had 4 homes with damage to roofs, windows, and a porch. She also advised there was damage to siding on several homes. Everyone that she has spoken with did have insurance and no injuries or displacements were reported. The NWS stated they believe the damage was caused by straight line winds according to the director. • Damage to a barn was reported on open source media in Darke County, OH. • In Perry County the Somerset Reservoirs secondary levee was damaged. There is no concern of failure from the primary levee at this time. Perry County EMA reports a lot of tree damage all in one direction and it appears to be from straight line winds. The Somerset Water Department has experienced damage in their reservoir area. They received approximately 2 ½ inches of water in within 40 minutes. The reservoir has 2 dams. The first is earthen with concrete spillway and the secondary is wooden with rubber lining with a concrete spillway. The secondary wooden dam failed and they have lost 2 – 8 ft concrete wall sections of the spillway. Later, beginning around June 12, forecasters at the NWS “Storm Prediction Center” began to discuss the potential for more weather on the 13th. It wasn’t a slam-dunk forecasting situation- there were many variables (multiple pressure systems, discrepancies between upper level winds, sheer, and ground heating) that made it difficult. As the hours progressed wording became more precise and it was clear we were in for a bumpy night on a very large scale. This situation had serious potential to become a statewide event, so we manned the W8SGT station at the Ohio EOC. A DELCO Weather net was prepared early in that day, with NCS duties going to Ed, AE8Q with Joe, K8MP serving as liaison to COSWN. Other net control ops were standing by. The first wave was a group of severe storms moving across from Richmond, IN. The second wave was an even greater batch of storms quickly maturing over WI and MI, headed down into Ohio. Had the first batch spread over more of the state the second would find not enough energy and basically smooth down. But the first wave stayed below I-70, bringing warnings and damage as it drifted slightly south… leaving all that heat energy for wave number two. And it took the bait! Richard, KD8PHG, and I reported to the EOC around 6PM, and we would be there until about 1:30 AM on the 14th opening frequencies on 3.902, DMR 3139 and Fusion “Ohio Link”. By using our phased multi- element beams at around 100’ we were able to monitor spotter nets in Dayton, Bucyrus, Mansfield, Delaware, Franklin and Licking counties as the storms went through. We were also directly chatting with NWS Wilmington and Cleveland, and were talking back and forth with the Ohio “Watch Desk” staff who were also busy monitoring the situation. We were able to convey some details of activity to them. Here is an early morning summary from Ohio EMA: • Holmes County - multiple power outages and some roadways are currently impassable due to downed power lines and trees. The Sheriff issued a level 3 roadway emergency limiting access to emergency personnel only. The county is currently using snow plows to move some trees of roadways. • Ashland, Richland, and Wayne counties- no significant damages to houses, nursing homes, or any other critical facilities. • Wayne County is under a level two emergency- meaning roadways are closed unless there is an emergency. • Butler County EMA director and regional staff will be meeting officials from Duke Energy at the Butler County Fairgrounds (1715 Fair grove Ave, Hamilton, OH 45011) to work logistics for their requested staging area. Damage Assessment continues to be conducted county wide, the Midpoint library system is officially opening each of its branches (located in Liberty Twp., Middletown, Monroe, Trenton and West Chester Twp.) as cooling centers. • Clinton County is reporting as of 6am this morning they have 510 AES customers without power. No ERT currently. They are working on local clearing and marking hazards as they dispatched. • Clermont County is reporting they are monitoring power outages and damage reports. A neighborhood in Miami Township (Cross Street: Weber Road and Weber Oaks) is inaccessible due to down wires. They are working with Duke Energy to expedite this issue. There have been four structures identified with damage and multiple roads impacted due to down trees and wires. • Warren County has at least three households with displaced individuals due to storm impacts. Damage assessment Is ongoing this morning. • Energy: Department of Energy webpage currently not working. However, PowerOutage.US is reporting 334,572 statewide outages. • First Energy is reporting 48,568 affected customers. • AEP is tracking 136,062 customer outages. ERT’s range from 9:30 am to midnight tonight. • AES is reporting 10,984 customers without power. • Washington Electric Cooperative, Inc- Ohio us reporting approximately 1,100 power outages. A majority are in Washington County, several in Noble and Monroe Counties. No ERT available. • South Central Power Co is currently reporting 5,379 members without power in 17 counties. The largest outages are in Belmont, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Perry, and Pike. No ERT available. • Our partners at PUCO shared that as of 6:15am this morning that Duke Energy is reporting 93,000 customers without power. The most affected counties in their coverage is Brown (400), Butler (31,000), Clermont (5,000), Hamilton (41,000), and Warren (16,000). No ETR’s are available at this time. • First Energy has an ERT for Cuyahoga county between 8:30 and 10:30am this morning. In nearly all of these events, ham radio operators were either directly reporting damage and severe activities or at least were in a position to confirm. Delaware hams were right in place and stayed with the net until the wee hours when the storm system moved eastward. Reports were clear, concise, and professional. As Sean and his team watched from the county EOC, Joe kept in touch for any possible ARES activation. Fortunately, despite reports of 1” hail west of Delaware city, there was no significant damage. Highest regards to all who devote their time in this most important activity! Other activities in ham radio are very rewarding but cooperating to help save lives and property has to be the most important thing we all can do! Thank you!
