Letter: Plan for disaster

Letter: Plan for disaster

"I am sure most of you have watched what happened to New Orleans and the surrounding region, when Hurricane Katrina struck that area.

Even though it was well known in advance that it was coming, they were not prepared. Now they are playing the blame game and pointing the finger at everyone else, when they should be pointing the finger at themselves.

Hurricane Katrina knocked out nearly all of the high-end emergency communications gear, 9-1-1 centers, cell-phone towers and phone lines in its path of destruction with 99.9 percent of normal communications in the affected region nonexistent.

The amateur radio operators were ready to fill the information vacuum.

The Red Cross issued a request for about 500 amateur radio operators, known as �hams,� to handle communications for more than 200 shelters in the affected region. The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for hams to help with its relief efforts. The hams have transmitted more than 20,000 messages from the affected area.

Sunset Empire Amateur Radio Club, a local club, continues to be ready to provide emergency communications in the event of a disaster in our local region.

Several have been handling communications messages from the hurricane-affected region.

DON WEBB
Astoria
WB7SKX, Secretary, Sunset Empire

Amateur Radio Club "