Daily Chronicle Online

Daily Chronicle Online

"After the Hurricanes
Local ham operators help out in Mississippi
By Renee Messacar - Staff Writer
Local residents have sent food, money, clothing and volunteer workers to areas ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Last week, they provided another service - communication.

Licensed ham radio operators Bob Yurs of Sycamore and Tom Lower of Rochelle spent eight days in Gulf Port, Miss., where they set up a radio station that linked Mississippi's American Red Cross distribution center with shelters and soup kitchens across the state.

As donated goods came into the center, it was Yurs and Lower's job to speak with shelters and soup kitchens to learn what they needed. More traditional means of communicating were impossible as the storm had knocked out cell phone towers and telephone lines.

Yurs said about 150 trucks went through the distribution center each day, taking food, clothes and other supplies to evacuees. The men also provided a link between the distribution center and the national Red Cross office.

Tom Lower of Rochelle talks over a ham radio in a truck that took him and Bob Yurs of Sycamore to Gulf Port, Miss., where they established a radio station for communication between American Red Cross centers and shelters. Provided photo

Yurs and Lower took with them everything they needed to be a self-sustaining radio station, including gasoline for the station's generators, food and water. They left Sept. 19 and returned home Wednesday after being replaced by other volunteers.

Lower said he started participating in ham radio because he wanted to be able to help locally if there was an emergency.

"But I never thought I'd travel 1,125 miles away to help out in a hurricane," he said.

Ham operators use two-way radios to communicate with people in other areas of the state, nation and world. They assist emergency personnel by providing a means of communication when electricity and telephone lines are out.

Yurs is the emergency coordinator and Lower the assistant emergency coordinator with the DeKalb County Amateur Radio Emergency Services, a part of the American Radio Relay League.



Through the league, ham operators practice what to do during disasters. Occasionally the organization asks them to help during real ones, such as the July 1996 floods when they provided a means for communication among emergency personnel throughout DeKalb County.

Both men also are members of the Kishwaukee Amateur Radio Club, which has agreed to help with some of the costs of their Mississippi trip.

"It was quite an experience to be a very small part of an organization that's helping so many people," Lower said. "It was very rewarding."

Yurs said it was a tiring but good experience.