radiorange wrote:
Re Brad's comment about cell phones:
Heard more than one tv station request people to stay off cell phones so "emergency responders" could talk to each other. Sad state of affairs and guess cell phones are the radios of choice for interoperability.
That was my other thought - That area has pretty decent public safety radio coverage, and a pretty decent selection of frequencies ( I believe Skagit County Fire has up to 9 Fire TAC's to choose from, both repeated and simplex). WSP has their repeater and several simplex channels. The local PD and SO have a couple. And, it looks like local Emergency Management has at least one frequency available to them.
I suspect there is now some cross-programming to assist with interopability. Don't know, and not sure how extensively such cross-programming was utilized (or if it was even needed for the mission).
The communications with the Navy helicopter was a bit curtailed, as no one on the ground had a military radio. I think they eventually got a SAR guy down there with an aircraft portable, and was able to talk to the helicopter directly.
The natural tendencies for managers now is to "pick up the phone" and call whoever they want, to discuss a specific talking point that is important at that moment, and have some shroud of confidentiality. For day-to-day operations, they can usually get away with that.
But with any "habit" that is formed, that habit is likely what you are going to revert to under stress. During this mess, lots of cell phone calls could not be completed, simply because of the system overload. And, this wasn't even a wide-spread regional emergency. It affected a LOT of people at once, but it wasn't on the magnitude of an earthquake.
So, alternate communications had to be used, and the "habit" of just picking up the phone had to be modified. They had to use a radio!
There was an Emergency Management guy in Snohomish County that made the observation during drills - participants were using their cell phones way too much. He proposed that at the next drill, all cell phones and pagers would be dropped off at the door, and not considered as an option - mainly because that would be the reality in a real emergency. The cell phone network would either be off the air, or seriously overloaded, and should not be considered part of the "communication plan". Sure, it can supplement if working - but should not be depended on.
Practice may make perfect, but if your practice is imperfect then you are wasting your time.
"Perfect practice makes perfect".
/rant, before I have to lock myself out of this topic....
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
