Northwest US Pounded by Storms - Ham Radio Works when Other Communications Failed

From The ARRL Letter Vol. 26, No. 48, December 7, 2007

==> NORTHWEST US POUNDED BY STORMS, FLOODS; HAMS ACROSS REGION ACTIVATED

For the past week, the wake of fierce storms have ravaged the Pacific Northwest, killing at least seven people and leading to widespread flooding and mudslides that shut down roads and highways, including Interstate 5; other infrastructure, such as telephone lines and electricity, have been obliterated. The latest of three storms slammed into the state on Monday, December 3, hitting hardest on the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap County and the southwestern corner of Washington state as well as the northwest corner of Oregon, leaving at least  3,000 residents without power; more than 50,000 were still in the dark Tuesday. Pacific Power said that nearly 36,000 of its customers were still without power on Thursday. The storm overwhelmed a number of sewage treatment plants, allowing tons of raw sewage to spew into Puget Sound.

National Guard troops evacuated residents in Vernonia, Oregon on Tuesday, December 4, and tens of thousands of residents remained without power after the storms struck that state; Vernonia, a mountain timber town of about 2200 residents on the Nehalem River, is about 35 miles northwest of Portland. The town had been largely cut off by landslides that blocked roads into the community, but Guard trucks with high clearance were able to get in late Monday. The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in flood-hit areas.

Throughout it all, Amateur Radio operators were there to  help. In Oregon, after a visit Tuesday to Vernonia, Governor Ted Kulongoski said, "I'm going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this...the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually provided a tremendous communication link to us." The Oregon Office of Emergency Management said the radio operators were tireless in their efforts to keep the systems connected. When even state police had difficulty reaching some of their own troops, ham radio worked, setting up networks so emergency officials could communicate and relaying lists of supplies needed in stricken areas.

Amateur Radio's role in again providing communications when  other systems were destroyed or overloaded was not missed by the media. Many TV, radio and newspaper items have appeared, praising the hams and noting their service to the communities. ARRL Oregon Section Public Information Coordinator Steve Sanders, KE7JSS, has been responding to many media requests, including an article distributed via the Associated Press. Portland's KATU Channel 2 spotlighted the role Amateur Radio played throughout the storms.

In Oregon, ARES is still providing communications to the coast, with more than 60 volunteers working at the coast and many more at points in between. The District One Emergency Radio Network was activated at 8 AM Monday morning and was still in operation as of Thursday, December 6; District One ARES serves Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Multnomah, Tillamook and Washington counties -- the northwest corner of the state. According to Sanders, "We are working closely with the American Red Cross as well as the major hospitals, Heartnet radio network and district-wide emergency managers, including the Oregon Office of Emergency Management in Salem."

ARRL Oregon District One Emergency Coordinator David Kidd, KA7OZO, said, "The Red Cross has set up two shelters in Tillamook County and four in Columbia County. The Columbia County Emergency Center reported that Astoria is without phone service and the outage is expected to remain so for the rest of the week. Columbia County will continue to provide  11 service and relays for Clatsop County. The ham station continues to be operational at the Vernonia Fire Department and has contact with Clatsop and Columbia Counties and is relaying traffic as needed and will support the Red Cross resupply operation in progress."

According to Sally Jones, Administrator for the Columbia 911 Communications District, "The 911 lines that would normally be answered in Seaside and Astoria for callers in Clatsop County were diverted by the phone company to the Columbia 911 Communications Center on a temporary emergency basis. The emergency phone calls are being taken by Columbia 911 staff who are relaying the information via Columbia County and Clatsop County Amateur Radio Emergency Services volunteers to the police fire and emergency medical dispatchers in Clatsop County, who then are activating Clatsop County first responders." Clatsop County's 911 service also went down in the storm, but officials there relied on ham radio operators to transmit messages, including information about people in need.

The National Weather Service reported that flood warnings  were issued earlier in the week but cancelled a bit after midnight (PST) Thursday for the Nehalem River near Foss, affecting Clatsop and Tillamook Counties and South Yamhill River at McMinnville, affecting Yamhill County. Flood warnings are still in effect Friday morning for the Tualatin River at Farmington, affecting Washington County. Most rivers
across Washington and Oregon have crested and are falling below flood stage. Flooding does continue on a few rivers with record flooding on the Chehalis River in Washington and on the Tualatin River in Oregon.

According to ARRL Oregon Section Manager Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ, telephone and electric services were slowly coming back as of Thursday evening. "It sounds like some telephones were starting to be restored in the worst hit areas last night and today. Clatsop County got some phones back for a few prefixes last night, and Vernonia started getting some phones back this morning," she said.

"A medical clinic in Vernonia had to be relocated due to flood damage and there are some medically fragile people in the Red Cross shelters there," Altus said. "Where they had this shelter set up, landlines are not readily available and cell phones are not always reliable, so the net is continuing to support them." She said that the ARES net is operating from 6 AM-9PM daily.

ARRL Western Washington Section Manager Jim Pace, K7CEX, said, "The Washington and Oregon Coast and inland areas of Western Washington were struck by extreme winds (maximum gusts of over 100 miles per hour) and torrential rains. Although none of Western Washington was spared, the counties of Grays Harbor, Pacific and Lewis seemed to be hit the hardest. In Lewis County, where I live, dikes broke allowing three rivers to flow over Interstate 5; most of the cities of Centralia, Chehalis, and Adna were almost completely under water." Rescue operations are being handled with helicopters from the US Coast Guard, National Guard, Navy, King County Sheriff and Air Lift Northwest, Pace said. "On Tuesday, the ham station at Thurston County EOC reported 60 people had been picked off of roof tops so far. Lewis County reported
similar situations with nearly 200 folks. Rescue operations will go through the night again tonight."

Pace said that Southwest Washington has been "hit pretty hard. In fact, the flooding has trapped me in my neighborhood. There are several teams working to support assessment and rescue. Sheriff, Coast Guard and Navy helicopters are picking folks off of rooftops and out of destroyed homes. The water has closed Interstate 5 for about 20 miles -- at one point the depth is 9 feet over the pavement."

In Washington, some 130 people had to be rescued from flooded areas by Coast Guard helicopters. Mudslides and floods blocked roads, and Interstate 5, the principal north-south route along the West Coast, was closed near Centralia because of about 10 feet of water over the road.  Many schools and government offices were closed for a second day. Mudslides also halted Amtrak passenger train service between Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mudslides blocked numerous roads and forced an undetermined number of residents to evacuate condominiums, apartments and houses in Seattle, at least nine houses in suburban Burien and several mobile homes in Shelton.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, who toured the ravaged region by helicopter Tuesday, touched down at a high school shelter in Chehalis and offered encouragement to the roughly 40 people staying there. She also ordered a plane to deliver food and emergency supplies to the high school in Pe Ell, about 25 miles to the west, because the roads were blocked by water. "It's hard to comprehend 5-10 feet under until you see those houses," Gregoire said. The governor also flew to the water's edge on Interstate 5, which has been shut down since Monday at Centralia because of flooding. On Tuesday, officials said a three mile section of the road was under as much as 10 feet of water from the surging Chehalis River.

Pace said that in Pacific County ARES members have been  manning the County Emergency Operations Center at South Bend "almost 24/7. Ham radio has been the only reliable means of communications in the county since the landline and cell phones have been out of service."

The Thurston County Department of Emergency Management activated ARES on Tuesday, December 4 to support ongoing flood evacuation operations in southwest portion of the county. The team staffed the County Emergency Operations Center's radio room in Olympia and manned sites at the Rochester Fire Station, various evacuation centers as well as landing zones for the helicopter rescue teams. "They used Amateur Radio to coordinate resources and limited tactical traffic between sites," Pace said. "Hams were also primary operators on several county radio systems. One ham was stationed at the Rochester helicopter landing zone all day Tuesday, even though he knew his own business was in trouble from the high water and will have to be rebuilt."

Other hams, Pace said, who were not activated, helped in other ways. "At the request of local agencies, some filled sand bags while some manned phones to take damage reports at Seattle's Office of Emergency Management." Some teams have been activated but have not had an opportunity to report. "Others, such as the Lewis County Team -- the area hardest hit by the flood -- were cut off from traveling; however, when the local 147.06 repeater failed, Lewis County hams got on simplex and HF frequencies to check on each other and put themselves on standby for deployment when roads became passable," he said.

Pace praised the amateurs in the Western Washington Section: "They train the way they're going to respond, and they respond the way they are trained. Some will report to duty and never see a microphone, but will make copies, log data, empty wastebaskets, direct vehicle traffic and fill sand bags -- whatever needs to be done -- and never complain once."

The ARRL will update this story on the ARRL Web site  as more information becomes available. The main priority of the Oregon and Western Washington Section leadership is assisting their served agencies. As they update the ARRL, the information will be posted online.