Geoff Haines - April Amateur Radio Newsletter...

['The Captain']

April is here and the time is coming for both amateur radio operators
and everyone else to start thinking about and preparing for --- Wait
for it----Hurricane Season. Nobody really wants to right now, because
the weather is the best it has been all year and June 1st seems a long
way off. Most if not all of us would rather go to the beach and work
on our tan than get prepared for what right now seems to be a distant
worry.

The people who are the very first to respond if a hurricane hits the
State of Florida cannot delay their preparations at all. Just last
week, the state held its 2012 Hurricane Conference in Orlando. Amateur
radio operators were a major part of that event, as they are every
year. If the authorities are already knee deep in preparations for the
coming weather season, it only makes sense that we should also be
making plan for our own families. Where would we go? What do we need
to have on hand? What will we do about the medications we need every
day? What and where will we be able to eat? If we have a generator,
how much gas will we need to stock up on? If we have family members
dependent on medical devices like oxygen concentrators or a
ventilator, how will we keep them alive?

The answers to these questions and more need to be considered and
answered now. The actual stocking up process can probably wait a few
more weeks, but the planning must take place now. Here are a few
things to consider when you sit down to make those plans and lists.
Depending on the severity of the damage caused by a storm there may
not be ANY cell phone service at all. The same goes for regular land
line phone service and the Internet. There probably will be few if any
gas stations open or grocery stores either. Your pharmacy will be
closed, if it still stands at all after a major hurricane. The street
signs will be gone. Similarly, any traffic signal lights will be out,
if they didn’t get blown away entirely. Debris will fill many roads
making them impassable. That means that not only will you not be able
to get out, but also the first responders like ambulances and fire
services will not be able to get to you. If you think I am painting an
overly dark picture of what may happen, just think back to New Orleans
and Katrina. Locally, think about Punta Gorda a few years before
that.

In order to keep you and your loved ones out of the panic mode it
pays to start now to plan and prepare for the coming hurricane season.
There are plenty of resources on the Internet and available from your
county and municipal authorities. You can find lists of shelters,
suggested packing lists, what to do about medications, etc from many
local sources. Every year, commercial entities like TV stations and
newspapers provide guides to assist you in planning for your unique
situation when a hurricane or tornado strikes. Get ready. It is much
better to be a survivor than a statistic. Be part of the solution
otherwise you are part of the problem. Here are just a couple of web
sites that can be of help:

Geoff Haines
N1GY

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/subindex/weather/tropical/storm_guide
http://www.tampabayhurricaneexpo.com/newsinfo.cfm