Colin:

These are very good points. ... They motivate me now to ask more questions
of my County EMD. ... Actually, I thought of those questions too before this
thread, but you are reminding me of their importance.

Will do some asking as soon as I get the chance.

73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: amateur radio


> they must have massive fuel tanks under ground then.
> You would not believe how much fuel it takes to run an entire municipal
> building on diesel fuel alone.
>
> Its probably not the case at your EOC Tom, but I know most
> hospitals/municiple buildings or other necessary infrastructure complexes
> assume that when their 24 hours of fuel runs out, they can always get
> more...but dependant upon the disaster, they may not be able to get it.
> One of the things our local ARES focuses on in their training and when
they
> go and present emergency operations plans to different agencies is the
fact
> that most buildings really do not have the alternate back up they think
they
> do.
> They bass their fuel usage on normal peace time senarios forgetting that
> durring emergencies, consumtion will increase and fuel will likely be
> scarce.
> Hospitals are especially bad for this since their power usage is extremely
> high even at minimal operations...and of course, in the case of natural
> disaster where there is mass injury or casualty, their usage increases
> beyond that of their normal everyday usage.
>
> People involved in the New Orleans operations can likely attest to the
fact
> that alternate power sources were not dependable and certainly not even
near
> what was presumed to be there.
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
>