Is there still a need for ham radio operators during emergencies, during
the most serious weather situations? Read this, and I think the answer will
be abundantly clear.

Yesterday, April 18, we had a forecasted severe weather alert here in the
mid-west, expected to hit several states including Illinois, Missouri,
Kentucky, Indiana, among others. Fortunately, the storm wasn't nearly as
bad as originally predicted, but it is a good thing because there was a
massive failure in our various emergency communications systems. Here is an
email just received by one of our local emergency communications centers
sent out this morning:
 

 Many things went wrong on Thursday and they could have cost a lot of
lives.  We should be thankful this morning that the severe weather event
underperformed.  
 
 What went wrong on Thursday
 
 1.  The bulk of the regions NOAA Weather Radio's failed.  An extremely
rare event.  This was due to a communication problem with a phone line.
 2.  Some weather radars went down or could not deliver data in a timely
fashion
 3.  Land lines were down at the National Weather Service because of the
communication line failure.
 4.  At least one major college network server that pushes severe weather
information out to the public went down
 5.  The National Weather Service chat program failed for many people -
local emergency managers, media, and the NWS use this chat service to relay
information to each other during severe weather events.
 6.  WeatherCall wasn't working for some - this is a service that calls you
when a warning is issued for your location.  The phones would ring and say
it was WeatherCall but there would be no further voice message.
 7.  Some people said their text alert systems also did not work for them
 8.  Some local media computers crashed - causing delays for them in
retrieving information.
 9.  There were times people could not get onto the National Weather
Service web-sites leading up to the event.  Slow servers or timing out issues.
 9.  And finally, but not least - the forecast itself ended up being a near
total failure (we got the heavy rain part of the forecast right).  
 
Personally I have not seen so many technology failures since the 2009 ice
storm.  That was the last time the weather radios went down (because of
catastrophic power failure).  


What this statement from the emergency weather center didn't say is that
emergency ham communications during the severe ice storm in 2009 and then,
again, yesterday, was the primary source of solid, reliable communications. 

73,
Ron, K8HSY

Dr. Ronald E. Milliman, retired Professor Western Kentucky University
Ph: 270-782-9325 
Email: [log in to unmask]

Chair, American Council of the Blind Public Relations Committee

Chair, American Council of the Blind's Monthly Monetary Support Program
(MMS) Committee

President: South Central Kentucky Council of the Blind (SCKCB)