BlankDuring hurricanes, emergency officials turn to ham radio Jon Santucci, 
The Stuart (Fla.) News

Amateur radio operators Paul Bartoszewicz (yellow shirt) and willie Thompson 
(green) at
the Indian River County EOC on Sunday. (Photo: JON SANTUCCI/TCPALM) VERO 
BEACH, Fla. ' Operators of amateur radios, also known as ham radios, play a 
vital
role in the gathering of information during hurricanes like Irma. 'We take 
for granted our communications,' said Etta LoPresti, emergency management 
coordinator
for Indian River County. 'But when you have something catastrophic like they 
do in the Keys and in the west coast of Florida, where you're not going to
have communication, these amateur radio operators take care of things for 
us. In Indian River County, Paul Bartoszewicz'and Willie Thompson work 
14-hour
shifts during Hurricane Irma. They're part of the Amateur Radio Emergency 
Service (ARES) ' a group of licensed radio operators who help with 
communication
during storms. They work in a small room off the main area inside Indian 
River County's Emergency Operation Center. Bartoszewicz, 66, and Thompson, 
61,
do hourly calls to fellow amateur radio operators at each of the shelters in 
Indian River County. 'Are there communications such as land lines? Are they
still up and running? Is'their'electrical up and running or down? , " 
Bartoszewicz said.' Then we notify either FPL (Florida Power & Light) or 
City of
Vero Beach because we have to get these shelters back up online. They all 
have generators; sometimes the generators fail. Irma is Bartoszewicz' second
hurricane since moving to Vero Beach six years ago. He also worked during 
Matthew last year. Thompson moved to Vero Beach in 2004 ' just in time for 
hurricanes
Frances and Jeanne. 'I started (amatuer radio) way back in the day,' he 
said. 'I enjoyed the hobby and then I started doing emergency 
communications. When
I was in the army I was able to travel a lot and got to work in Texas with 
ARES there and then Oklahoma, so I got tornado experience and then I got 
hurricane
experience here. The hours are challenging ' 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. ' but 
Bartoszewicz and Thompson feel a special responsibility for people in 
shelters. '(The
days are) long,' Bartoszewicz said. 'But it's rewarding to the fact that we 
are in charge of over 1,200 clients at our shelters that are located here.