RADIO COMMUNICATION IN AN EMERGENCY To be sure there is no confusion with activated CERT team members; neighborhood teams could/would use Incident Command vests and Street Contact and Search and Rescue Team armbands, but not blue or green vests. As Good Samaritans, those with higher powered radios would monitor Channel 4 to assist in relaying emergency traffic if there were no other communication available to reach 911. If either telephone or cell phone service is available, they should be used for any life threatening situation. Whether or not there is phone service, residents would maintain radio silence until initial emergency traffic is taken care of unless they had such a life threatening situation themselves. Within a neighborhood, the message path would be from neighbor to Street Contact to Block Captain to Neighborhood Incident Command if all those positions were manned. This message traffic can be by note and runner as well as radio. Once emergency traffic is taken care of, each Neighborhood Incident Command would call for a status check of the key positions in their neighborhood in XXX minutes. The key positions would respond either “No Problem” or with a brief report. After that, health and welfare traffic can be conducted as needed. Emergency traffic is relayed to a MESAC station monitor, who would relay the message to the city EOC. The purpose of the radio training net is to help everyone learn how to use their radios properly, so in a disaster, radio communication can most effectively help the most people. In this non-emergency training environment, roof mounted antennas can help Net Control reach the broadest city coverage possible with area relays taking roll call of city sections by turn as directed by Net Control. |