The National Weather Service in Birmingham requests ALERT activation from now until 9pm CST.
ALERT Activation 5/28/2009
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Monthly Archives: May 2009
ALERT Election Results
Hi everyone,
Tonight, May 12, the annual elections were held for ALERT.
Your Officers for 2009 – 2010 are:
President: Mark Wells – WD4NYL
Vice-President: Russell Thomas – KV4S
Operations: Ron Arant – N4PHP
Treasurer: Ed Pitchford – KD4AY
Membership: Russell Thomas – KV4S
NWS Liaison: Nathan Jones – WX4NLJ
Secretary: Steven Moss – KB4FKN
Training: Howard Moss – KC4QJA
Public Information: John Miller – KI4VVM
Additionally, we recognize that our Spotterchat is a unique resource that members at home can and should play an active part in, even when there is no “official” callout.
As spotterchat grows we must be able to conduct it’s operations in an effecient, coordinated and controlled manner.
To fill this growing need Ed Manley — W4AGA has been appointed as our Spotterchat Coordinator.
He will be in charge of coordinating ALERT’s response and coverage on the Spotterchat & in developing ways to better utilize this vital resource.
I want to congratulate our officers. I think our best year is just around the corner.
Thank you for your support.
Mark
WD4NYL
President of ALERT
ALERT Meeting – May 12th, 2009
The next ALERT meeting will be at the National Weather Service at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009.
If you are not able to make the meeting in person try the teleconference.
Please Note: this meeting is officer elections night. voting is only allowed in person and not via teleconference.
Every effort will be made to have teleconferencing available for each meeting, to participate:
Please call: (877) 951-0997 and enter participants code 741083.
Hurricane Drill Summary
Hi Everyone,
Yesterday, May 7, the Alabama Dept of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Alabama Amateur Radio Emergency Service held a statewide Hurricane Drill.
ALERT & K4NWS was active from 8:45 to 2:30 in the drill, with Myself & Teresa Wells KQ4JC taking simulated storm reports from the Shelby County Net, Birmingham Net, State EMA and others. The Spotterchat was continuously monitored as was D-Star.
A serious concern which we had leading into the drill was that we might encounter “real world” severe weather & have to suspend our portion of the drill.
This scenario began to become a reality within an hour of operations as flooding reports began coming in from Montgomery and Elmore County.
For a portion of the drill we did double duty taking simulated reports and “real life” reports, but, as the situation deteriorated we went into actual “callout mode”.
The Montgomery area received measured rainfall in excess of 9 inches within a few hours time, as storms initiated over Metropolitan Montgomery and moved southward, with new storms continuously backbuiled over the same location for hours on end.
Some reports included:
Cars floating down the streets in 5 feet of water at Avondale & Harrison Road.
A pond overflowing onto the Eastern Bypass & HWY 231, covering the road in 1 foot of water.
A mudslide at HWY 231 in Wetumpka at the rest stop, blocking the Northbound lane.
Water 2 feet deep covering six blocks starting at Decatur and Madison Street.
A whole neighborhood under 3 feet of water at Quercus & Placida.
Numerous houses taking on water, including the State House where the Legislature meets, with the interior walls collapsing.
At this was dying down a Tornado Warning was issued for Barbour County, which had a radar indicated mesocyclone showing very strong rotation pass over Eufaula.
Many, many reports were received on D-Star, including relays from the ARES Net on 3.965 by KF4LQK at the State EMA.
Operations later moved to the Flagg Mountain Repeater so as to free up the D-Star system for the Hurricane Drill.
As lulls would occur, we were able to perform several operational tests at K4NWS & the results reveal our stations capabilities and ideas for improvement.
So, all in all, theough the Hurricane Drill was interrupted, it proved to be a very valuable day & one of the most active callouts we have had.
We appreciate all who helped us during the test & the real event.
73,
Mark Wells
WD4NYL
President
Alabama Emergency Response Team
ALERT Activation 5/6/2009 #alwx :
The National Weather Service in Birmingham requests ALERT activation all day.
ALERT Activation 5/3/2009 #alwx :
The National Weather Service in Birmingham requests ALERT activation today beginning at 1pm-late CST.
ALERT Activation 5/2/2009 #alwx :
The National Weather Service in Birmingham has requested ALERT activation today until 11pm CST.
Thanks to:
Howard Moss, KC4QJA,
Bruce, one of our new members,
Ed Manley, W4AGA
for responding to the callout!