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
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