Lee Co ARES Deploys to the Flood Zone
Following the devastating Guadalupe River flooding in the Texas Hill Country on Friday, July 4th, local ham radio operators had the honor to help in the search, rescue and recovery efforts.
Although local requests for help in the affected areas went out immediately, additional calls for assistance from amateur radio operators outside the affected area went out in the following days through other channels from various organizations (i.e., American Red Cross, Kendall County OEM, San Antonio ARES, etc.).
The Kendall County Office of Emergency Management had requested ARES assistance to provide communications between the Search and Rescue Teams and the Incident Command Post in impervious hilly regions, where or when no other type of radio or cell service was operational. Cadaver dog teams had no radios, so they relied exclusively on amateur radio operators. Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams were requested to volunteer their specialized technical capabilities and use of portable amateur radios in the difficult, hilly terrain along the Guadalupe River.
Monday, July 7th, a formal mutual aid request from the San Antonio ARES DEC District 12, Ruth Lewis, was made to ARES DEC District 7, Terry Jones, which includes Travis, Williamson, Milam, Lee, Bastrop, Fayette, Caldwell, and Hays Counties. Lee County ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC), Marida Borromeo, acting as liaison between D7 and D12, once alerted that a request for help had been made from Kendall County, contacted her counterpart, San Antonio ARES EC, deputized as D12 Assistant District Coordinator during this incident (ADC), Patricia Colley, who was coordinating the local response. Rick Tilburg, Kendall County ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC), and Joe Craft, District Emergency Coordinatorb(DEC) from District 6 directed operations since the disaster began on July 4th.
Lee County ARES, Williamson County ARES and Travis County ARES collaborated to send a joint group to the impacted area. Members were ultimately paired with Search and Rescue (SAR) teams. This multi-county effort was coordinated by Borromeo and Glenn Meter (Travis County ARES EC). Borromeo was also coordinating for Williamson County deployment, along with Mark Novick, Williamson County Logistic Section Chief, as they were already dealing with their own flooding issues. Due to the efforts of Borromeo and Meter, twenty-one operators from the three counties volunteered for a deployment which initially was to last from Thursday July 10 to Sunday July 13. These volunteers served alongside with sixteen amateur radio operators from District 12. Their mission was two-fold: to provide crucial information exchanges between the individual field teams and the Incident Command Center, and to also provide an additional set of eyes to help locate flood victims.
Colley, Borromeo, and Meter coordinated the logistics of the joint team, from finding hotel rooms, and negotiating and obtaining government rates, to sending notifications such as locations of new command posts which changed daily as the search progressed along the river, the list of gear needed, warnings of road hazards, natural hazards in the wilderness, water boiling orders and the like.
One ARES member, handling radio communications, was assigned to a team of U.S. Navy Seals, working both on land and in boats during diving operations in the Guadalupe River. Lee County members, Daniel Shirley, and Brian Evans, were assigned each to a different K-9 search unit.
The mission sadly was already in the recovery phase when we joined on Thursday, July 10th. Although we started serving under the Kendall County OEM, on Friday the authority of operations was handed over to the City of Boerne.
Also on Friday, the weather forecast included the potential for additional flash flooding, so the search operations were canceled for the weekend, which ended this ARES joint deployment early. There were twelve ARES members activated in this deployment; six from Travis Co, four from Williamson Co, and two from Lee Co. Nine additional ARES members had been on standby and were to have joined the effort on Saturday.
“We were blessed to be able to help respond to this tragedy and to work with our sister ARES groups. We learned much from this deployment, and our experience will help us better serve our County should the need arise,” said Borromeo. “We are monitoring this unique weather pattern and will assist if needed again.”
Lee Co ARES members that had been scheduled for the weekend were Andrew Wood, Joey Billig, Ruth Pigg, and Mark Allison.
This was the very first deployment for Lee County ARES. Special thanks to all who participated, including Tim Lee, and Calvin Burnham, who provided technical support prior to deployment.
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has created a Go-Fund-Me site to cover the costs of lodging and related expenses arising from the deployment of trained ham radio operators volunteering at disaster sites. For more information, go to https://tinyurl.com/yt9pzw4t
For more information about Lee County ARES, go to https://LeeCARES.org