Exercise

"Cascadia Rising," the largest FEMA exercise of 2016, will get under way on June 7, and Oregon and Washington ARES/RACES organizations both will be heavily involved, with a significant investment in HF activity planned. The scenario will be an earthquake and tsunami disaster involving the entire Pacific Northwest, and the exercise will start with a blackout of all normal, regular communication systems. Amateur Radio will provide emergency/disaster alternate communication systems, and participants will include Maxim Memorial Station W1AW at ARRL Headquarters. The plan calls for W1AW to be active and monitoring, and possibly passing traffic, if necessary, W1AW Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, said. ARRL Emergency Response Manager Mike Corey, KI1U, said Cascadia Rising will also involve the Emergency Response Team at ARRL Headquarters.

"Along with participation via Winlink and HF voice, we will use it as an opportunity to exercise the ARRL Headquarters Emergency Response Team," Corey said. "This team is called up to support the ARRL Field Organization during a major disaster, when support cannot be provided during normal business hours. The last activation of the team was during hurricane Irene in 2011."

According to FEMA, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), and the resulting tsunami would present the most complex disaster scenario that emergency managers and public safety officials in the Pacific Northwest could face; Cascadia Rising is an exercise to address that disaster. The exercise will conclude on June 10.

According to FEMA, emergency operations centers (EOCs) and emergency coordination centers (ECCs) at all levels of government and in the private sector will activate to conduct simulated field response operations within their jurisdictions and with neighboring communities, state EOCs, FEMA, and major military commands. The military departments in Washington and Oregon will activate.

"Conducting successful life-saving and life-sustaining response operations in the aftermath of a Cascadia Subduction Zone disaster will hinge on the effective coordination and integration of governments at all levels -- cities, counties, state agencies, federal officials, the military, tribal nations -- as well as non-government organizations and the private sector," FEMA said. "One of the primary goals of Cascadia Rising is to train and test this whole community approach to complex disaster operations together as a joint team."

Thanks to John Core, KX7YT, Oregon ARES District 1 Emergency Coordinator for some information. Republished with permission by the ARRL.
For more information see the FEMA web site https://www.fema.gov/cascadia-rising-2016
Participating SHARES, Amateur and MARS Winlink operators may want to download, install, and practice the Washington State HTML forms package.

A Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) auxcomm exercise slated for the end of this month will involve all of the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) States (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi) along with other FEMA Region IV states. [FEMA Region IV serves the southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.] Amateur Radio, the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) and the federal Shared Resources HF Radio Program (SHARES) are all participating. The exercise will be a follow-up to the Capstone 14 exercise. Winlink training will be a key mission objective.

There are three pathways used for interstate contingency communications under EMAC. [The Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) is a state-led effort that provides a legal mechanism and framework for sharing resources across state lines during a governor-declared disaster.] The three pathways are LightSquared, a trunked voice/data satellite system; the National Warning System (NAWAS), an automatic telephone call-up system to warn federal, state and local entities of emergency/disaster issues; and Winlink over various pathways all usually operated by either an agency employee who is also a radio amateur, or auxiliary communications radio amateur-volunteer. Participating government agencies at all levels as well as public NGOs (Non-Government Organizations) are encouraged to make use of volunteers.

- Steve Waterman, K4CJX, Winlink 2000 Network Administrator