EMC095 Red Cross Overview 1/3 
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services  

EMC095 Red Cross Overview 1/3     For release 9/1/97

Ted Harris from the American Red Cross gives us some insight
into their Emergency Services organization... 

Currently I am Communications Coordinator for Red Cross in
California, in addition to my regular paid staff position in
Disaster Services for the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter.
The chapter covers San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra
Costa and Marin Counties. Over 4 million people. 

California Red Cross Chapters (51 units) are divided into three
ZONES similar to the State OES Regions. The Bay Area Chapter is
responsible for coordinating disasters in all the Coastal
counties from Monterey to the Oregon boarder. The Sacramento
Chapter is responsible for the Central Valley counties and the
Pasadena Chapter is responsible for disaster coordination in
Southern California. 

Once the disaster cannot be handled by the individual county
Chapter, it goes to the Zone lead chapter for mutual aid; if the
Zone can't handle the situation, the State Coordination Chapter
(Los Angeles) pulls people and materials from all the Zones. If
the State can't staff or provide material resources, National
Headquarters will coordinate the mitigation effort by mobilizing
staff and materials from around the country. 

From a communications standpoint, the organization is about the
same. We have a data base of each of the California Red Cross
facilities which includes their communications capability - both
people resources and material resources. A typical Chapter in a
non-disaster prone area might only have a Red Cross simplex
radio on 47.42 MHz and perhaps an agreement with the local ARES
group to support shelter and damage assessment with
communications. 

The larger chapters and the zone lead chapters have a large
assortment of comm gear that can be taken to the scene.

A brief description follows in next weeks bulletin:

                                  ---
LandLine BBS 916-262-0856 (graphical or standard interface)
ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov       FTP archive:
ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming for new
bulletins and ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/races for earlier ones
OES ACS staff manager Stan Harter :Stanly_Harter@oes.ca.gov 
State Chief ACS Officer       Cary_Mangum@oes.ca.gov
EOM EMC095