EMC121 Unit Priorities 2/3
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  

EMC121 Unit Priorities 2/3             For release 3/2/98

Although speaking to their city RACES unit, this can apply
to any EMCOM unit serving government. Continuing:

"Step Three - Setting Priorities:  What exactly are the RACES
Priorities? 

1. Assess the damage all around you and as you are responding.
Take notes of any emergencies or damage. Report major damage. 

2. Net Control - The RACES Management Team will respond to
the EOC and start running Net Control. Net Control Training
will be provided later this year to the senior RACES officers. 
Running Net Control operations for 3-4 days straight will take
dozens of trained personnel. We need to get a large group
trained to cover any contingency. 

3. Backup Fire Police, Public Works and Marine Safety radio
systems. We have to keep public safety officers responding
to emergencies no matter how bad the disaster. If the
public safety systems fail, all response could stop without
backup communications from RACES. (This shows you how very
important the RACES is to the City.)

4. School District EOCs, public and private schools - If
phones systems fail or are overloaded, which is likely to
occur in the initial hours of a disaster, RACES is the only
communications link to over 25,000 children who may need help.
Add in Golden West College and you are talking about 40,000
students. RACES will dispatch personnel to the 1) HB Union
High School District (8800 students), Ocean View School
District (7450 students), HB Elementary School District (6000
students), and Fountain Valley School District (1650 students
within HB). There are three Westminster schools in Huntington
Beach: Clegg, Stacey, and Schroeder Schools. There are 14
private schools and over 29 preschools. Private schools have
been given the RACES frequencies and are expected to
provide their own Amateur Radio operators. But we have to
handle their radio traffic. 

5. City Facilities - We have radios in most of the 22 city
facilities. However, there are two facilities with large
populations that have no radios. We provide communications
for the Central Library and Senior Center.

6. CERT Neighborhoods - There are presently 46 CERT
Neighborhood Teams within Huntington Beach. Our goal is to
train a minimum of one team per RD (a Reporting District is
a 1/2 mile square). There are 133 RDs in the city so CERT
has the potential to overwhelm our RACES system. This is why
we have placed a CERT Area Communicator in the North and one
in the South end of the City. These are RACES Operators and
you may be called upon to handle North or South CERT traffic.
They operate on XXXXX Simplex. The two RACES officers with
this job will have to filter the information they receive and
pass on ONLY the important radio traffic. How bad the
emergency is will dictate what is considered important radio
traffic." 
(Continues next week.)
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Otherwise bulletins are on the Web, an FTP archive and a BBS:
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______________________
OES ACS staff manager Stan Harter :Stanly_Harter@oes.ca.gov 
State Chief ACS Officer Cary Mangum: Cary_Mangum@oes.ca.gov

EOM EMC121