Disaster Response Archives

Here's another thing to worry about: It looks like we're due for massive solar flares in 2013 and while that may not seem like much of a problem compared to this year's floods and tornadoes, the space weather folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say all kinds of systems and gadgets we take for granted, such as GPS, face potential disruption and outages.

The National Space Weather Program Council, a multi-agency group that includes NOAA, NASA, and even the Homeland Security Department (I guess they are in charge of the Homeland part of space, whatever that means) plan a day long space weather forum on June 21 at the National Press Club.

Thanks to the Marine Corps, I first learned about solar flares as a young radio operator in 1963, and as the tired phrase goes, there is nothing new under the sun.

A Navy buddy of mine working on the Pakistan relief operation mused in an e-mail on Monday that for some odd reason Paris Hilton and her arrest for alleged cocaine possession received more media play over the past weekend than the fact that "we rescued thousands of people."

So, for those of you tired of Hilton coverage, here's an update on the Defense Department operations in Pakistan as that country struggles with one of the worst disasters in history.

On Monday, Marine and Navy helicopters rescued 625 people and flew in 114,000 pounds of supplies. Afghanistan-based Air Force C-130s delivered about 55,000 pounds of goods.

Since late July, Army, Navy and Marine helicopter crews have rescued 9,433 people and flown in 1.7 million pounds of goods, and Air Force C-130s have delivered 985,000 pounds of supplies since operations began.

The Pentagon has dispatched an additional 18 Army helicopters from the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, for the flood relief mission. They're expected to arrive in mid-September.

The Navy is operating the USS Peleliu amphibious ready group, home to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, off the Pakistan coast and dispatched the USS Kearsarge and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Norfolk, Va., to the same waters on Aug. 27.

All this is in addition to the Defense Department's primary day jobs in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It's good to get some perspective on what counts and what does not.

About 7 million airline passengers had been going nowhere slowly due to the volcanic ash plume from a volcano in Iceland that has all but closed air traffic in Europe since April 14.

But if those travelers have a Wi-Fi laptop computer and are stuck in an airport that offers wireless service, they are probably better informed than folks stuck on the Washington Beltway - all of whom, we know, keep their eyes on the road.

You can get The Big Picture from Radar Virtuel, which offers a nifty map of Europe that shows flights in real time -- with an ash cloud overlay.

The site graphically depicts what everyone who reads, watches or listens to the news knows: Northern Europe has less air traffic since the 1880s when Santos Dumont flew his airship around the Eiffel Tower.

You can get The Bigger Picture from NASA, which offers a variety of satellite shots of the plume and the Eyjafjallajökull cauldron from April 17 through Monday.

At no extra charge, NASA also throws in how to pronounce the name of the volcano: EYE-a-fyat-la-yu-goot. The Associated Press tells us it's "ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl." (Listen to this pronunciation and you decide.)

In any case, don't practice it while driving on the Beltway.

You can get Just The Facts from Eurocontrol, which coordinates air traffic control across the continent and offers four daily updates on how much European airspace is closed due to the volcanic ash cloud.

One of the latest updates shows air traffic control services are not being provided to civilian aircraft in the major part of European airspace. This includes Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, northern Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, parts of Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

Eurocontrol also provides a map of the ash cloud that shows it's not moving very far or very fast.

You can get your Bad Mozzarella Report from Bradley Klapper of the Associated Press, who did a great roundup of the economic impacts resulting from the near shutdown of European air traffic. He hit the high points such as the fact that air carriers are losing $200 million a day, but also took a look at other fallouts from the cloud. This includes hotels gouging stranded travelers $800 a night and Italian farmers facing losses of $14 million a day as mozzarella and fresh fruits risk going bad as they sit on tarmacs.

When the U.S. Southern Command needed a whole mess of radios to support folks engaged in Haitian relief operations, it turned to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The center, which is managed by the Forest Service and the Interior Department, coordinates federal response to wildfires and that requires a lot of radios. It has the largest number of mobile radios -- some 8,000 -- in the federal government, ready to go at a moments notice.

The center's National Interagency Incident Communications Division deployed 320 handheld radios to Haiti at the request of SOUTHCOM, yet another example of the depth of the federal support to relief operations in Haiti.

Some hard working soul has put together a mind-boggling Wikipedia list of more than 70 countries that have joined together to provide millions of Haitian people battered by Tuesday's earthquake with the basics of life: food, water and shelter.

The list contains many sworn enemies -- Israel and Iran for example -- but both have responded with the same heartfelt response to the plight of the Haitian people.

Iran's Red Crescent announced plans to send about 30 tons of aid including food, tents and medicine, and Israel sent a rescue team to Haiti consisting of 220 doctors, rescue workers, two rescue planes loaded with equipment and a field hospital to Haiti.

If these folks can work together for the common good half way around the world, maybe there is still hope for the planet.

One of the first outfits to respond to the disaster in Haiti was the all volunteer Fairfax Co., Va., Fire and Rescue Department -sponsored urban search and rescue team, known as Virginia Task Force 1.

The task force deployed on Wednesday and will be based at the Haitian town of Petionville, near the capital of Port-au-Prince and will operate there for at least the next two weeks.

The task force has 72 members, including search and technical rescue personnel, physicians, paramedics, structural engineers and support folks. They took with them approximately 48 tons of rescue equipment and supplies.

All these volunteers deserve an attaboy.

At first it may seem bizarre why the state of Kentucky would ask National Guard units based in the Sunshine State of Florida for help in dealing with the aftermath of last week's ice storm, described by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear as the worst natural disaster in that state's history.

But as the Florida Guard public affairs officer, Air Force Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, explained to me, it makes a lot of sense why Kentucky asked his state for help. It's because the Florida Guard has in its inventory some Regional Emergency Response Network (RERN) vehicles packed with communications gear that will help fill in the gaps in Kentucky's communications systems, which were knocked out by storm.

Tittle said the Florida Guard has dispatched six of RERNs to Kentucky along with 24 operators from the Air Guard's 290th Combat Communications Support Squadron at MacDill Air Force base in Florida and three Army National Guard maintenance personnel.

Mike Garvey, executive vice president of Applied Global Technology, which built the RERN system, which is also used in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He said each vehicle has a dual Ku/Ka band satellite terminal, which provides data connectivity for up to 500 users on classified and unclassified Defense networks and land mobile radio systems to support state and local emergency responders.

Little sent along fact sheets, which show that the RERNs also come equipped with Wi-Fi access points and voice over IP phones. In other words, everything needed to provide communications as Kentucky recovers from the ice storm.