By Cameron Steele
Associated Press, original publication date: May 18, 2011
Anniston, Ala. (AP) ? In the wake of the April tornadoes that flattened many areas of northern Calhoun County, local officials have touted the region?s 800-megahertz digital radio system for its effectiveness in coordinating disaster response.
Communication between various police agencies and first responders in other Alabama cities hit by the tornadoes broke down after the storms knocked out electronic networks. But the top-of-the-line, 10-towered radio system Calhoun and Talladega counties share never faltered, emergency management officials said.
The expensive radio system ? funded by federal money from the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program as a disaster-response tool to be used in the case of an accident at the chemical weapons incinerator ? worked just as officials hoped it would in the face of a large-scale emergency.
?It was so important. We can?t overemphasize how important it is to have that level of communication ? and on a system that is almost indestructible, so resilient in its ability to maintain those communications,? said Kevin Jenkins, the communications systems manager for the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency. ?Although the system became very busy ? busier than it had ever been for hours ? it worked exactly as it should.?
None of the 10 towers off which the 800-MHz system runs lost power or were affected by the tornadoes, Jenkins said. But EMA and public safety officials said even if one ? or some ? of them had, the communications system would have worked all the same.
After the storms tore through northern Calhoun County, EMA officials and the Calhoun County Sheriff?s Office helped to set up command stations in Webster?s Chapel, Ohatchee, Big Oak and Williams.
All the first responders from Calhoun and Talladega counties who assisted in search-and-rescue and clean-up efforts were directed about what to do, how to respond and who needed help via ?group talk? channels on the 800-mHz system ? channels that are open to all users of the system.
Even some responders from Etowah County and Gadsden who came over to Calhoun County to help out were able to patch into some of those group talk channels, Jacksonville fire Chief Wade Buckner said.
Buckner serves as the head of the local 800-MHz committee that ? if the state Senate passes legislation allowing it do so ? will become a legal entity that will assume control of the system once its federal funding runs out.
?The benefits of the system can?t be overstated,? Buckner said.
And first responders in other areas in Alabama damaged severely by the storms ? like Tuscaloosa ? were at a communications disadvantage in the tornadoes? aftermath, because they don?t have the benefit of such a high-tech, ?indestructible? system, said Jenkins and Buckner.
For example, Jenkins said, Tuscaloosa police and deputies with the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff?s Office could not talk to each other via radio after an EF-4 tornado ripped through the area, because cell coverage was down and the two agencies? radio systems are not compatible.
In a Monday press release from the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, Gov. Robert Bentley noted the need for a statewide, interoperable communication system for public safety workers.
And that kind of communication break-down in the wake of disaster can mean confusion, redundancy in search-and-rescue efforts and ? at the very worst ? the loss of life as a result, police officials said.
?The tornado outbreak in April showed the great need for our first responders to be able to communicate during a natural disaster,? Bentley said.
?Seriously, when the first responders arrived in Ohatchee, you had police, fire volunteers, fire departments that were all on this radio system that we were able to go to a common channel or talk group to communicate with each other,? said Oxford Sgt. L.G. Owens, who assisted in search-and-rescue efforts the morning after the tornadoes. ?It saved so much time, there was immediate communication and no loss of valuable information. It was instrumental in helping us effectively check houses, notify us about Red Cross deliveries of ice . about search-and-rescue progress in other areas.?
Jenkins said that Motorola ? the company that provides the equipment for the 800-mHz system ? set up another temporary tower on a mountain in Big Oak to ensure that northern Calhoun County areas affected by the tornadoes had maximum coverage for the first responders while they worked.
?Just everybody being able to talk . when we were out there and were searching, if we?d have found somebody injured, we could?ve jumped on one of the talk groups or straight on the 911 channels, call the medics, things of that nature,? said Anniston police Lt. Allen George, who spent much of his time in the week following the storms helping out in the Ohatchee and Webster?s Chapel areas.
EMA officials said that out of the tragedy that was the April tornadoes has come an important revelation: the 800-mHz needs to stay, even when its federal funding vanishes.
EMA spokeswoman Marissa Brimer said CSEPP funding is set to run out 180 days after the last chemical weapons stored at the Anniston Army Depot are destroyed sometime this summer.
By then, EMA officials hope the state Legislature will have approved that local committee to become a legal board that can take control of the day-to-day operations and management of funds for the radio system.
Jenkins said the immediate funding solution for the system ? which costs about $600,000 per year to maintain ? is to charge each agency using the system between $15 and $22.50 for each of the radios used by its workers. All the agencies combined now have about 3,500 radios, Jenkins said.
?We only want to pay enough to fund it each year,? Jenkins said.
Buckner said the committee asked a number of different consultants to look into funding options for the 800-mHz system. The user-based option is the most cost effective, Buckner said, because it eliminates paying an outside company an extensive amount of money each year to operate it for the region.
Officials know they can expect some users to drop out of the network, but said they have received written letters of intent from many agencies across Calhoun and Talladega counties who plan to stay connected.
As far as he knows, Owens said, Oxford is one of those agencies.
?There have been a lot of hours put into this system, a lot of meetings. I think the public will be, I know I?d be, remiss without the system.?
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://psc.apcointl.org/2011/05/18/alabama-county-touts-800-mhz-radio-system-after-tornadoes/
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