From: Douglas WA1SFH

I am a firm believer in the concept of "pre-positioning" assets.

So, on the Monday morning of Hurricane Sandy's approach to Connecticut (Oct. 2, 2012), I called the Region 2 EOC (Country Club Road , off I-95, just north of Meriden). and asked when they would like me on site (note the "pro-active" stance). I was told that they were expecting the weather to deteriorate at 3 pm and could I be there by then?

I left my home in Milford at 12:45 pm and fought the winds on the ride up to the Middletown office, arriving there at 1:50 pm.

Early in the evening, during the "High Band" radio failure event, I was asked by the CT DEHMS - Region 2 Emergency Coordinator to produce a report indicating how many of the THIRTY EOCs in Region 2 our ARES TEAM could be at in order to provide emergency back-up communications if the "High Band" radio issue was not resolved.
- Yes! We were that close to being requested to deploy... FOR REAL... NO JOKE!

The results of that report showed that we could field ARES TEAM members to ONLY 23/30 EOCs.
- This would have left SEVEN EOCs without the ability to communicate to the Region 2 EOC by radio.

This shows the real need to have an ARES Emergency Coordinator appointed to each of the 30 towns in Region 2 to coordinate with the local Emergency Management Director (EMD) and build a small ARES TEAM to support their community (primarily) in time of need.

Right now, we have ARES Emergency Coordinators for these 8 EOCs:
Orange, West Haven, Cheshire, Meriden, Middlefield, Durham, Guilford and Westbrook.

If your town/city is not on that list and you want to take the lead in helping your community in time of need, then your next step is to let me know. Send me an email ([email protected]).

So, I ask...
IF NOT YOU... THEN WHO?