Writer
Iniki and the American Red Cross
[Pool, G., 1993, "Iniki and the Red Cross," Worldradio, vol. 22, no. 12, June, p. 1]
During Hurricane Iniki on Kauai, the lack of an organized Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) in the Hawaiian Islands resulted in a critical shortage of communications for many disaster relief agencies. Fortunately, Amateur Radio operators still provided communications where they could. There are many stories to be told from this disaster and each will have a common current of personal sacrifice during adversity. I was able to arrive on Kauai from the Big Island of Hawaii with my mountaineering backpack full of five days supply of food and water, just two days after Iniki hit (11 September 1992).
I spent the first week of recovery at the Kauai Emergency Operating Center (EOC), at the County Building in downtown Lihue, where State Civil Defense (SCD) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) had taken on the responsibility of bringing Kauai back to normal (see QST, February, 1993). At any given time, an extraordinary amount of emergency and priority traffic was coming in and going out of the EOC through whatever communication systems SCD or RACES had left or set up after the hurricane.
At various times we handled traffic addressed to the American Red Cross. Usually there would be a representative downstairs in the zoo of public officials; but because there was no phone line to their temporary headquarters (HQ), I once had to run some traffic myself, across the street about 200 yards through the mess that was downtown Lihue.
RED CROSS HQ
Red Cross had a meager HQ on Kauai then, but Randy "The Duke" Wentworth of their East Hawaii chapter on the Big Island had already set up a Citizens Band station for communication between other shelters in Lihue and between the drivers transporting supplies within the city. When I showed up, his lantern batteries were working fine; but because we had no CB radios at the EOC, there was still no reliable link between the two buildings. Adding that to the half million other problems to solve, I passed the traffic and carried back the reply.
On Monday 14 September, though, we got a call on 2 meters from an amateur just north of Lihue, offering a portable HF and VHF station to the EOC. Ed Coan AI0D, newly arrived to Kauai (now AH6MI), had exhausted his neighbors' welfare traffic on the UN Radio Readiness Group's 20 meter net (14.268 MHz). I told him no thanks, because RACES was winding down its operation, since SCD was dedicating temporary phone lines (some with military satellite links) from the EOC to various fire and police stations around Kauai.
Fortuitously, I did mention to Ed that we could use something at Red Cross. As it turned out, because of a lack of resources, SCD could not make available any of those phone lines for the disaster agencies who were slowly taking over the County of Kauai's responsibility to provide basic services (SCD would later provide several cellular phones for Red Cross, but the cells were usually full). I ran over, spoke to Red Cross' Ted Harris and had no problem getting Ed at least a cot to sleep on and an outlet to plug into, when Ted finally got a generator for their new, larger HQ. Ed made plans to come down to Lihue in the next few days.
COORDINATION
That was the second-most important thing Ed and I did on Kauai: getting him to set up at Red Cross HQ in Lihue. We would later learn that RACES officials had no one to coordinate with in ARES and the end of RACES coincided with a critical communications shortage during a still-developing emergency. Of course when he finally arrived, the first thing Ed said to me was, "Greg, we need coordination." We both agreed we were much too busy to even think that straight, and outwardly lamented the lack of state-wide ARES support during what should have been a routine operation after Hurricane Iwa swept through Kauai in 1982.
RACES shut down Sunday 20 September, and I packed-up my gear to walk across the street and join Ed at Saint Michael's Episcopal Church, where the American Red Cross had made their new HQ. Although Ed had already been operating for a few days, we began then to independently coordinate emergency communications for the American Red Cross. Their National Disaster Communications Director, Mike Riley KX1B, met with Ed and I to make sure all the disaster applications centers (DAC's) could pass their emergency and priority traffic to Lihue. Later, we would insure that the shelters and service centers could also communicate back to Lihue.
40 METERS
We started with Ed's Yaseu FT-101, his Cushcraft R7 vertical and two VHF radios, a Yaseu handheld and a Kenwood mobile. Every morning since arriving, either I or SCD's Tom Simon NH6XP had been gassing up a generator on top of the State Building in Lihue to use what was left of the 2 meter state-wide RACES link: the 147.04 MHz repeater, minus its microwave link to Oahu. Down south in Kalaheo, Lance WH6EE and Kevin WH6GK set up my Big Island ARC's portable repeater (146.68), that had come over early on with our Civil Defense director, Harry Kim. Later, WZ6V and AH6JI put up the 147.16 repeater to link the Princeville area up north with Lihue. Those three repeaters effectively covered the population centers of the island, replacing the recently completed linked repeater network that Kauai amateurs had just been put up before Iniki took it back down.
Earlier, when Ed tuned up for 40 meters, he found the unaffiliated Hawaii Emergency Net already in progress, ever since Kimo WH6AXL in Hilo (formerly of Kauai) first began calling for amateurs on 11 September. Normally Hawaii amateurs meet daily at 0900 and 1600 HST on 7.285 and 7.290 MHz, respectively, for informal ragchews. Beginning on 7.290, the Net moved around because of white noise on Kauai and QRM from the Mainland to 7.288, 7.228, and even 7.088. Along the way, WH6AXL, Bill WH6DQ, and Red Cross station AI0D in Lihue traded net control duties with Harry KH6FKG, who spent countless hours logging every check-in on his computer in Hilo.
Because of that white noise, we relied heavily on 2 meters, especially for third-party traffic. We made 40 meters our priority, though, since we wouldn't have to worry about a repeater failing. Ever since the first voice of recovery, Jerry Hill KH6HU, came up at 2030 HST on 11 September, to describe the eerie, dome-like feeling he had at 1530 HST, when the eye of the hurricane passed over his place in Hanapepe, 40 was the band that linked the rest of the State with Kauai. Before the GTE Hawaiian Tel phone banks were set up in the second week, operators on Kauai passed outgoing welfare traffic to anxious amateurs throughout Hawaii via 40, some with free long-distance phone patches. At night, the foreign broadcast stations made 40 very difficult to use, but unfortunately the old 80 meter net has not been used in years, though it is still listed in club newsletters (3.905 MHz at 2000 HST WED).
BIG ISLAND ASSISTANCE
After we set up HF and VHF communications in Lihue, things ran smoothly. We continued to use The Duke's CB stations in Lihue and for short periods of time many amateur stations were manned by Kauai operators with time and antennas to spare. We assigned, however, a number of off-island operators to the areas that needed communications the most. These operators included Sam VK2BVS, Jan N6USE, Dick KB7IO, Bruce K7PXV, and Don N7OGT. We even had help from the inside, from David N6QXQ, who was an amateur working in Red Cross' Damage Assessment, but who brought along his 2 meter handheld when on-site in Kalaheo.
Sadly and embarrassingly, we had many problems soliciting help from amateurs on the neighbor islands. We put out a call to Oahu amateurs for anybody self-sufficient in terms of food, water, fitness and radio gear. No organized ARES existed on Oahu and all we received in return was criticism for keeping amateurs off of the island. The International Amateur Radio Network sent many operators, but very few of them were trained emergency communicators; some were too old to be in a disaster situation or did not understand how to pass traffic efficiently. Our biggest problem, however, according to some amateurs in the State, was that we weren't allowing our operators to pass welfare traffic, only emergency and priority. By default, that should have explained the kind of a situation the Red Cross was still dealing with on Kauai.
We finally turned to Big Island amateurs, because of their current ARES call-up lists. Former SEC, Chris Stewart AH6GG, arrived and set up a packet link from Lihue to Princeville using the packet switch AH6CP-2 on the North Shore of Oahu. East Hawaii DEC, Matsu Uehara NH6NY, came over with portable HF equipment ready to use on amateur and Army MARS frequencies. They both toured the DAC's and shelters around Kauai, assessing and correcting communications problems, such as optimizing the location of the communications equipment with respect to power sources and shelter sites, re-charging cellular phone batteries, and maintaining a liaison between the shelter managers and their communications personnel. Before Chris and Matsu arrived, we incorrectly assumed that Red Cross workers in the field actually knew of the numerous ways to communicate back to Lihue.
Because of the lack of operators, though, some places still had to wait for communications. One of the best feelings I had was arriving at the Kilauea Shelter, where Red Cross managers Battle Smith and Barbara R(?) were without communication to Lihue. When I pulled out my ICOM 2 meter handheld to effortlessly pass their priority traffic to HQ concerning supplies, they nearly cried: They had been saving up their requests for food stuffs, medicines and other supplies for the evening drive back to Lihue and hoping to see those items arrive maybe the next day. I wish I could have been there when we finally stationed Bruce K7PXV at Kilauea. Last I heard, he was teaching Battle and Barbara code and theory in their spare time.
FINISHING THE JOB
Mike Riley and Ted Harris brought over Red Cross satellite equipment that initially served as their only long-distance phone and fax lines to the Mainland. In time, we found we had four phone lines at HQ, which was comparatively nothing according to Mike. Red Cross HQ had 20 lines during Hurricane Andrew and 30 during Hugo and they still had logistical problems. Mike knew Red Cross was a long way from being done and he still needed amateur communications to cover until the commercial communications could be made avaliable.
The most important thing we did on Kauai was help solve that problem. Motorola was trying to cut a deal to provide an 800 MHz trunked system that would cover the island via handheld UHF radios. Problem was, either the County of Kauai or the State was having a hard time coming up with enough collateral to close the deal. I arranged a meeting between SCD's George Burnet and Tom Simon, both of whom I had worked with at EOC, and the American Red Cross' Mike Riley, who brought with him the collateral of his national organization. With that simple move, we were finally able to wind-down the amateur effort on Kauai.
The hard lesson learned: train, train, train. Organize ARES in your area and check-in to (or revive) your Emergency Nets. Practice traffic handling and relaying, especially on simplex (don't count on the repeater). Prepare yourself beforehand; get in shape. Check your equipment regularly and find new ways to improve your station. Have emergency antennas in a bag somewhere, already cut and ready to put up. Be ready to act like a phone booth, but be ready none the less. By all means, though, solve the problem so that the professionals can finally step in and finish the job.
MAHALO AND ALOHA
When we finally turned coordination duties over to Ed and Big Island NTS-whiz, Rick Risely WV6K, for the third week of recovery, Ed still hadn't gotten enough sleep and neither of us knew what hot water was. We owed a lot to our yeomen, Russ AH6IP, Sean AH6KG, Randy KH6TH, and Tom WH6GM, all of Kauai; Richard VK3JFK of Brisbane; Sibyl WH6CG of Honolulu; and Ed's wife Kiyoko. Of the over 60 amateurs that gave what time they could in providing communications to the American Red Cross on Kauai, I say mahalo a nui loa (a big, long thank you). You made the spirit of aloha real for all of us.