From nor­mal­ly sun­ny Flori­da comes news that on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 27 at 1700 hours, dur­ing rare win­ter storms, the Escam­bia Coun­ty Emer­gency Man­age­ment called out the Ama­teur Radio Emer­gency Ser­vice (ARES).

It had 46 radio ama­teurs active dur­ing this weath­er event that saw freez­ing haz­ardous icy con­di­tions close land trans­port on local roads, inter­state routes and many bridges. 

ARES mem­bers were at the Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­tre, and two pub­lic shel­ters (one win­ter weath­er shel­ter, and one train derail­ment shel­ter) were opened dur­ing the storm. 

The ARES E‑Letter reports that radio ama­teurs helped motorists and truck dri­vers with time­ly road and bridge con­di­tion reports and direc­tions, on both a two-metre repeater and CB radio. 

Truck dri­vers were nav­i­gat­ed using CB radio on to route that remained pass­able to them dur­ing the drama. 

ARES used HF voice via the North­ern Flori­da ARES Net and North­ern Flori­da Phone Net, and set up a tac­ti­cal net on a VHF repeater. 

ARES mem­bers also used dig­i­tal modes includ­ing APRS. Dig­i­tal text via Win­link and D‑STAR were tested. 

ARES oper­a­tors sent eight sit­u­a­tion reports (SITREPs) and ARES lead­er­ship respond­ed with updates back to the rank-and-file operators. 

Weath­er con­di­tions start­ed to improve by Wednes­day after­noon, and there were major road con­di­tion improve­ments by Thurs­day morn­ing, with the inter­state routes reopened around 1600 that day. ARES remained acti­vat­ed until Jan­u­ary 30. 

A num­ber of lessons were learned dur­ing the ARES call-out that will enable an even bet­ter prepa­ra­tion for any future event. 

— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.