Tulane University Hospital is a large hospital in downtown New Orleans having total staff and patients of about 1300. As hurricane Katrina approached, hospital staff made plans to move staff and patients if it became necessary. Because of these plans, and other efforts, this hospital survived relatively unscathed through the hurricane.

However, cell phone service quickly disappeared. It always does because of the large number of people with cell phones and the limited number of cell radio channels. Regular telephone service quickly disappeared as well.

Flooding quickly followed when the levee broke on the 17th St Canal. After that there were several breaks in other levees. Emergency generators in the hospital became flooded and stopped working. This was serious. The hospital just could not operate without electricity. The entire hospital had to be evacuated. Officials chartered 25 helicopters and a miniature "Berlin Airlift" began. But there was no communication between hospital, emergency operations and the helicopters. Here is where ARES stepped in.

A couple of hams from Tallahassee, Florida were called in to set up communications. Local hams in the Tallahassee area were contacted on ARES repeaters. Theo Titus, K4ML, and Bill Schmitt, KI4JOG, agreed to be flown into New Orleans. Radio links were set up between the hospital, the helicopters and the EOC (emergency operations centre). It turned out that the other hospitals in New Orleans could not communicate with each other, so Amateur Radio was again called in to link them.

In Niagara, ARES Niagara volunteers routinely do this hospital to hospital communication in their exercises.

This is just the highlight of activity during Katrina in New Orleans. There is much more, but it is too lengthy to present here. The full story can be read in the November 2005 issue of QST beginning at P. 43, titled "The Katrina Chronicles 1". There will be subsequent chapters in future issues of QST for what many consider the worst disaster of recent times. See chapter 1 of the article at (WARNING: large PDF file: 1.25 MB) here.

What we do at ARES Niagara is not a waste of time. Just think of it. Active radio equipment in 9 hospitals, the Red Cross Niagara EOC, Region Niagara EOC, Thorold Fire and a willingness to go to other Fire Halls if asked. We have standby "Jump Kit" stations ready to go into any of our 12 evacuation centres and trained operators to man them.

What we are starting to get now is ham radio operator apathy. In simple terms this means, "It can't happen here, so why bother?". Already we are finding it hard to staff some of our hospitals. Our most important hospital, St Catharines General Hospital lacks staff. During our recent SET the radio room was closed because there were no hams to staff it. This hospital is important for several reasons. It has the highest antenna of any hospital in the system. It is an important link to the William Osler chain of hospitals in Toronto. We can hit these 3 hospitals, Mississauga General, Brampton General and Georgetown General Hospitals on SIMPLEX or repeater.

I would like to place an urgent appeal for ARES volunteers to contact me to become operators at the St Catharines General Hospital. Some training will be necessary. Recently, much tighter security is now in place. While the equipment there is excellent, there are a few things to know that might hamper use of the equipment in an emergency.

Volunteers, we need you! Contact me, Dave, VE3DVE at (905) 562-3956 or <>

73 Dave, VE3DVE
Acting DEC
ARES Niagara