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 Previous: Ham Radio Plays Only Small Role in Guam Relief, Recovery |  Next: Surfin': NORAD Tracks Jolly Old Elf |
NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 20, 2002--Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams from Jackson and Meridian, Mississippi, have converged on the tiny community of Newton to provide emergency communication support following a devastating tornado December 19. ARRL Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX, says about a dozen amateurs from the Metro Jackson ARES and the Lauderdale County ARES groups are taking turns supporting relief agencies in Newton, which has no ARES organization of its own.
"It's a bit chaotic right now," Keown said today. "They're just getting organized." The twister struck a Wal-Mart filled with holiday shoppers Thursday at about 1 PM local time, blowing out the front windows and collapsing part of the roof. Keown said the two ARES teams had established a headquarters in an H&R Block office in the same shopping center. The tornado also damaged a furniture factory as well as several residences and other businesses. Newton is located roughly halfway between Jackson and Meridian in the Interstate 20 corridor.
According to news accounts, some 70 people were hurt, but no one was killed. Property damage in the town was said to have been widespread, and Gov Ronnie Musgrove has declared a state of emergency in Newton.
Keown said the ARES teams were helping the Red Cross with damage assessment and with shelter communication. In the tornado's immediate aftermath, telephone service and electrical power were out in much of the town of nearly 4000 residents and surrounding Newton County, he said. The hams also have been assisting The Salvation Army and the Southern Baptist Men's Kitchen canteen operations as well as making themselves available to local emergency management officials.
A Salvation Army canteen dispatched from Meridian within hours of the tornado strike has served approximately 1500 meals since yesterday, according to a report from Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) Coordinator Pat McPherson, WW9E.
Although some reports indicated the tornado hit without warning, Keown said SKYWARN teams had activated all along the I-20 corridor in anticipation of the severe weather, and the National Weather Service had issued tornado warnings.
"We were up all day long," he said of the SKYWARN activity. "The first damage estimates to the National Weather Service came from ham radio SKYWARN reports."
Elsewhere, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rains and flash flooding struck Arkansas and Missouri earlier this week resulting in three deaths. Arkansas Section Emergency Coordinator Glenn Busby, W5ARS, reports that Cross County was one of the areas hit by the storm system.
"Locally there was some activity by the ARES/RACES group working with the National Weather Service through SKYWARN," he said. In addition, SKYWARN teams were active in the vicinity of Wynne, where straight-line winds hit the northwest part of town damaging a restaurant and a mobile home sales lot.
| Previous: Ham Radio Plays Only Small Role in Guam Relief, Recovery | Next: Surfin': NORAD Tracks Jolly Old Elf |
