Sarasota County Pan-Flu Exercise - March 7, 2007
On March 7th, Sarasota County Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) was represented at a joint Sarasota County Emergency Management/Sarasota County Health Department Pandemic Influenza Table Top Exercise.ACS, representing ESF 2, worked with the Logistics Chief and other ESF's, to address the issues of lack of food deliveries and volunteers wanting to help.
Since no communications issues arose during this exercise, we determined that affiliated volunteers (amateurs and other groups working with the County) could still be used to help out in other areas, such as food distribution and other assignments as needed.
As we discovered a long time ago, in order to make ourselves a more valuable resource, amateurs need to think outside the "amateur radio box" and expand our services into other areas. We get to work with other groups, observe how these groups work together, what other functions and operations take place during incidents, and most importantly, it's another way for us to stay active and involved, even if communications isn't an issue. This is something we do and works very well for us.
Ron, WD4AHZ
EC, Sarasota County ACS
