Les Rayburn, N1LF, gave a riveting report of his 6 weeks on the Gulf coast during recovery from Hurricane's Katrina and Rita during 2005. Les and his wife Abby and their film company, High Noon Films, was tasked with following around a force of U.S. Postal Inspectors as they rescued the US Mail following the devastation caused by the two hurricanes.
Les is active in Navy MARS and SHARES and was able to relate many personal stories about the tasks they performed, and the people they met. The film, Postmark:KATRINA is the product of their time on the gulf coast, but their active participation in actual rescues ( passing Google Earth converted street addresses to Latitude and Longitude and passing that data to the Coast Guard) and eyewitness stories from below sea level in New Orleans are not to be missed.
Also not to be missed were the lessons learned: being flexible and creative in solving communications problems is just as important as having that dual band HT on your belt. Les pointed out that the best tools he had in his communications tool kit were his cell phones. This is not to say that Amateur Radio did not shine during this event. There were times when Amateur HF was the only communications in town, especially in Cameron, LA.
Another point Les made is that if we are going to be able to survive as Amateur Radio Emergency Service Communicators then we MUST get trained and credentialed in the required courses (ICS-100, NIMS-700, and NIMS-800). To be able to interact with emergency services and play a communications role with the future, we'll need to do some more work.
Great program ! Thanks again Les!
Rod, N1YZ
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