Staying ahead of the curve is the name of the game thus far for Ohio TERT. The team arrived last night to their assigned quarters, at a nearby school with other TERT teams. Lights went out at 11PM. The lights came back on for the dispatchers at 05:30 (that’s oh-five-thirty, as in OMG, it’s early) for the entire team to report to the Buncombe County Public Safety Communications Center to get their badges, and receive training from offgoing Bumcombe County personnel. Ohio TERT is working at the center with their counterparts from Florida, Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia. Tomorrow, a 9-person team from Alabama will also join. After receiving training, the dayshift started working in the center, and the nightshift crew returned to quarters to sleep.
We are appreciative and thankful for all of the donations received. These funds helped the team to deliver a significant amount of diapers and formula to Buncombe County personnel and their families, who had run out of such supplies days ago. With the funds received, Johana Gonzales-Sells, Ohio TERT’s resident camp counselor, will be making a 4-hour round trip journey to the nearest big box store every other day to purchase more supplies for Ohio TERT and Bumcombe County personnel.
HAVOC has been programmed to be able to receive non-emergency calls for Bumcombe County at the dispatch positions aboard the unit. If/when the decision is made to utilize this setup, HAVOC will have the ability to act as a primary 311 center to relieve some pressure on the call queue.
Our radio engineers from Ohio MARCS have been likewise getting down to business. Today’s venture saw them working with their North Carolina VIPER counterparts to assist with damage survey and repair at a mountaintop tower site, and working to deploy the Tower on Wheels they brought with them. They have also been provided appropriate Motorola programming credentials to assist with programming of out-of-state radios to work on the VIPER system.
At present, there is power, but no running water.
At tonight’s conference call, Committee Chair Nick DiCicco indicated that the probability of mission extension is very high, even with the multi-state TERT teams already working. Committee personnel back in Ohio have been compiling a tentative roster of personnel who may be able to deploy as TERT-OH-2 to support what is looking to become one of the largest disaster mobilizations so far this century.