Seven days into the New Year and "Me, Myself & I" (aka the Trio), have cancelled their sabbatical leave. (Just as His Majesty, Emperor Norton II predicted.) But why did they do it? What about their major project for 2008 - cleaning up the garage? Well, it seems as if [...]
Yesterday morning at 0800 hours, the City of Petaluma opened its EOC (Emergency Operation Center) and simulated a Functional Emergency Management Exercise titled, "Operation Rock Around the Clock." The goal of the exercise was to enhance the operational readiness of the City of Petaluma to identify future training needs. Guess [...]
It was predictable! With so much going on in our favorite river town (Relay for Life, Farmers Market, Coastal Clean Up, Heritage Homes Awards), how could any concerned citizen desert his community in order to clean out the garage? Me, Myself & I have decided that WE must continue [...]
I thought I was being clever (actually, it was Hammerhead) when I posted two blogs with catchy quotes: Let's 'Ham-It Up' at the Fair! and Hammerhead is becoming a real 'Ham-bone.' Eagle-Eyes didn't think the use of term "Ham-bone" was appropriate, considering everything that "Hams" (or licensed amateur radio operators) [...]
Having spent seven-hours at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, Saturday, staffing the Ham Radio demonstration table with other amateur radio operators, I think I'm on my way to becoming a real Ham-bone. My regular readers know that I only passed my Technician's exam, last November and the General Class in February. In [...]
A few of my blogs have "talked" about how licensed amateur radio operators - also known as "Hams" - have stepped up to the plate during an emergency situation, such as a hurricane, flood, wildfire or earthquake and provided communications when everything else was inoperable. Next week, at our [...]
All this week, several communities, counties and regions around the nation have been conducting emergency table top exercises or disaster drills. Ever since 9/11 and Katrina, Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have spent millions of dollars on helping government agencies and citizen organizations to prepare [...]
About a month ago (3-5-07), I posted "Emergency Preparedness #12 - CERT + NERT + ALERT + STAR," which reported on the Sonoma County-wide "CERT Challenge- 2007," which involved a team of eight volunteer community emergency response trained volunteers from Petaluma. Earlier today, another group of volunteers from the [...]
Those three words were the answers given by an official when asked what were the three major problems in the government's disaster relief response during Katrina. It was this exact word - communications - that motivated this blogger to explore how well prepared Petaluma was to handle a major [...]
Among the 20+ blogs I've posted about earthquakes and disaster preparations programs, I've mentioned that about 50 citizens have participated in CERT programs (Community Emergency Response Training) over the past several months, and that another dozen are now Amateur Radio Operators licensed by the FCC. In addition, over 20 Neighborhood [...]