Robert Ritchey / KJ6FFP, the Santa Cruz County District Emergency Coordinator, prepared his ARES team for activation on October 14. Here’s an extract from his recent broadcast message, which is a good indicator as to the quality and level of detail in his operations:
“ARES has been activated by Santa Cruz County OES for the expanding PG&E Power Safety Public Shut Off (PSPS), We know this is late notice but the scope of the PSPS changed early this morning to include more areas of our county.
The Activation is from 8pm tonight to sometime Saturday all depending on power restorations times and available communications. This will be roughly a 57 hour activation with shifts covering that time frame.
We will have 3 maybe 4 locations in the county that will need to be staffed for that 57 hours.
Day Valley (Probably located at the Apple Barn). Boulder Creek ( Probably located at the Boulder Creek Golf Course). Zayante ( Probably located at Zayante Fire). Davenport/Swanton (Probably located near Swanton Berry Farm.) This location keeps going on and off PG&E’s map.
We are also looking for Net controls as well that have the ability to make the 911 phone calls. Net Control can operate from their home or the County EOC or Santa Cruz City EOC. If operating from home you will need to make sure you can reach the KJ6FFP/w repeater in Watsonville without the link, and also be able to make it into WR6AOK, and K6FB.
ARES Level 1, 2 or 3s can participate in this activation. To Sign up please do not reply to this message. Please send an email to [email protected].
Multiple people are organizing this so that email address is to keep this simple for you and have all the information for us in one location. Karen is gathering last minute details from our 911 center right now for any new covid requirements or changes in policies.
Please remember to be safe and thank you everyone that signs up.
Robert Ritchey/ KJ6FFP
Santa Cruz County District Emergency Coordinator …”
