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THE REACT MONITOR
OFFICIAL
PUBLICATION OF FLAGLER COUNTY ASSIST TEAM 4800 VOL 98 - 2
FALL / WINTER
1998
"CB 9, HAM & GMRS MONITORED IN FLAGLER
COUNTY"
PLEASE MONITOR CB 9 AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
NEWS FROM EOC
After 20 years of service, Mr. Jerry Davis,
Director announced he would retire in April of 1999. Mr. Davis played a
major role in REACT becoming more involved in Emergency Management and
helping us with our repeater. Further details will be announced later.
The EOC Communications room might become much bigger if a grant goes
through. The new COM room is set to be moved into the center room of EOC.
This will double, and may be triple the space we share with ARES, and EOC
personnel. This would involve moving the equipment from the current
location to the center workroom, where the weather Teletype is located. As
part of the grant, the Operations Room would expand out towards the
parking lot, increasing capacity.
REACT 17, Troy is set to be hired as a part time on call employee of
Emergency Management. This will be the 2nd REACT member to be
employed by the EOC.
REACT SEARCH TEAM CALLED OUT
We were called upon to assist with
a lost person from Flagler Pines Nursing home. This occurred in the early
morning hours of 9/29/98. Family in Volusia County found the subject at a
relative house in Osteen.
We want to thank REACT 1, 3, 12, 13, 14, 17,
19, 22, 25, and 29 for responding.
WE CONTINUE TO GROW
We welcome the following NEW members to our
group.
REACT 31 David Morace
REACT 32 Karen Morace
REACT 33 Tom
Benlty
We have added 6 new members since June of this year.
MARC BELLEFONTAINE LEAVING FOR ORANGE PARK
REACT 3 has relocated
to Orange Park. At a special party at Radio Shack, he was presented a
certificate of appreciation from the State for his help with the
wildfires. Marc will still remain an active member of our Team for now. He
did resign his post as Finical Officer. He also resigned 3rd
Coordinator as well. Marc’s biggest achievement for our Team was the
development of our Internet resources, including the Team & State
websites, e-mail, and others. Marc has been a member of FCA since 1988,
and has held officer positions each year since then.
PAGE 2
OCTOBER PROVES BUSY FOR FCA REACT
This month, we have had
several football games, a parade, three searches, two reports of funnel
clouds, and two requests for emergency traffic control. No fires
though!.
TRIVIA!!!!!!
What do the following details ALL have in common:
10/22/98 -
Homecoming Parade
10/23/98 - Homecoming Football Game
10/24/98 -
Seminole Woods Clean Up
ANSWER, at the end of the newsletter.
REACT AROUND THE STATE
A NEW REACT TEAM!! St Lucie REACT hit the
ground running. They are on CB 9, CB 22. They are growing, and working
with neighboring REACT Teams.
Another Team, Camden County REACT, in St Mary’s Georgia, has formed,
and though they are in Georgia, they are close by.
There are also four other possible Teams in the works. Some are real
close, others are ideas. We are waiting to see how these work out.
Lee County - Lee County REACT has been approved, and is in final stages
of development.
West Florida - A Team in the Big Bend area may be under formation.
Seminole County - Is in final stages of approval.
Palm Beach County - REACT of South Florida is going to make a come
back, and also a group is interested in that area.
Jax Alert - We have contacted this group, a surviving chapter of the
old ALERT organization from the 1970’s. Currently established with 6
members, they are interested in relations with the REACT organization.
They may even join, but we’ll have to wait and see.
On the down side, we have received word that ACCAT REACT in Gainesville
does not intend to renew. They have not been active in a long time, and
have not actively pursued new members. This is why, it is so important to
participate in our Team as much as possible, and to gain more members.
The Florida Council is going to be more aggressive when new Teams form.
This includes a letter to the county EOC, whereever a new Team forms.
PAGE 3
FLAGLER COUNTY ASSIST HOSTS FIRST STATE COUNCIL
MEETING
The FCRT held it’s first meeting in Flagler County.
With the help of REACT 20, and 21 plus the other members, the meeting was
successful The Sleep Inn was used for the site. Among the activities, a
joint exercise was conducted among the Florida Teams. This was a new
experience to many, as they do not train like we do. It has brought
attention to the issue of good training, and a training session will be
held at each meeting of the State Council.
10 out of 15 Teams were present.
Two new Teams were formed during the meeting. Lee County REACT was
approved, and the Florida State DCAT Team, a state wide response unit was
also formed. Florida DCAT will be available on a state wide level.
The purpose of DCAT is to provide support to any REACT Team, ARES
group, or agency that needs it. DCAT has 3 portable communications units
that are available to respond to any emergency. DCAT has been chartered
from the ashes of Indian River REACT. IRR was disbanded due to differences
among members. Another new Team is also under development in that area.
Lee County REACT is set up by members of REACT from Ohio. They moved
the Ft Myers, and one of the first things they did was set up a REACT
Team.
In Seminole County came late word that a Team there is about to form,
and approval is underway.
During the meeting, many issues were discussed, and among them all were
the by laws for REACT Int. To make a long discussion short, they were
voted down, as the quorum figures were too lose, and put too few of
members in charge of a large organization.
The next meeting will be in Orlando in May.
| The meeting would not have been possible without
the efforts of Gary, Petra, and Kelly plus the other members who
were able to help, REACT 3, 5, 6, 8, 14, 16, 17, 22, & 24. Thank
You! |
T SHIRTS ARE HERE AGAIN!
T shirts ARE
available. These are the REACT standard T shirts. They are $15.00
each. Each shirt has REACT logos, and also has the Team Name, like
the older shirts. These shirts come in XL, L, & XXL. We still
have S, M, from the original order, all new.
Once we sell on
these shirts, we will begin designing the Emergency Management /
REACT shirts. These will show Emergency Management support, and also
membership in REACT.
All profits from these shirts support our
Team. |
PAGE 4
FIRE SEASON STARTS IN DECEMBER!
This is VERY important. Yes, we may be doing the fire thing again this
season, if all predictions hold true. A dry winter is forecast, setting
the stage for more fires in spring and early summer
NOW is the time to prepare. Starting soon, communication sessions will
be held during Team meetings. Please try to attend the meetings, learn how
things work now, before the fires begin.
Training sessions on radio operation, dispatching, and others will be
held. Once again time is now, to get ready.
It is also important to have a plan in place for your family. Who &
where will they go should you need to evacuate? These are questions that
should be answered now, before the disaster hits.
GMRS
There are 16 members that have GMRS licenses, or have GMRS
access. Not all have radios as of yet, but it is growing slowly. Skip has
be extremely bad during the daytime, and has hampered CB communications.
Another source of GMRS radios has been located, Communications Electronics
out of Michigan offers the GMRS Maxon 210 Plus 3 radio form $150.00. This
radio is used by many members of our Team, and is easy to use. It is
compatible with Radio Shack batteries. The phone number is 1-800-USA-SCAN.
The website is www. usascan.com
CB
Well as we know, SKIP IS NOW BACK. But during the night, the
skip is gone, and that when we are getting most of our CB 9 calls. We have
seen a decline in calls over the past few months, from 30 – 40 a month to
15 – 20 a month. Several causes, skip, cell phones, occurrence of
incidents going down, and a few others. Again we want to echo, keep
monitoring CB 9. CALLS are STILL coming in. And as long as that continues,
we need to be on CB 9.
CALLS
As of the end of November – 295, 256 of those calls came
via CB. The others came in via GMRS, ham, etc.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE THIS YEAR?
So, what has our Team accomplished
this year? What goals have been met? In 1998 the biggest achievement was
the GMRS repeater. After 2 years it is a reality. Also our Skywarn nets
are up and running, as well as Search Team. New Members, we have had 6 new
members come on board since the first of the year. We also have faced and
effectively handled the worse disaster in Flagler County. When the fires
blew through, NEVER in our history had so much been placed upon our Team.
Over 1,500 collective hours, and over 400 Team hours were put into over 70
operations, training sessions, and events. This blows away all other years
past. So now we can stand and look at all we did do this past year. Lets
not forget we also hosted the State Council Meeting as well.
Our
busiest year in our history, our biggest events too. Thank you REACT. YOU
made all of this possible. People who donate their time to make it work is
how it happens. We are looking forward to working with everyone next
year.
PAGE 5
BEWARE OF SEVERE WEATHER SEASON
It has been months since we have had to deal with a severe
weather threat in our area. No potential severe weather has been observed
since the funnel clouds in October, reported by REACT 14, But do not let
your guard down.
This year is forecast to be a dry winter, but as we know, most of our
violent severe weather usually occurs in middle winter and early spring.
Though more storms occur in summer, killer tornadoes and storms usually
hit in the winter and spring months.
Remember that the most effective way to get warnings is via NOAA
weather radio. Every member should have one.
Any watch or warning that is issued is an AUTOMATIC LEVEL 1 ALERT. Is
does not matter if a Level 1 is announced or not. Soon as a weather
announcement is made, we are at Level 1. Levels may be increased as needed
to meet the need. If a Skywarn net is activated, we are on a LEVEL 3.
Be aware of threatening weather conditions, and monitor when conditions
are expected to be severe.
Remember that Florida is number 1 for thunderstorms, and waterspouts.
We are number 3 for tornadoes. Our eyes may save lives by reporting severe
weather quickly.
DUES COMING SOON
Reminder that we will be collecting dues soon
from the membership of the Team. Dues can be paid to any Team Officer.
Dues are $26.00 regular, and $24.00 for family and junior.
$20.00 goes
to REACT Int., $6.00 goes to us. Thanks Team!
BACK ON SCHEDULE NEXT YEAR
This year’s Newsletter got off of
schedule due to the fires. We hope to be back on our seasonal newsletters
4 time a year in 1999.
SPECIAL ELECTION
The special election held in October has place
Irene Pickering as Financial Officer for the Team. Her duties took effect
at the start of November and are settling into her new position.
ANSWER TO TRIVIA QUESTION
The 3 October functions all had a
Search Activation that occurred during each event. During each on of the
posted details, we were called upon to help search for a lost person. All
three times the persons were found as we activated.
MONITOR CB 9, GMRS & HAM!
Top
Flagler County Assist REACT Team 4800
P.O. Box 353021
Palm Coast
Fl
32135
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