HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 8LAHECC_20200908_FINAL-Minutes_SecretaryKK6HH.docx 1
Emergency Communications Committee Minutes
Tuesday, September 8, 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Meeting was held via ZOOM Online Video Conference
Members Call Sign Attendance
Dru Anderson, Co-Chair KG6LAD P
Eduardo Arias, Co-Chair KM6LSX P
Bob Anderson KC6ZWG P
Ben H. L. Hu, Secretary KK6HH P
Edwin R Jones W7WPO E
Terry Kearney KM6LTQ P
Andrew Kirk WB6CLS E
Scott Overstreet N6NXI P
Jay Sutaria KN6JAY P
Sam Wood K6MSR P
Council/Staff
Kavita Tankha,Council Liaison A
Associate Members
Dave Stewart KJ6JQT P
Kjell Karlsson KD6BPP P
Greg Olsen K6XM P
Duncan MacMillan KI6VMY P
Peter Evans AI6MV P
Guests:
Linda Swan KK6EBQ P
Denise Gluhan KM6IFY P
J Logan, LAHCFD P
Victoria Bebee, LAHCFD KN6HOU P
1.At 19:10 hours, Dru KG6LAD, Co-Chair, called the online Video meeting to order.
a.Roll Call: Dru called roll. Attendance: 17 including 8 members, 5 associates, and
4 guests. Ben KK6HH, Kjell KD6BPP, and Peter AI6MV joined the meeting later.
b.Minutes of August 4,2020,approved:Scott N6NXI moved to approve the
minutes and Bob KC6ZWG seconded.The minutes were approved by roll call
vote.Andy WB6CLS was unable to join the video conference due to technical
difficulty with access.All other eight members present assented,by roll,to the
motion and the Draft minutes were approved.
2.Update: Council Liaison Kavita Tankha: Not able to attend.
3.EC Report Update and Activities - Neil K2LL, EC:
a.Neil Katin, K2LL EC was unable to join the meeting due to his Red-Cross
volunteer duty in the Napa area. His report is deferred for the October meeting.
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b.Dru urged all present to check the County ARES/RACES courses and events
at http://www.scc-ares-races.org/aresraces.htm
4.Public Comments from the floor:
a.Update from LAHCFD Emergency Services Management:
i.J Logan, general manager of LAHCFD, said there were many working
meetings to discuss the planning and coordination of an emergency
evacuation plan. She noted there is a good working relationship with all the
agencies involved.
ii.Denise Gluhan KM6IFY then outlined the evacuation plan for the LAHCFD:
1.The crucial thing is to get informed through authorized channels,
specifically Nixle from the Town of Los Altos Hills and AlertSCC, from
Santa Clara County. While the information from social networks, such as
NextDoor, may be helpful social networks also could be at times
inaccurate It is best to go to a defined source.
2.These alert services can be accessed at the town website,
https://losaltoshills.ca.gov/ A prominent “EMERGENCY” tab at the top
menu ribbon on the home page takes you to
https://losaltoshills.ca.gov/101/Emergency which has information and links.
3.It also is important to become “situation aware”, thus paying attention to
the difference between Evacuation warning, which is a warning for
preparation to evacuate and Evacuation order, which means not being
able to return until the order is lifted.
4.The “situation awareness” also means being cognizant of one’s own
situation. If one’s household has mobility limited persons, small pets,
and/or large animals, one should not only provide means to transport and
secure them safely, but also to evacuate earlier to give plenty of time to
get ready for evacuation in order to avoid traffic jams in such an
emergency. For example, one should provide a small crate to put one’s
pets there. It may be difficult or takes more time than usual to coax a
panic cat or dog into a crate in such a situation.
5.Another excellent example of the “situation awareness” is the recent
“helicopter lifting” in recent fires. One should evacuate earlier to avoid
being surrounded by fires and needing emergency rescue efforts.
6.Dru asked whether the Emergency Service Management teams could
“push” an alert to all co-Chairs of Standing Committees of the Town. J.
Logan agreed to follow up.
b.Readiness update for Sept 13, Zone 2 Saddle Mtn, the first planned evacuation
drill of a neighborhood:
Denise KM6IFY stated the following scenarios for the drill on this Sunday
(9/13):
1.An evacuation order between 9-10 am through Nixle will be issued by the
TOWN.
2.All should be ready to load the essentials to a car, allowing sufficient time
for mobility impaired persons, and small pet carriers with or without the
pets. If one has a large animal, such as a horse or cow, a trailer or other
LAHECC_20200908_FINAL-Minutes_SecretaryKK6HH.docx 3
transport preparations would need to be available for actual evacuation.
She responded to a question about what to do with a pet such as a corn
snake. Her answer was to prepare a crate specifically for the animal.
Whether corn snake or dog or cat, she cautioned that the creature(s)
need to be securely transported because at a rescue destination,
creatures can panic and get excited and difficult to manually control She
observed it would be a lot easier to put a corn snake in a crate than
loading a panicked large dog into a container by a fearful and excited
master. Thus, practice and animal carriers/transport are advisable.
3.Watch for, and alert one’s neighbors about an emergency evacuation
order. Good prior knowledge of your neighborhood and its residents’
specific needs are important.
4.All evacuating vehicles cars for drills will pass through a “drive-through”
pre-determined checkpoint.
5.Immediately after the drill, when folks have returned to their homes, the
Town/LAHCFDA will convene a follow-up Zoom meeting to assess the
experience for an after-event report. This will build on the process for
future planned evacuation drills in other areas of the community.
c.Updates in Town communication processes and alerts:
Dru reiterated the alert sign-on could be done on the Website of the Town. She
reported that starting the next ECC meeting in October, the committee meeting
will be via ZOOM connection provided by the Town for each of the standing
committees. Sam K6MSR asked for some assistance in getting his iPad ready
for Zoom. He was advised to sign in the meeting 5-10 minutes earlier to iron out
access issues.
d.Group: what resources did each of you depend on for community alerts:
i)Scott N6NXI pointed out in last night’s SPECS net, both the SPECS and LAH
repeaters were functional despite power outage. Scott stated that the SPECS
repeater could last more than 1-½ days on battery power while LAH, much
longer, as it is backed up with a Diesel engine, in response to the question by
Denise KM6IFY.
ii)Scott N6NXI also reported an excellent Radio report on the power outage at
Last night by various ham operators who checked in during the Monday night
SPECS net.
e.Both Linda Swan KK6EBQ and Jay KN6JAY, as Council member candidates,
expressed thanks to all the Standing Committees for their contributions to the
Town.
5.Old Business:
Inventory Update: Jay KN6JAY reported that the 2 antennas, one located at
West Wind Barn and the other at a Foothill College building were included by
Duncan KI6VMY previously. In addition, he would like to confirm that the
Purissima Water District indeed has a mobile radio belonging to the Town. Dru
KG6LAD confirmed and will ensure Jay gets the Model/Serial # for the list.
6.Goals Report:
a.Goal#1: Develop an outstretched letter to registered LAH area Hams:
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Dru KG6LAD asked one or two volunteers to assist her to draft/edit the letter.
They could send in an email, text, or call to let her know.
b.Goal#2: Coordinate the training and participation activities with the Town’s
Emergency Management team. Dru, together with co-chair Eduardo KM6LSX
would initiate a Zoom meeting with J. Logan, Denise KM6IFY, Victoria KN6HOU,
and Marsha Hovey to plan.
7.Tech Talk(s)
a.The phenomenon of the August 16 lightning storm: Bob KC6ZWG showed his
synopsis document of cause and effect of lightning. The cause of lightning
originates from the banging of solid ice particles. Since the ice is formed with
covalent bonds of hydrogen and oxygen, the electrons are knocked loose as
results of collisions of these solid ice particles. These loose electrons charge the
cloud and when the discharging of these clouds occurs, the resultant lightning
bolt reaches ~50K °F, almost 4 times hotter than the sun. Scott N6NXI remarked
that the distance between one’s location and lightning could be measured by
counting seconds since the sighting of the lightning. The sound travels at ~1K
ft/sec whereas the light at 1M times more. Therefore, if one hears the thunder
after 6 sec, the distance is about 6K ft.
(Rule of thumb: If you count the number of seconds between the flash of
lightning and the sound of thunder, and then divide by 5, you'll get the distance
in miles to the lightning:
5 seconds = 1 mile, 15 seconds = 3 miles, 0 seconds = very close!)
b.What can be or are the impacts of lightning on the radios/antenna: Scott N6NXI
stated, if possible, ground the feed cable of the antenna.
8.Group health and welfare go-around share was skipped because it was beyond
8:30 pm. meeting close.
9.Adjourn: At 20:56, Bob KC6ZWG moved to adjourn and Scott N6NXI seconded.
The motion was carried by roll call.
10.Reminders: See online schedules for activities in the following:
a.LAH town events: http://www.losaltoshills.ca.gov/calendar.aspx.
b.CERT activities:http://www.lahcfd.org/community-programs/public-classes
c.County ARES/RACES courses & events:
http://www.scc-ares-races.org/aresraces.htm
d.EMERGENCY ALERTS:
1.LAH website to find sign-ups and links:
https://losaltoshills.ca.gov/101/Emergency
2.AlertSCC: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc/Pages/home.aspx
e.SPECS Monday Night Net information: www.specsnet.org. Northern SCC
emergency ham radio volunteer activities.
Respectfully submitted: Ben Hu KK6HH, Secretary