All Hazard Communications Unit Leader

This past week I got to spend in Lincoln, Nebraska.  It was a balmy -9 air temp one morning, with wind chills in the -30's.  During that time, I was taking the L969 All Hazards Communications Unit Leader course.  There is a weird disconnect in FEMA.  My title is Communications Unit Leader, but this is the All Hazards Communications Unit Leader course.  FEMA basically maintains two different meanings for COML.  The FEMA (Federal) definition is IT and satellite comms.  The FEMA All Hazards (State level and lower) is all radio and RF comms.  In the FEMA (Federal) level, radios and RF all fall under Disaster Emergency Communications (DEC) and MERS, part of the Operations Section versus me, the COML, in the Logistics Section.

The State of the Union is...

Safe. For now. I will get back to that in a minute. First a little catch-up. We were deployed to assist in the Colorado Flooding last October. By that time, the flood was already 47 days in and the major structures were already in place. We were there for about seven weeks. I did not post many updates because it was most just steady state stuff: helping people connect to printers, running online meetings, and setting up shared server space. Nothing too exciting.

We were home for the holidays which was nice. I got to see my parents for a couple days. In January, we were the primary team up. This means we had two hours to get to the office and 12 hours to be anywhere in CONUS (continental US). Luckily, the month was quiet except for The State of the Union Address (SOTUA) last night. As we were the primary team and already here, we took point.

What makes the SOTUA so special is that the president, both houses, the Supreme Court, and most of the cabinet are all there. That means that most of the line of succession are there. This makes it a ripe target for attack and is designated as an NSSE - National Special Security Event. 

The smaller regional FEMA team was sent down into the heart of it to handle smaller issues. While our national team was kept at an undisclosed location outside the blast zone, er, I mean Capital area.  We had everything set to roll from a safe distance out just in case the worse happened. Luckily, the speech went off without incident and the month is almost over. 

This weekend is another large event - The Super Bowl. We, by proximity, are the up team for that. However, since it is not an NSSE, we just get to stay here on standby to drive up in case something does happen at the event. Looking further ahead, March will be our primary month again and should be very busy with exercises and training. Stay tuned for updates from those!!

Home for the Holidays

Well, it has been a while since I posted on here.  I am back from Denver.  After about 2 months there, it was back home to the DC area.  This was nice because we got to spend the holidays with our families.  As of the first of the year, we are back on constant standby for any event that may occur.

Mile High Disaster

On September 11, Colorado had "historic" flooding north of the Denver area.  While the West IMAT team took the initial response, they had been in Denver for 40+ days.  FEMA Leadership thought it would be nice to switch things up, so they switched teams!  We arrived in Denver yesterday and are set to be here 30 to 60 days.  I believe they plan to have us close down the JFO (Joint Field Office) here when we leave.  If not, we could play tag again and switch out once again.  Today I got to head up to the flood area to scope out a new office location as well as visit an existing one.  I hope to get into some more of the damage zone again.

And we are home again

After showing up at the Florida State EOC this morning, Karen was declared officially not a threat and we were told to go right home.  So back to the hotel, book flights, pack, and get to the airport.  And 12 hours later, we are all back in DC.  Hence the grind.  Let's hope something else picks up soon so we can head out again.  Here's a picture from lunch today, looking for Karen.  I call it good situational awareness!

Karen... you fickle woman.... err, storm

Well, we all arrived in Florida last night.  TS Karen was still moving north but weakening ever so slightly.  This morning our whole team went to the Florida State Emergency Operations Center.  We worked out of their offices today as we watched the storm continue to weaken and even stall almost as it was getting closer.  At this point, it will not hit our area here now until Monday, or beyond.  And by then, it may be down to just a remnant.  But we are here, ready to serve the people of the State of Florida if and when they need us.  Stay tuned!

Florida bound!

Well, we just got our first official deployment!  We are off to Florida in anticipation of Tropical Storm Karen.  More to come soon!!