ARES

Amateur Radio Emergency Services groups are volunteers who play a major role in many disaster situations around the world. When Emergency teams can not talk to each other through the normal frequencies because many agencies are on different frequencies, Hams are able to keep up the chatter. There is much discussion about the problems associated with getting FD, Police and other emergency agencies on the same frequencies. But the solution is right in front of their noses. You take a Ham operator and stage them with the head of the Emergency Operations and you put several operators in the field. The messages are then relayed thru amateur radio frequencies and everyone knows what the other is doing.
Amateur radio frequencies are the same the world over. Through repeaters stretched across the world, ham operators are able to relay messages of health and welfare to countless numbers of people. During the recent hurricanes I've heard numbers of up to 800 + operators volunteering their time to work at American Red Cross shelters and other places, making calls to reassure family members far away that their loved ones are okay!
When telephones don't work, emergency depts. can't communicate with each other, and chaos reins, Amateur Radio Operators step in and fill a big gap in communications. They are the silent groups behind the scenes. Let us not forget the good that these volunteers do.
78's, KD5KTY New Mexico