Steve, COMO  OH-5, is deploying later today as a communications officer for the US Public Health Service MST in Albany.  The MSU is the USPHS command/logistic/supply center for the DMAT opperations in the region.

1/12/1998, 1400:   The DMAT members on deploy with the KY-1 have reported that they arrived safely in Albany.  They have been assigned to a hospital in Malone, NY in Franklin County.

1/12/1998, 1630:  The KY-1 team with OH-5 members leave Albany, NY for Franklin county NY.  We have learned they will be assigned to Alice Hyde Memorial Hospital in Malone, New York.

1/12/1998, 2000:  The KY-1 team reports in to the Franklin county emergency operations that they are only 30 minutes away.  The team appears to be assigned quarters at the Davis Elementary school.  At least they will not have to set up tents and brave the 10 degree weather expected for this evening.

1/12/1998, 2145:  It apears that the team will have heat and hotwater showers at their quarters at Davis School.

1/12/1998, 2140:  We have learned that the quarters at the Davis Elementary has heat and hotwater showers.

1/13/1998, 1200:  Brian called Pat at GDAHA.  They drove 4 wheel drive vehicles from Albany to New York last night.  They set up in a middle school.  KY-1's truck has arrived also.  The ice damage is severe with many trees and power lines down.  The National Guard has been called out to clear the roads.   The school has power and showers.  So far they have not had to eat MRE's, but he was told they may have one for lunch today.  The hospital says it doesn't need help, so they think they will be sent to some clinics to help.  It was raining this morning and the temperature was dropping, so they were anticipating more ice coming.   He said they were sitting in the library drinking coffee.

1/13/1998, 1800:  The team has reported in to GDAHA that they broke into two groups to do field evaluaitons on Tuesday.  They went to 1 shelter that had about 40 to 50 person that had mental handicap. One person was trying to run the place.  Power is being supplied by a generator.  They will probably be providing 24 hour nursing coverage to assist them.  The next shelter had people that brought their medications and didn't need much help.  They then went to Bombay, NY to a Catholic Church, and to a Fire Department.  Both of these needed ALS support.  Fire departments are going door to door with CO2 detectors, trying to ensure that people don't kill themselves breathing fumes.  They have a meeting at 6:00 p.m. between the teams to determine where they will be providing support Wednesday.  The rain turned to snow very quickly and the temperature continues to drop.  They expect it to be 10 to 20 below zero tonight.  They expect shelters will get overloaded as people come in who can't keep warm in their home with the temperatures droping that low.

1/14/1998, 0900:   Contact with the team this morning at Davis Elementary School indicated that harsh conditions exist with a wind chill of -60 f.  Actual temperature at 8 am is -3 f.   Heat at the school is working well and the team is quite comfortable. The team is expected to break up again as they did yesterday to cover different directions and various shelters.  KY-1 commander is at the Franklin County EOC at this hour and may have additional duties assigned.  All team members are doing well and admit to not being over worked.

1/14/1998, 1400:  Kathy with KY-1 reports to us that they saw 50 patients last night, 6 with CO poisoning one of which died. They are also staffing 2 emergency shelters with medical care.  each shelter has about 800 people in them. The team has put 10 hospital beds in a local nursing home's recreation room and have admitted acute care patients to these beds because the 48 bed local hospital (Alice Hyde Memorial) is full and unable to accommodate the communities needs.  Transport to bigger city hospitals is difficult.

1/14/1998, 2100:  Here is a report from Steve at the MSU in Albany.

Hello from Steve

I am writing this report from Albany, NY.  I have been working as a
communications specialist for the Management Services Unit (MSU) division of
the Office of Emergency Preparedness, Office of Health and Human Services,
supporting the Disaster Medical Teams (DMAT) that have been put in service to
help the unfortunate Ice Storm victims in northern New York.  I have been in
Albany since 12 JAN 98.

There are 2 other "Commo Guys" here.  The two guys are also firefighters and
Ham Radio Operators.  We have been very busy in support of the 5 DMAT areas in
northern New York.  I know most of the other MSU staff, as we have worked
together on other deployments, like Hurricane Fran and the 1996 Olympic Games.
The MSU staff is made up people from all over the country, most from the
Washington D.C. area.

These areas served by the DMAT teams in northern New York include:

There are 6-8 DMAT teams in New York at this time.  There are also 4 nurses
and one doctor from the Dayton DMAT Team that were merged into the Kentucky
KY-1 DMAT. In addition to the teams that have been deployed to the different
locations, we are supporting the mobile teams that go to the different clinics
and smaller cities not served by doctors or hospitals.

Some of our many activities include:

Re-programming and distribution of cell phones to liaisons, drivers and staff
Testing & installation of the UHF MSU repeater
Ham radio contacts for HF, VHF, & UHF traffic

Albany is about 3.5 hours from most of the DMAT teams.  The power is out and
will be out for a long time in the northern counties.  We have had reports of
people that have died due to Carbon Monoxide poisoning.  These folks do not
want to go to the shelters due to the threat of looter and crime.  Without
heat, these people use any means possible to keep their family warm.
Unfortunately, there have been problems.

Sleep has been short to non-existent.  Right now I am at the helm, while the
others catch up on their sleep.  I am fairly tired right now, so I hope I am
making sense.

I will try and get another report out soon.  E-mail has been very consistent
over the last 48 hours.  If you have questions, please send them this way.

CUL,

Sid

1/15/1998: THIS IS A REPORT FROM KY-1:   THE TEAM CALLED .  THEY STATED THAT IT WAS REALLY SNOWING HEAVY NOW AND THE EXTREME COLD CONTINUED.  THE PLACE THEY WERE STAYING WAS WARM.KATHY SENT ANOTHER GROUP OF PEOPLE OVER TOWARD ALEXANDRIA BAY ABOUT 125 MI.  AWAY.  SOME ASSESSMENTS WERE DONE IN THIS AREA  AND THEY WERE CALLING FOR SOME MEDICAL ASSISTANCE.  SHE WILL KNOW MORE WHEN THEY GET BACK. WE ARE EXPECTING SOME MEDIA COVERAGE FROM THAT AREA IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO.

1/16/1998, 0830: This report comes from Steve Caesar, OH-5 at the MSU.

The Commo Team is comprised of three members, Sparky Spradlin, KE4QGF, Mark Swicord, KD4EYF, and Steve "Sid" Caesar, NH7C. The team has been busy with many different projects.  Equipment requests and dispersal activity has leveled out, while computer/network support has now taken center stage. Equipment purchases have been planned to improve the computer support to the MSU staff.

The ham radio operators in the local area have been extremely helpful with providing local information about public service and ham radio resources. Tony, WB2BEJ, has been working with us since the beginning.  Traffic has been passed via the local ham traffic network (both VHF and HF) to some of our outlying sites.  The frequencies that have been reported in use for traffic include 3.993.5 MHz and the 147.120 MHz repeater.

Other helpful people have been the local cellular provider and our friends at WRGB TV6.  Meteorologist Kelly Boland has been able to help us with the tricky weather information for our area of concern. She doesn't know that the Commo Guys are in a windowless room here.  She could tell us anything about the weather and we would believe her.

As with any other deployment, there are difficulties that we have discovered. Just a couple of the problems we will look into today are:

The MSU is 3-4 hours away from the different locations.  Equipment dispersal, troubleshooting, and replacement can be difficult.

Many ham radio repeaters in our area of concern are not functional due to lack of power or damage from the ice.

Could HF help cover the long distances? Could Packet, Pactor or SSB on the HF frequencies be a better solution?  The lack of HF equipment and HF experienced operators severely limits this idea.

For some of you, this report will be information overload, while others may need more information.

1/16/1998, 1600:  The OH-5 team has again been asked to help fill the ranks of another team, the Toledo, Ohio OH-1 team.  Although the OH-1 has around 30 confirmed on their team, they requested additional help from OH-5.  At this point there are 9 confirmed OH-5 members ready to go with another 7 doing final check with their employers.  Seven of the OH-5 members were not reachable although messages were left for them while others could not go due to other commitments.  The OH-1 team has been placed on standby for mid-next week to head for New England area in response to the ice-storms.  If OH-1 deploys, it appears at this point the OH-5 will have at least 14 members in the field assisting other first-in teams and the PHS MSU.

1/16/1998, 1900:OH-5 call-up status now shows 12 confirmed as being ready to go with the OH-1 team next week, and 5 contacted members still needing to report  approval from their employers.  It is believed that MA-1 and MA-2 will rotate out of  NY on 1/21/1998 and that OH-1 and other teams would be used to fill this void should teams still be needed.  This is again in addition to the 5 OH-5 members already deployed with KY-1.

1/18/1998, 1600:  Pat has reported that the OH-1 DMAT will not be needed for replacement and it is standing down.  This will mean of course that the 12 OH-5 members will also be standing down from their alert status.

1/18/1998, 1700:  Steve reported from the MSU in Albany the following short statement:  "The only update is that the MSU (much smaller in size) will move to Ft. Drum sometime in the next few days."  Also it has been learned that the MA-1, MA-2 contingent is headed home.

1/18/1998, 1900:We  received confirmation that the KY-1 DMAT and our five OH-5 helpers moved out of Malone this morning and are headed home.

1/19/1998, 1730:  The 4 members of the OH-5 DMAT deployed in NY have returned with the KY-1 team.  They arrived at 1530 today.   Steve, is still hard at work at the MSU.