The CBC has posted an article titled Hoping for best and preparing for worst: Inside the American Redoubt movement with the subtitle “Conservative, Christian and concerned — Americans fed up with government hole up in Pacific Northwest.”

Rawles sees the Redoubt as a place where mostly conservative, Christian Americans who are worried about the future should move and prepare for the worst. The goal is to create a safe haven where like-minded Americans, many of whom refer to themselves as “preppers,” can live off the land, be more self-sufficient and wait out the calamities to come…

Santos says many of the people coming through his shop these days are new arrivals looking for a fresh start and a quieter, more peaceful life.

“Many of the things that attracted my wife and I to this area are the same things that are attracting people today — people want to live in a place that feels like a community, people want to feel safe when they go out at night…”

For Lebaron, life in the Redoubt is about hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. It’s a mantra he adopted while working with FEMA, America’s disaster management agency, during the earthquake that rocked the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989.

“When bad things happen, people that you have called your friends for years are no longer your friends,” he said. “When people are cold, tired and hungry, they forget all about friendships.”

He expects the divisions this presidential campaign has reinforced across the country will remain long after the election and will feed some Americans’ desire to retreat to the Redoubt.

“There is very much a division or a schism in the United States today, where people are literally, ‘Which side of the fence are you on?'”

Click here to read the rest of the story.

The CBC also has two other related pieces.

• Off grid and in demand: Selling property in the American Redoubt
• A look at one couple’s off-the-grid lifestyle in the Redoubt

Washington State has posted a “Final Draft” AAR (pdf) for the Cascadia Rising exercise held in June of this year. That exercise practiced a response to 9 magnitude Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Selected quotes:

There is an urgent need for residents to prepare
Despite the ongoing public education efforts and community preparedness programs, our families, communities, schools, hospitals, and businesses are not prepared for the catastrophic disaster that a worst-case CSZ earthquake would cause.

The typical response to incidents and disasters begins at the local level –dispatch, fire, law enforcement, public works, etc. Once the local level and mutual aid is overwhelmed, requests for support are elevated to the county, then state, and if required to the federal level. This is commonly referred to as a “pull” system, here the highest level of government pulls up only requests for support in order to respond. Cascadia Rising proved this approach is grossly inadequate

the clock is ticking to a humanitarian disaster.

The state’s transportation, communication, and energy networks which are essential to enable a catastrophic response and thus, saving and sustaining lives, are not survivable

There is no long-term recovery strategy or plan

The ability of the SEOC to collect and process information and act on it was overwhelmed.

Importance of CERT and light rescue teams to Urban Search and Rescue.

Ham radio specific:

Areas of Improvement
1.Emergency coordination centers are not prepared to operate in a degraded communications environment over an extended period.

Analysis: The exercise placed a focus on operating in a severely degraded communications environment which is expected based on the damages modeled to telephone and web-based infrastructure in Western Washington. Several local jurisdictions and the State EOC operated for a period of time without telephones or web-based communications (email, web pages, cloud services). The results were mixed. Some jurisdiction emergency management agencies are equipped with back-up forms of communication, with sufficiently trained staff, while others identified emergency communications as an area of improvement either due to lack of equipment, procedures, or training. For the State EOC, multiple forms of alternate communications were successfully used but procedures for effective interaction between the radio room and operations floor had to be improvised on the first day of the exercise.

At the state level, the successful employment of satellite phones, particularly among key leadership was inconsistent. Amateur radio was successfully employed by many jurisdictions and at the state level on a larger scale then previously experienced in recent exercises. The amateur radio teams are voluntary and their engagement and integration with emergency management offices vary.
Recommendations:

Continue training and exercising the professional and volunteer community on alternate communication systems, forms, and procedures.

Amateur Radio:
Emergency management agencies and their amateur radio support teams need to establish a habitual relationship and engage with each other on how ARES/RACES can support in both activations and drills. For a few jurisdictions, this engagement merely needs to be sustained. For most jurisdictions, this is an area of improvement. This engagement can be improved through training and drills (emergency managers need to integrate the ARES/RACES teams and provide the material to be used for radio messages); Support and collaboration on the use of formatted digital messages such as the ISNAP form used effectively by many jurisdictions to transmit reports and resource requests via HF radio during the exercise; conducting assessments of equipment and radios and discussionon ways to achieve effective systems as required. The state must develop a state-wide operational communications plan as part of the overarching effort to improve catastrophic planning. EMD should also develop an amateur radio SOP and sustain periodic training and exercises to foster amateur radio teamwork across 13 jurisdictions. Cascadia Rising demonstrated the need for jurisdictions in Western Washington and Eastern Washington to strengthen their capability to communicate effectively via alternate forms of communication (i.e. not telephone, email).

An article in The Spokesman-Review about the AAR has some good points about the importance of your local relationships in responding to this sort of disaster.

As Bob Wiese, coordinator for the Spokane area amateur radio system said, “If we do not know one another and each other’s strength as well as weaknesses, we cannot be expected to work seamlessly when we are called upon.”…

“The relationship piece is the key, not having to build a relationship in times of crisis lets you get down to the meat and potatoes of what needs to be accomplished on a quicker timeline,” [Lewis] said…

And that’s why the most effective preparedness is strong relationships… Neighbors will be the first responders in their own small piece of the world…

It’s not just the planners who need to think differently. It means consciously developing habitual relationships with neighbors, being individually prepared, knowing who needs help and who can provide help. And be ready to improvise.

If we’re going to survive and recover from a catastrophe, then we need to have already cultivated strong relationships with our neighbors and community. We need to be individually prepared so that we do not become a burden on those relationships, but can instead provide relief to those in need around us. This goes to the heart of what the LVA is about — building a strong, resilient community which can survive trying times.

An information session for parents interested in homeschooling will be held on Thursday, Oct. 20th at 7pm, at Prosser Bethel, 270 N Gap Rd, Prosser, WA.  Information will be available on local coop options. There will be area activities for homeschoolers, April Thom of NARHS will be giving a presentation on high school accreditation. There is no charge for the event, but please bring a pie to share.

Here is a video of the president of Hillsdale College giving some lectures on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The length is two hours.

These Amateur Radio frequencies are known to be in use or are available for use during the response to Hurricane Matthew. Please avoid interfering with these frequencies, and do not check into any emergency nets unless you genuinely have something of importance to contribute.

Northern Florida ARES Net: 3.950 or 7.252 MHz

International SATERN Net: 14.265 MHz (USB) Health & Welfare Traffic

Hurricane Watch Net (HWN): 14.325 MHz (USB), 7.268 MHz (LSB): Weather data and storm reports from stations in affected area

Federal Government-Amateur Radio Interoperability (Southeast United States (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina):

5330.5 kHz

5346.5 kHz

5357.0 kHz

5371.5 kHz

5403.5 kHz

These are the suppressed carrier reference frequencies, also known as dial frequencies or window frequencies, for USB voice communications.

FEMA Region 4 in Atlanta will be using the Amateur Radio call sign KF4EMA to allow  FEMA-licensed amateurs to provide situational awareness on various Amateur Radio nets within Region 4 relative to the Hurricane Matthew response.

Cuba (Primary): 7.110 MHz (LSB)

Cuba (Alternate 1): 7.120 MHz (LSB)

Cuba (Alternate 2): 7.045 MHz

Cuba (Alternate 3): 7.080 MHz

Cuba: 3.720 MHz

Cuba: 3.740 MHz

IARU Region 2: 3.750 MHz Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

IARU Region 2: 7.060 MHz Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

IARU Region 2: 14.300 MHz Global Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

IARU Region 2: 18.160 MHz Global Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

IARU Region 2: 21.360 MHz Global Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

IARU Region 2: 18.160 MHz Global Emergency Center of Activity Frequency

VoIP Hurricane Net: WX-Talk Conference, Node #7203 on Echolink and IRLP Reflector 9219. IRLP Reflector 9553 is the backup. (Due to the number of limited routes to the Echolink node for mobile devices, monitor WX-TALK on a desktop computer if possible.)

The 2016 Benton County Sheriff’s Citizen Academy is accepting applications.

• Patrol Procedures and Traffic Enforcement
• Detectives and Narcotics
• School Resource Officer
• Evidence Collection
• Crime Scene Investigations
• Sex Offender Program
• SWAT Team
• Crime Analyst
• Gangs
• K-9
• Boat Patrol
• Corrections
• Tours of Benton County Jail,
• Justice Center, and Coroner’s Office
• Plus more

2016 Citizens Academy Application