April 27th 2011 When all else did fail - Presented to the Michigan Interoperability Communication Conference - State of Michigan
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April 27th, 2011
When all else did fail
Presented to the
Michigan Interoperability Communication Conference
March 3, 2022
By: Tom Cash, WS4M
ws4m@arrl.net
April 27th, 2011
11 all else did fail
When
Presented to the
Michigan Interoperability Communication Conference
March 3, 2022
By: Tom Cash, WS4M
ws4m@arrl.net
This briefing is drawn from:
A presentation I
made to the Discussions
2020 MI with Hsv/MadCo Discussions with
Interoperability EMA Personnel TVA personnel
Conference
In Summary, on April 27th, 2011:
• The U.S. experienced an outbreak of 207 tornadoes.
• Huntsville, Alabama / Madison County experienced multiple
tornadoes ((one EF-5)) p
plus numerous severe thunderstorms that
occurred over three waves that day.
In Summary, on April 27th, 2011:
• Major impacts to the Huntsville/Madison County (HMC) area were:
• A total loss of power county wide.
• After 36 to 48 hours cell tower backup generators ran out of
fuel and they lost cell telephone service.
• For some reason the internet service for the city of Huntsville
locked up causing all city government VOIP phone lines to be
inoperative and useless.
• Communications between the county EOC and the State EOC
were sporadic at best.
This presentation
Thi t ti 11 will
ill discuss
di what
h t has
h been
b done
d
over the past 10 years to attempt to mitigate these
impacts should a similar event happen again.
On Wednesday April 27th, 2011,
2011 the Huntsville /
Madison County Alabama ended up being hit by three
waves of severe weather.
If the citizens of Cullman County
depended solely on a Weather Alert
Cullman,
Cullman radio for their warnings then they were
AL out of luck for the remainder of the
This tornado took outbreak. You should have multiple
out the WX Radio
broadcast tower for
Cullman County
ways of receiving severe weather
alerts!!!
l t !!!
Early Morning
On Wednesday April 27th, 2011,
2011 the Huntsville /
Madison County Alabama ended up being hit by three
waves of severe weather.
Cullman
Cullman,
AL
This tornado took
out the WX Radio
broadcast tower for
Cullman County
Early Morning Mid-Day Evening
Tornado warnings
g issued between 4AM
4 and 9
9PM
(NWS HUN)
92 TORs issued (26 in Madison County)**
67 TORs ‐ 2010
** Speed of storms influenced # of Warnings
So,, do I practice
p what I preach
p about havingg multiple
p
ways of receiving weather alerts?
January
y 1,, 2022: The North Alabama area went under a
Tornado Watch. I received the following notifications:
5 texts, 3 emails, from 4 different sources
Why did HMC lose all power?
All but one of the eight power transmission lines into the
county
c y had one or more towers s that looked like this:
s
The initial
estimate from the
TVA was that it
would take 15 days
to start restoring
power.
The good news is
TVA beat that
estimate and got
power back to the
hospitals on Day 5.
Total county wide restoration took weeks.Will they lose all power again?
I mett with
ith th
the llocall manager off TVA’
TVA’s operations
ti who
h
told me that they have not done anything specific based
off of the events of April 27th, 2011. However, they do
have an ongoing process improvement program that has
over the past 11 years increased their number of
distribution paths and power handling capabilities.
Example: In 2011 the first power restored to the city
had to be routed from the east to a location south, then
to a location west,, and then finally
y into the city.
y The
amount of power that could be delivered was limited
due to the power handling capability of that circuitous
route. Now they have more paths available so odds are
they could get more power restored quicker should
something like this happen again.Why did we lose the internet and
therefore all City VOIP phones?
• In 2011 the city of Huntsville was only
contracted with one Internet Service
Provider (ISP) and only had one connection
with that ISP.
• Now the city of Huntsville has contracted
with three ISPs and has multiple connection
points with each ISP.
• The EMA does have 21 POTS phone lines in
the EOC facility and no longer has to battle
the budget “bean-counters” to keep them.Why were communications with
the state EOC so difficult?
• The Alabama statewide EOC is located in
Clanton, AL, just south of Birmingham.
• Tuscaloosa, AL (home of the University of
Tuscaloosa
Alabama) is west of Birmingham and had
an EF-4 hit the University campus mid-day,
which garnered the most state-wide
attention.
• The antenna on our ARES/RACES station in
the Madison County EOC had issues and so
did the HF station in the state EOC so we
did nott have
h good
d communications.
i tiWhat has been done to remedy that?
• The officers of the ARES/RACES group
replaced the EOC’s HF antenna.
antenna
• They now do frequent radio checks via HF
with the state EOC in Clanton.What else has been done to improve
Amateur Radio communications?
• The Madison County ARES/RACES Group
has investigated and started using the
Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network
(AREDN) as a method to transmit data
between sites.
• They’ve also added a weekly digital
practice net where digital messages and
low-res photos are exchanged by various
ARES/ RACES members via fldigi and
EasyPal and emails sent via Winlink.What else has been done to improve
First Responder communications?
• IIn O
October
t b 2012 th the H
Huntsville
t ill / M
Madison
di
County 9-1-1 inaugurated an interoperable,
digital
g radio system
y for the Public Safety
y
community in Madison County. This was
the first IP-Based P25 system in Alabama.
• This system originally serviced 8
agencies, 3 Universities, the airport, the
public schools, and a local Community
College within the county.
• Since then this system
y has expanded
p
throughout the state and now covers over
half of the state’s geography and population.Any other lessons learned?
• The area became more aware of the need
for having and documenting the locations
of personal “Safe Rooms” and public storm
shelters.
• The E-911
911 Center
C now has personal storm
shelters (registered by the owners)
indicated in their mapping
pp g system
y (see
(
next slide).
• The HMC EMA now keeps p a map p on their
web page of available public storm
shelters (see slide after next).Mapping personal storm shelters /
Safe Rooms
• The E-911
911 maps now
have a layer
((indicated by
y the
tornado symbol)
that show which
houses have
registered a shelter
and whether the
shelter
h lt is
i above
b or Red
R d=B Below
l G
Groundd
Blue = Above Ground
below ground.
• There are links on the HMC EMA web page
to register additional personal shelters /
Safe RoomsMapping public storm shelters
• This PDF map is available
for download from the HMC
EMA webb page.
• Each shelter has their
address, capacity,
accessibility, and pet
allowed info listed on
PDF pages 2-5.Any other lessons learned?
• Also not really a lesson learned, but a
great improvement is the Severe Weather
Warning Sirens system.
• Madison County installed a new system
that allowed only those sirens in the
Severe Weather Warning polygon to be set
off. That system went operational 2014.
• This increases the effectiveness of the
outdoor warning system by not warning
areas that are not really under the gun.Any other lessons learned?
• The Huntsville / Madison County EMA
facility has three restrooms – one male,
male
one female, and one common.
• All th
three restrooms
t have
h a shower.
h
• On days 2 and 3 the showers had hot water
left over in the water heater.
• I tried to take a shower on Day 4.
• Apparently I wasn’t the only one. The
power source for the water heater has now
been moved to the backup generator.Not a Lesson Learned but an important topic: Is the “Dixie Alley” still having severe weather outbreaks and if so, how much warning do they get?
North Alabama Dec 16, 2019
From the SPC 12‐16‐19
0600ZNorth Alabama Dec 16, 2019
North Alabama Dec 16, 2019
2 FatalitiesNashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
The following information is from
the article “Inside
Inside the Storm
Storm”
published in the Nashville
Newspaper the Tennessean
Newspaper, Tennessean, by
Jessica Bliss on April 4, 2020Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
Nashville March 3, 2020
SW Kentucky, Dec 10-11, 2021
As of 0100z (7 PM Dec 9) the SPC had
nothing predicted for SW KentuckySW Kentucky, Dec 10-11, 2021
As of 1200z (6 AM Dec 10) the SPC had an Enhanced
Risk (10-15%) predicted for SW KentuckySW Kentucky, Dec 10-11, 2021 As of 1630z (10:30 AM Dec 10) the SPC had a Moderate Risk (15-30%) predicted for SW Kentucky.
SW Kentucky, Dec 10-11, 2021
SPC Outlook 12-10-21 SPC Outlook 12-11-21 SPC Outlook 12-11-21 0600z
2000z (Noon Local time) 0100z (7 PM Local time) (Midnight Local time)
They never raised the forecast to show a
High Probability.SW Kentucky, Dec 10-11, 2021
This tornado formed at 5:30 PM and lasted
for 4 hours and 20 minutes.My
y point
p is:
Stay Weather Aware
AT ALL TIMES!
Not just when severe weather is forecast.Summary
Summary.
While nobody can be completely
prepared, the Huntsville / Madison
County area has taken multiple steps
to be better prepared for the next
severe weather
th outbreak.
tb k
We all need to continuallyy harp
p on
the topic of having multiple ways of
receiving weather information and
need
d to
t maintain
i t i weather
th awareness
at all times.Questions?
IRa
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