STX ARES teams — Districts 6, 7, and 12 — have been actively
deployed for as long as a week and have been providing support to both
the Kerr and Kendall County flooding areas. While their duties have been
varied, many of the ARES Team Members have been assigned to search teams
to assist the teams to maintain communications in the challenging
terrain. The search areas have extended for in excess of twenty-miles.
While some of the deployed Team members were local, quite a few
volunteers had traveled some distance from outside the disaster area to
assist the local Districts. This meant the non-local volunteers had to
find lodging in the cities and towns around the search areas. The DECs
also imposed a safety rule due to the long hours and grueling conditions
under which the Teams were working — no one who was not local was
permitted to travel home overnight after a day’s deployment, thus
necessitating an overnight stay in a hotel.
Although a smart Team Member was able to negotiate with most of
the hotels and motels to apply a discounted government rate for all the
Team Members, the cost of the lodging has been significant.
It is unclear how many Teams will be requested in the coming
weeks, if any. The situation remains fluid as there is still danger of
more flooding, the debris fields are extensive, and sadly there remain a
lot of good people who are missing and must be returned to their
families.
The League does not have a fund dedicated to supporting deployed
ARES Members during disasters. There will be a discussion at the
upcoming Board of Directors’ meeting to consider establishing such a
fund — either internally funded or funded by future donations.
As a result of the extended deployments and possible future
deployments in connection with this disaster and since the League has no
allocated funds, L ee Cooper, W5LHC, West Gulf Vi ce Director, Stuart
Wolfe, KF5NIX, South Texas Section Manager, and I have established a
GoFundMe campaign to raise money to assist the ARES Team Members that
have and are being deployed. This effort is not a fundraising effort of
the ARRL, although it has agreed to support this effort to obtain
donations to assist the League’s deployed ARES Members.
This request for donations is being shared with other ARRL
Divisions and Sections.
Any money exceeding what is actually needed will be donated to the
ARRL for use in future disaster deployments.
To donate, go to: https://tinyurl.com/yt9pzw4t
Thanks to all.
John Robert Stratton, N5AUS
West Gulf Director
Lee H. Cooper, W5LHC
West Gulf Vice Director
Stuart Wolfe, KF5NIX
South Texas Section Manager