Salvation Army Prepares for Disaster by Creating One

During terrorist attacks, hurricanes, earthquakes and in the Inland Empire, forest fires, the Salvation Army has reached out to victims in many ways for more than a century. To prepare for a large disaster affecting San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio network will simulate a large-scale disaster on Saturday, Oct. 28. It will practice its response to the disaster at 13 Salvation Army headquarters in the two-county area.

San Bernardino, CA (PRWEB) September 22, 2006 -- At the Salvation Army, a disaster large enough to affect all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties will strike on Saturday, October 28.

But, most people probably won’t be affected. This disaster is a simulation, and will only take place on the airwaves of the amateur radios belonging to members of SATERN, the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network.

The team’s goal is to prepare for a real disaster. Nationwide, the Salvation Army has been helping with disaster relief since about 1900, when a hurricane leveled much of the Texas Coast.

“We use SATERN in any situation from fires to floods to 9-11,” said Major Russell Fritz, commanding officer of the San Bernardino Central Valley chapter of The Salvation Army. “Like any other organization, SATERN needs to have training and be kept up to date on the latest developments in disaster management.”

This disaster simulation also makes sure that everything the volunteers know about amateur radio works properly when they are called into service for a real emergency.

“We want to verify that we have communication to all the Salvation Army locations in San Bernardino and Riverside counties,” said Tony Stephen, SATERN coordinator for the Sierra del Mar division of The Salvation Army, and organizer of this event. “We also want to practice our message handling.”

SATERN members in 13 Salvation Army chapters in the two counties will gather at their closest Salvation Army headquarters. They will run through a simulated disaster of catastrophic proportion, such as an 8.0+ earthquake, or a fire scorching large, heavily populated areas.

“It will be something of a magnitude we have not seen before,” Stephen said. “It would be a worst-case scenario, affecting almost everyone in the two counties.”

SATERN has been put to the test by a few real disasters already.

Team members volunteered 105 hours of service during the Sawtooth Fire that burned between Yucca Valley and the mountains southwest of there in July. Salvation Army volunteers near the front lines of the fire providing firefighters with sandwiches, used the radios to communicate with others at a remote base in Cathedral City that was standing by to help as needed.

And during the larger, more devastating fires of 2003, enough Salvation Army volunteers spread out over the front lines to warrant setting up four remote bases in and near San Bernardino.

SATERN members in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania assisted in numerous ways on and after September 11, 2001.

“We were at the World Trade Center offering food and comfort within nine minutes of the attacks,” Fritz said of his counterparts in New York.

During the simulated disaster of October 28, each Salvation Army headquarters will be turned into an Emergency Operations Center. The commanding officer of each, who usually oversees the day to day operations of his local Salvation Army’s various ministries, becomes the incident commander, and will be tasked with making sure the response to the disaster flows smoothly.

As they run through the disaster, each Salvation Army headquarters will contact the other 12. They will also attempt communication with real-life Emergency Operations Centers in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, and with the Salvation Army Division Headquarters office in San Diego. Lastly, they hope to make at least one contact with an out-of-state amateur radio operator, as sending messages to other states could be necessary during a disaster.

Except for those participating in the simulated disaster, the Salvation Army headquarters locations will be closed to the public, as they usually are on weekends. The buildings where the drill takes place will have limited to no space for onlookers.

In January, SATERN will put on a seminar in San Bernardino. At this event, interested members of the public can come, see demonstrations, ask questions, and enjoy a free lunch.

For more information, visit www.satern.org or call Stephen at 951-237-9832.

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