The Lake City Emergency Communication Hub will be participating in a City-wide field exercise, No Power, No Bars—the total and unexplained loss of our regional power grid—on Saturday April 28 from 9 am – 11:30 am. We hope you will attend this exercise. The Lake City Hub is located at the Lake City Fred Meyer Store, in the SE corner of the lower parking lot.
Why No Power, No Bars?
We’ve seen and heard about the effects of sustained loss of electricity in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. Something like that could happen here. In this No Power, No Bars exercise there is no structural storm or earthquake damage—simply no power. The implications of No Power are great—no heat, no cooking on electric stoves, no refrigeration, no credit card transactions, no pumping gasoline for vehicles (or generators), no traffic lights. Are our water lines and sewer lines dependent on electricity for pumping? Without back-up generators, elevators won’t work so people with mobility issues could be trapped in their apartment homes—or unable to get back into their apartment homes. At some point back-up generators will run out of fuel. The No Bars part of the exercise is about communication. Voice over internet protocol phones (like Comcast and Century Link) will not work although true landline phones may work. Police and Fire use the same cell towers we all use. The cell phone system will be jammed with users so calls from most of us will not get through as connectivity will be restricted to official and emergency use. The Internet will be down. Radio and TV stations may be unable to broadcast. Amateur (ham) radio communication will be working.
We want to find out and learn how neighbor connectivity could help with a response should we have a major regional power outage. The Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs and the Seattle Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS—the ham radio volunteer unit for the City) are conducting this field exercise.
The Hubs will practice passing information on to the community at Hub locations and also matching volunteer skills, information, and resources with people looking for the same. We know we will be dependent on each other in the case of a major disaster here in Seattle, so we are working to prepare in advance of that situation. And we want to help you and your family and your neighborhood also be prepared.
Your help is needed! Join the Lake City Hub as a volunteer to learn how you can help your neighbors in a disaster. Join us as an “actor” to use prepared messages that will challenge the Hub volunteers to help solve the problem. Stop by the Lake City Hub’s Education Tent and learn to deal with some of the situations we will all face. We would greatly appreciate your support!
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