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PENSACOLA AFTER THE STORM

By Todd Lovelace, KI4ADK

Hello All! Todd Lovelace, KI4ADK here! I’d like to share an experience with you that I’ll never forget - going to Pensacola, Florida to help others one week after Hurricane Ivan passed thru in September 2004.

After experiencing more or less just the skirts of Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, and Ivan - I realized just how fortunate that we citizens of Jacksonville had been. We certainly were affected by these storms, but reading numerous internet news accounts of what had happened in the rest of Florida convinced me that I needed to contribute some energy to help others that were not so fortunate.

I mentioned my interest to Duval ARES EC Ed Ramsey (KG4THS) and before I knew it there was an email from ARRL’s NE Florida Section Traffic Manager Dale Sewell (N4SGQ) in my inbox. Dale’s message included ARRL Tracker Number Documents (travel credentials to get me thru the police roadblocks!), a list of suggested take-along essentials, and the following map to help me detour around the storm-ravaged I-10 and US 90 bridges. There was also a warning that there was no gasoline available closer that about 60 miles east of Pensacola! My goal at the end of the road would be the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center.   CLICK FOR MAP AND PHOTOS.

My emergency radio gear (including spares!) had been packed for weeks. I added my portable generator, nine five-gallon containers of gasoline, my new Stihl chainsaw, plus two ice chests full of frozen two-liter coke bottles of water and non-perishable foods. I didn’t want to get assigned to a barrier island outpost without the essentials!

After receiving official blessing from my bosses (the Wife and my JEA supervisor), I headed for Pensacola early Tuesday morning, one week after Ivan went through Pensacola. By 4:00 PM, I had reached the end of the line for mere mortals traveling I-10: a series of concrete barriers guarded by National Guardsmen with M-16 rifles. All of the “normal” westbound traffic was being re-routed north and waaaay around the bay, but I displayed my ARRL Tracker form and told them that I was headed for the Santa Rosa County EOC in Milton, Florida.

With no hesitation, I was pointed around the barriers and back onto I-10. I drove for a while and exited at the last possible road before the ill-fated I-10 bridge. After a few more miles of driving wide-eyed through the “damaged area”, I arrived at the Milton, Florida EOC where I was greeted by Bill Hayden, the acting ARRL Section Manager. Bill thanked me profusely for coming and provided me a briefing on the local conditions. This advisory was being administered to all hams being sent further into the damaged area. The most important things to remember were 1.) Obvious hurricane-related hazards (downed wires, trees, broken glass and metal) and 2.) All intersections without functioning traffic signals were to be treated as a four-way stop. Simple enough, I thought. Back to the truck, and away I went.

After a 5-mile, 45-minute drive in stop-and-go traffic, I made it to the point where I was supposed to follow the circuitous route around the bay. Fortunately, one side of the double-span US90 bridge had recently been restored and two-way traffic was sharing the two lane span. I crept across the bridge and had a lot of time to survey the damage on both sides. The first thing one noticed was the really big boats that were scattered around the marshland like LEGO pieces in my kids’ room. I mean BIG boats……the ones that cost more money than I’ll make in an entire lifetime. The second thing was that I could see Plant Crist, one of Gulf Power’s largest electric generating stations. As a power plant engineer myself, I mentally wished them well in restoring their equipment. As I passed back onto dry land, I could see what shut the bridge traffic off on the other span….all of the approach road to the bridge had been washed away by the flow of the storm surge. The bridge itself, being installed on concrete piers driven down to bedrock, was still intact.

I finally made it across the “bay” (marshland actually) and was again on the four-lane road that lead into Pensacola. I had a difficult time finding my way across town to the EOC even though I had a good map - there were lots of street signs missing! In addition, there were few traffic signals working, in fact, many intersections were missing their signals altogether. Only the really major intersections had been restored completely and were powered by a generator (chained to the nearest light pole!)

I finally blundered my way into the Escambia County EOC parking lot and heaved a sigh of relief. I went inside and was ushered into the local ARES den…..a reasonable sized room with some interesting vintage HF gear that caught my eye. I didn’t stay long - the folks in charge said that they needed a couple of more hams at the Pensacola Corps Headquarters of the Salvation Army. As an added bonus, they had an emergency generator hooked up there that was “having some problems.” I was delighted to have a double challenge - electric power and communications! Hey, what challenge could a little electric generator be to a mechanical engineer?

After receiving directions to the Salvation Army headquarters, I headed out. Pensacola seven days after Hurricane Ivan can simply be described as a recipe of disaster. To put things into a Jacksonville perspective:

“Take one large city - like Jacksonville. Have terrorists dynamite the Buckman, Fuller Warren, and Hart bridges into the St. Johns River. Remove 80% of all drinking water, wastewater, and electric utility services. Shut off most of the cell phones and landline telephones. Knock down several TV and broadcast radio antenna towers to add flavor. Randomly destroy most of the traffic signals and street signs, and shut all of the retail stores which sell essentials like food, fuel, and critical repair items. Add stress, hot weather and short tempers to help bring the pot to a gentle boil.”

After another bout of low-tech, no-street-sign navigation through a heavily damaged, very-low-income neighborhood, I stumbled into the Salvation Army headquarters - a facility the size of an elementary school or a medium-sized church. I literally had to squeeze between tractor trailers being unloaded and dodge a forklift unloading pallets of foodstuffs. Just as the sun was setting I saw a van bristling with radio antennas so I bumped my truck over the curb to join in the excitement. I jumped out and was immediately greeted by Bill Brogan (KA1PA) of New Smyrna Beach. Bill already had HF and VHF stations on the air, obviously had communications under control, and so I went inside to introduce myself to the Salvation Army personnel in charge.

I was greeted by Captain Chris Nichols. (I quickly found that everyone in the S.A. has a military title!) He was ecstatic to find that I was interested in making his electric generator work properly. Seems like the FEMA-provided portable generator had worked for about one day then the facility AC system quit and the lights seemed about to fail, too. He set me up with a Major who almost dragged me out to the generator location…..and the “little” generator was revealed to me…. a screaming six-cylinder Cummins diesel engine driving half-a-megawatt of 480 volt, three phase generator, all built into a tractor trailer van! OK, forget the image of a Home Depot emergency generator! This generator was connected to the building with 12 flexible 4-ought copper welding cables as big as my thumb. In the headlights of my truck I walked down the system….and found one of the 480 volt cables lying on the ground by the service entrance breaker panel. NOT a good beginning! I didn’t want to shut the system down and darken the (still at work) facility at night so suggested that we wait until daylight to work on the system.

So Tuesday night I bunked down in one of the “classrooms” with six other SA volunteers. It was hot as blazes and muggy-still-close inside the building. There was still just enough electricity from the illing generator to ensure that fluorescent lights and receptacle power were working. I carried in and installed my bedroll and CPAP respirator. (I have a really bad dose of Sleep Apnea and must have my respirator anytime I want to sleep). The obviously exhausted volunteers looked at me, my bedroll, my respirator and my extension cord….one of them grinned and said - do you carry a fan too?? I grinned back and said “Sure, it’s in my truck!” He was really surprised when I made another trip to the truck and returned with a box fan. I was then warmly welcomed to join the group and we all hit the sack for some sleep. Just a breath of moving air quickly makes friends in the world of no air conditioning!

Sleep? So I thought. I had just gotten to sleep when I was awoken by the dead silence and no breathing air. Had the generator quit? It was REALLY hot and muggy in the building with about 125 snoring people spread around and no fans running in the halls. I grabbed my flashlight and crept out to the generator site…..sure enough it had quit. After a quick look-see, I mashed the starter button and the generator roared to life and the entire place lit back up. The all-important “electric breeze” returned. Back to bed I stumbled. I had just gotten back to sleep when I was rudely awakened again. I counted seven trips to the generator that night. I figured that a good night sleep with cool air for the SA volunteers was more important than my sleep.

The sound of tractor trailers, forklifts and voices woke me. The SA starts early….way before 06:00 they were unloading pallets of foodstuffs - sweet potatoes, turkey roasts, canned veggies, ice, and an endless vista of pallets of canned water. Anheiser Busch supplies SA with drinking water canned in aluminum cans marked “Drinking Water - Not for Re-sale “ and “Anheiser Busch”. I didn’t even mind the blatant advertising plug after I considered essential service they were providing to the tens of thousands of people without a safe drinking water supply.

After cracking open my first Diet Mountain Dew of the day and grabbing a cold leftover breakfast hotdog, I immediately headed to the generator. I took my Fluke multimeter and saw that there was a voltage problem with the generator output. I should have seen 480-480-480 volts measuring phase-to-phase. I saw 350-350-480. No wonder the AC chillers had quit! In addition to the uneven phase voltages, the voltages were not consistent - they swung up and down constantly, explaining the flicker of the lights and pulsation of the fans inside. There was something really wrong inside that generator!

I went back to my truck and got out an official ARRL message form (my legal pad!) and wrote a concise message for Bill to call into the Escambia EOC. I explained that we had no refrigeration in an emergency food processing facility, a serious fire safety hazard, and a deteriorating personnel situation due to the lack of full power (ie, AC) at the SA Headquarters. Most of the 100+ SA volunteers are retirees; many had been working every day since Bonnie came ashore nearly five weeks earlier! Bill transmitted our message, got a “solid copy” reply, and so we sat back to review the situation….what could we do to help now?

Bill and I spent much of the day re-starting the generator whenever it would quit. It would begin revving up in speed, then dropping in speed, and the changing speed and voltage caused large current swings on the generator, and the generator field winding breaker would trip, and “boom boom, out go the lights!” After watching this happen many times, I decided that the engine itself was starving for fuel (in addition to the generator’s voltage illness) and decided to try to find fuel filters for the engine.

While I was musing over this, one of the SA members had the misfortune of having a forklift lower a pallet (loaded with foodstuff) onto his hand. Between the bleeding from the laceration, the heat, (and I’m sure the pain), the fellow went into shock. Bill radioed the Escambia EOC and a few minutes later an ambulance arrived on the scene and took him to the hospital. What a sobering thought - nine days after the hurricane, there was still very spotty landline phone coverage, very limited Nextel/cell phone coverage…. and ham radio was the fastest way to get help. Imagine that…….!

Mid-afternoon I tired of sitting waiting around for the generator to quit. I rooted around in a hot, deserted office until I found a phone book. “A large NAPA store will have fuel filters for a Cummings Diesel” I thought. I wrote down the address of the Pensacola NAPA store, informed Bill and the EOC of my plan, and headed out on a mission. (ALWAYS let your EOC contacts know where you are!)

After two hours of circular driving (no street signs!), help from four different people giving instructions, and the grace of God, I found the NAPA dealer just before they closed for the day. They had Cummings fuel filters, and I got a case of motor oil just for good luck. In route, I saw two collapsed AM (?) radio station towers and numerous similar high-winds catastrophes. I also saw the other end of the Salvation Army relief operation - a parking lot where water and ice were being distributed to those in need.

When I got back, there was no power (again) and it was getting dark. There were more trucks to unload, and there was no light in the gymnasium-being-used-as-a warehouse. Bill and I had a quick dinner, (it was chicken and dumplings, not quite as good as my wife’s hand-made dumplings, but they sure tasted good to us!) We then headed out to the generator and worked with flashlights and my truck headlights to change the fuel filters on the generator engine. When we re-started the big diesel, it ran fine (no surging and dying out) but the generator itself had continued to decline in health throughout the day. The voltage at the electric receptacles had dropped to just 70 Volts AC……it would hardly run the fluorescent lights and the pedestal fans in the hallways and rooms.

Wednesday night I slept in the front seat of my truck…..not the optimal solution for a 46-year-old with back problems. The low voltage situation kept the fans from moving much air indoors, and I knew I couldn’t deal with sleeping inside with no air movement to help keep me cool. I had a 12 volt gel-cell wired up to my respirator to allow me to sleep…..a recent lesson learned during Hurricane Ivan’s minor visit to Jacksonville.

First thing Thursday morning, Bill and I realized that the Army needed some reliable power. We ginned up another message to EOC aimed at FEMA declaring a state of electrical emergency at the SA headquarters building.

After we received confirmation from EOC for our latest request, Bill and I unloaded my 4kW generator and pooled our extension cord assets. We hooked up all of the ventilation fans in the building and let the “big” generator handle just the fluorescent lights. Between the two of us we had a weeks worth of fuel to run the little generator.

With several big pedestal fans running at full power, the facility became livable again - we had mild temperatures and moving air made it almost livable.

Around lunch time, Captain Nichols approached me and asked if could help a nearby citizen.

Apparently the local United Way had called with a plea for someone to assist a nearby handicapped shut-in that could not get out of her house. A fairly large tree had fallen across her handicap access ramp and this woman had been barred indoors for about a week.

Captain Nichols took me to the house in an “inner city” neighborhood. On the way I was amazed at the amount of damage there was - tons of mutilated trees and structural damage to homes. Upon arrival I introduced myself to a lady in a wheelchair. She had both legs amputated just below the hip but was amazingly mobile in her wheelchair. She was extremely thankful for the offer to help and I spent several hours sawing up the tree into firewood lengths. While I was working, numerous neighbors came by to chat. Many of them spoke of volunteers from other places that had helped them or their families. When I was done, this lady thanked me profusely and told me that I must have been sent by God. (I’m sure Captain Nichols of the Salvation Army would have taken that as a compliment!)

I left the lady sitting in her wheelchair in her newly cleared driveway. For several days my thoughts kept returning to the blurb from an ARRL/ARES website stating that hams were supposed to restrict their activities to communications. I hope that Sir Hiram Percy Maxim will forgive me for my indiscretion. (Just kidding, sir!)

When I got back to the SA Headquarters, another miracle had occurred. FEMA had delivered a new (literally) generator to the site. WOW! Shiny new paint and a full tank of fuel! The electricians that delivered the generator had it hooked up and ready to run. We started it up (the diesel roar was music to my ears! - OK, I’m a geek!). We checked the voltage…..uh, 208 volts, shouldn’t it be 480 Volts!? Several cell phone calls later (yep, cell service was coming back after 10 days!) a factory rep was on the way to help us get all the bugs worked out. By dark we had 480 volts feeding the SA facility and lights were on. Bill and I worked together for quite a while to get the myriad of power panels reset. Bill found the operating manual for the chiller tucked into the control panel and soon had the chiller system re-started.

By the time the evening SA meeting was over, there was cool air flowing from the air vents in the meeting room. The people were ecstatic to have power and cool air restored. One crying lady came over and hugged me and told me she was so grateful to have a cool, lighted place to work. You just can’t believe the stress of working in such adverse conditions for days and days until you try it.

The only thing that Bill and I never got working was the water heater for the gymnasium…..we all took cold showers that night. I’m still trying to figure that one out. So after (another) cold shower and a few QSOs on the truck radio, I hit the sack.

By the time we woke on Friday morning, the word was out that the entire SA contingent needed to pack up ASAP and head to the Tallahassee EOC to await orders to deploy to whatever area needed help after the next hurricane…….Frances. Bill and I packed up our gear. I wrote up a detailed description of everything I could think of to help get the Salvation Army facility electrical service repaired and back on the electric grid. (Rental on the new generator was about $4,000/day!)

Captain Nichols and his fellow SA employees were profusely thankful for the ham radio and other support we had provided. By noon time Bill and I were back on the road. We had an 8-hour-long QSO using 2 meter simplex on the way home……is there a Guinness World Record for longest single radio conversation?....and we talked about radio and every other subject pretty much continuously for as we drove the long boring I-10 journey back across the state.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS BY KI4ADK.

As a relative newcomer to the world of ham radio and volunteer emergency work in general, I have a few observations to make:

1.) Society as we know it comes to a grinding halt when the electricity, water, sewer, and retail sales (gas, food, supplies) supply systems stop. You can move back in time about a hundred years in a day or so when these essential services disappear.

2.) Restoration of these critical systems is extremely slow and inefficient without reliable communication. A week after Ivan, a backup emergency radio system was still needed in many parts of the Pensacola area.

3.) Never, ever count on cell phones for communications in any kind of emergency! For many reasons, cell phone systems can only be counted on to be conspicuously absent after a big storm. (What we suffered here in Jacksonville was just a windstorm!)

4.) There is whole a lot more to the Salvation Army than just the used-clothes store and Christmas-time bell-ringers. I was amazed at the extent and the organization of the SA emergency operation team. I saw loads of professional, dedicated, and truly compassionate people working - on the volunteer staff and the full-time SA staff.

5.) Despite the recent pooh-poohing of the need for (emergency) amateur radio services by some (amateur radio) individuals in (amateur-radio-related) online forums, I have witnessed first-hand what doesn’t work and what does work for communicating after a major storm or other emergency. After serving in Pensacola, I heartily recommend that all Florida amateur radio operators become active in their local ARES, RACES, Salvation Army, Red Cross, ham radio club, and other public service entities. Don’t let the negative nay-sayers turn you off to the utility (and fun!) of amateur radio!

5.) Everywhere we went in the Pensacola area there were signs proclaiming sincere thanks to the volunteers that came from other places to help.

6.) Camaraderie in ham radio still exists. Bill (KA1PA) and I met under adverse conditions, worked together, learned a bunch together, and had a great time working together, and will continue to QSO and meet in the future to expand our mutual interests in the hobby.

7.) Ed, after what I’ve seen, you can count on me for my support in future ARES exercises and activity!

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