Hams Respond to El Salvador Earthquake
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 15, 2001--According to reports from the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network, El Salvador's worst earthquake in at least a decade January 13 has claimed more than 400 lives and injured nearly 800 others. Some 1200 people still are among the missing. SATERN's Pat McPherson, WW9E, cited figures from El Salvador's National Emergency Committee.
Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked the region since the initial quake, which measured 7.6 on the Richter Scale. The day after the earthquake, SATERN ran a formal net responding to health-and-welfare requests and emergency traffic from El Salvador. McPherson reports that SATERN volunteers were standing by today, monitoring 14.265 MHz for emergency requests from the affected area. "There is no formal net being run at this point other than the regular SATERN net that meets at 1500 Zulu," McPherson said in a statement released to the media. "If the need presents itself SATERN will run a full-time emergency net to handle traffic."
McPherson says that SATERN Coordinator for Honduras Hermann Cueva, HR1HCP, reports that a net is operating on 7090 kHz to assist El Salvador. According to reports from Cueva, the cities of Santa Tecla and Santiago Maria are partially destroyed. The Golden Bridge in Rio Lempa has fallen, and a number of roads are impassable.
SATERN is making available a health-and-welfare inquiry form via its Web site.
"The Maritime Mobile Net and Hurricane Watch Net operators have worked in conjunction with the SATERN operation to meet the need," McPherson said. "It is very edifying to view the assistance of many amateur operators such as those from these services work together to accomplish the task."
McPherson said the SATERN alert on January 14 not only marshaled Amateur Radio resources but placed Territorial, Divisional and Local Salvation Army headquarters and their respective emergency response teams at the disposal of those needing assistance. "Numerous Salvation Army Headquarters were opened and ready to receive disaster traffic and Health and Welfare requests," he said.
Meanwhile, a team of 22 Turkish rescue personnel has been dispatched to the disaster scene and was expected to be in El Salvador by today. Turkey was hit by a devastating earthquake in the summer of 1999, and Amateur Radio played a role in providing emergency communication in the aftermath. Rescue teams there worked for days to retrieve victims trapped or buried by the debris.
Heading up communications for the Turkish rescue team is Serdar Demirel, TA2NO. TRAC President Aziz Sasa, TA1E, reports that the team is equipped with an INMARSAT telephone and VHF and UHF amateur gear. The team includes 15 Turkish Civil Defense personnel plus seven volunteers.
CNN reports that a man trapped in the ruble used a cell phone to call for help and to tell rescuers where he was. Another man alerted searchers by tapping on the concrete debris that held him captive.
Humanitarian aid and relief personnel as well as earth-moving equipment
from other countries, including the US, also have been sent to Central
America.