On Saturday October 12, 2024 members of the Saginaw County ARES group participated in a local and State of Michigan simulated emergency exercise.  The purpose of this exercise was to test alternative ways of communications between different county locations to county Winlink stations and pass the information via Winlink to the EOC.

Scenario:

The State of Michigan is enjoying typical Fall weather. Your county is in the middle of handling an incident or a major planned event. While the incident or event is occurring, a ransom ware attack occurs at your emergency management agency, 911 dispatch center and/or another agency supporting the ongoing incident/event.

1. Numerous trees and power lines are blocking many roads.

2. There are hurricanes in the southern US that are causing delays for mutual aid requests for power and infrastructure restoration.

Local Response:

1. Resources in the affected agency or agencies lose access to their
   network, including voice over IP (VOIP) communication services.
   Computer systems are shut down or inaccessible.
2. Local EOC may request AUXCOMM personnel for several uses:
   1. Providing communications to surrounding counties and/or
      the SEOC.
   2. Assisting in EOC operations and communications.

The Saginaw County 911 radio room was activated along with the station at Covenant ER. Backup  communication was established on both 2-meter voice and Winlink between 911 and the hospital and adjoining counties. Winlink messages and resource requests were passed to the EOC where a response was obtained and a reply was sent. The state EOC added 3 situation updates to the exercise to test our new PACE plan and information was fed to the MICIMS state data system. We also tested Point-2-Point Winlink connections between the hospital and 911 as well as the new Meshtastic 900 Mhz texting system. Both types were successful in passing traffic.

We had a great response from our Emergency Management office, 911 and Covenant. Thanks for all your input to the exercise.

Congratulations to all that participated

Participants:

In Person

Ron Huss, KC8YVF
Mike Dougherty, KD8MMH
Tom Schmidt, N8EUI
Gordy Schram, KC8YVD
Rick Schattilly, KC8VOA

Call In

Dave Schneider, N8ERL

Metrics

• To follow

SCORING

• To follow
  

Photos from the exercise