[EAS] a note of interest

[Tom Taggart]

I have 3 stations in northern WV. When the Derecho came
through, it toppled a couple of transmission towers for the
local 1.3 megawatt power plant.  Hence causing a massive
black-out. 

After the Derecho hit our market of 22 stations had only two
stations operating: a Class IV AM running half power, and my
B-1, running on generator feeding the studio and a kilowatt
backup (normal xmtr tpo 8.6 kw).

We didn't have internet from either cable or DSL for several
days. Phone services was spotty, and one sales line off the
cable was, of course, dead.  The local NWS transmitter was
off the air. The morning after the storm our regular weekend
part-timer spent most of the morning relaying info from
local governments to squelch rumors. As well as locations of
gas stations that still had power. (My "part-timer" teaches
full time at a local college, and used to be pd at a cluster
in northern Wisconsin...my business partner came in later in
the morning to help man the phones).

Meanwhile I was down at another cluster getting a studio up
to at least feed the one station they had on air (shared
site with a geni). Unfortunately, once the station was back
on, their part-timers didn't know what to do with it. They
just let the automation crank.

Just yesterday at the local wholesale electric store, one of
the counter men commented about our coverage during the
storm--he lives 22 miles out from our transmitter.

Lessons learned: Of course, back-up geni's and a plan to get
them refueled (we ran through two tanks of propane, on geni
for 11 days). More importantly--not only have a plan of how
to relay information after the storm, but get contact
numbers out to the local government before the storm. We've
already had discussions with one of the local mayors about
such a plan, his main complaint was knowing where to call to
get information to the public.

I hope to get our metro station off our leased site and onto
a new tower where we can install back-up power (the transfer
switch is already installed in the building at the new
site). Probably this summer. Next comes back-up power for
those studios, and an off-air feed into the B-1 from that
station. We would then simulcast the metro class A and the
regional suburban B-1.  The studios for the metro station
are in a house, with a full kitchen. Instead of a summer
storm, the next emergency may be a blizzard--we can stock
the kitchen ahead of time.