Owen county exercise map. Purple tabs are events, yellow are weather warning sirens, red are fire stations and blue are communications facilities. Note that all the communications facilities line up from just south of Coal City to Gosport. By simulating a tornado moving ENE from the Coal City location, all emergency communications tower facilities could be destroyed by one tornado. Thus the exercise...

Date October 2, 2010 Owen County Set began at 10:00 AM

Rain has continued in Owen County for the past two weeks. The ground is saturated, the White river is approaching flood stage at 14 feet and the lakes depths have reached spillway heights.

Severe Weather Advisory

There is a line of thunderstorms extending from Lawrenceville Illinois to Champaign-Urbana Illinois and is traveling to the North East. These storms could produce heavy rain, lighting, flash flooding and a tornado or two. This line is expected to reach Owen County about 10:30 AM. Storm Spotter Activation is likely.

This is a simulated emergency test message

Owen County Weather Net brought up in Standby mode. Nine stations reported into net on the Spencer repeater 146.985 MHz and five stations reported into the 10 Meter Weather Net 28.4 MHz USB.
Net Status Standby

At approximately 10:15 the following test message was broadcast: "Indianapolis NWS radar report of mesocyclone near .65 Miles South of Coal City SR 157 moving ENE at 30 MPH."
Net Status Yellow

Test Message broadcast: "Tornado report Splinterridge Road and Sips Road.
Net Status Red

Test message broadcast: "High tension tower down on Sandlick Road .3 mile W of Splinter Ridge Road. All power out in Owen County." Five stations switched to emergency power or were mobile.

The SAFE-T tower collapsed placing all county 800 MHz radios out of service.

Test message broadcast: "A tornado has been reported at SR46 near Walmart and the Owen Valley High School Complex."

The towers on Rocky Hill Road were all destroyed. The Spencer repeater KB9MZZ and all police and fire communications went out. NCS switched to the Gosport repeater per the Emergency Communications Manual. Eight stations checked in on that repeater.

Message was sent to Indiana Section Emergency Coordinator on 3.910 MHz:

48 TEST P K9EOH 25 SPENCER, IN 10:35 OCTOBER 2, 2010
TO: W9AL
TEST MESSAGE REQUEST OPERATORS TO
ASSIST OWEN COUNTY DUE TO
STORM DAMAGE X NEED AT
LEAST FIVE X CALL FREQUENCY
28.4 OR 146.58 MHZ SIMPLEX
SIGNATURE: JIM K9EOH OWEN COUNTY EC"

Test message broadcast: Tornado spotted SR 67 just South of Country Club Road.

Gosport Repeater KB9SGN went down. Ten stations, including the Owen County EMA director KC9OQK checked into the 146.58 MHz simplex net.

All nets closed. Exercise completed

• When the weather net was brought up in standby, Nine stations checked into the two meter repeater and five checked into the ten meter net
• When all power was declared as out, five stations were able to continue on emergency power.
• When the Spencer repeater was declared as down, all stations switched to the Gosport repeater in accordance with the OC Emergency Communications Manual
• A message was successfully sent to the SEC via 3.910 MHz requesting assistance with OC communications.
• When the Gosport repeater was "disabled" all stations switched to 146.58 MHz simplex per the communications plan.