Satfford Storms - The Rest of the Story
"THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN << LOCATION>> HAS ISSUED A *TORNADO WARNING* FOR..." These are words no one wants to hear. We prepare. We gather our emergency equipment and supplies. We insure our families are protected. We charge our batteries. We set up our radio nets. We sit…and wait...and ponder...and wait...and hope…and wait. The storm hits. We are prepared. We had already started our reaction to this latest weather event long before it happened. Ham radio operators all over the country go through this cycle repeatedly over the course of the year. It is no different in Stafford County, Virginia.
On the 8th of May, 2008, severe thunderstorms ripped through Stafford County causing major damage to structures in many parts of the county. In an interview with WFLS radio in Fredericksburg, the county fire-rescue service reported that as many as 100 homes were damaged with as many as a dozen or more destroyed. Follow-on analysis the next morning revealed that 25 homes were destroyed or condemned and over 160 houses were damaged. The dollar amount of the loss was estimated at $15 million. The local ARES group had already been active supporting the local community with an ARES / SKYWARN net established on two meters. Chad / W1CAR had sent a text message to Emmett / K3EP's Blackberry at approximately 2100 hours asking him to activate the Fredericksburg SKYWARN sub-net. K3EP, on his way home from teaching an EMT class, activated the net on the 147.270 Stafford repeater at approximately 2115. The National Weather Service ham station in Sterling, Virginia (NWS Sterling), WX4LXW, was already on the air; there was already a tornado warning in effect for nearby Spotsylvania County. Virginia Section Assistant Section Manager Tom / N4NW and Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for Emergency Nets Emmett / K3EP acted as co-net control stations.
NWS Sterling issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Stafford County at 2155 followed by a tornado warning at 2205. "THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VA HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR ORANGE COUNTY, SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, CULPEPER COUNTY, FAUQUIER COUNTY & STAFFORD COUNTY * UNTIL 1030 PM EDT * AT 1001 PM EDT.NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION NEAR BELMONT VA.MOVING NE AT 24 MPH." Emmett / K3EP urged the net members to maintain their vigilance BUT to insure their personal safety above all else. His many years of experience in working emergency nets was shown by the manner in which he manages these situations in a calm, methodical, professional manner as they arise. At 2208 another tornado warning was issued for additional neighboring jurisdictions. At 2209, Nolan / K4IQD, reported significant cloud to ground lightning and rainfall in Spotsylvania County. At 2254 NWS Sterling continued to report a severe thunderstorm in the area with strong rotations. This is the cell that spawned the EF-2 NWS-confirmed tornado that struck the England Run North area of Stafford County causing damage to numerous structures.
At 2300, Tom / N4NW reported the rain rate measured at his weather station was in excess of three inches per hour while Rick/W1DFH also reported heavy rain and strange sounding wind in the Aquia Harbor area of North Stafford. Emmett / K3EP also reported extremely heavy rain at his home QTH (situated in a line between N4NW & W1DFH - who are about three miles apart in North Stafford). Being able to correlate the information between trained operators at known locations is instrumental in assisting the meteorologists in their decision-making processes for what information needs to be passed quickly to the local authorities and the general public.
Matt / KG4PDQ requested assistance from local fire/rescue as his vehicle was immobile being stuck on some object that washed across US Rt-1 in North Stafford at 2310. Tom / N4NW contacted the Stafford County emergency dispatch center reporting KG4PDQ's situation who advised it would be some time before someone would be sent to assist KG4PDQ as they were extremely busy! Upon Tom / N4NW relaying this information to KG4PDQ, Rick / W1DFH offered to drive out to the location to assist Matt. They were able to free Matt's vehicle in a few minutes and discovered that a large metal wheel chock belonging to the Stafford Fire Department had washed out from under one of the wheels of a fire truck next to the point where Matt got stuck in the surge of water flowing across US Rt-1 from the extreme downpour of rain.
At 2316 WX4LWX advised that NWS was cancelling the tornado warning for Stafford County but a new tornado warning had been issued at 2308 for areas north of the county - Prince William, Quantico, and Woodbridge – and that was still in effect. Fortunately, there were no new tornados reported.
Emmett / K3EP advised all stations that he was closing the net at 2330. Throughout the time that the Stafford SKYWARN net was active, both K3EP & N4NW, as co-net control stations, assisted WX4LWX in collecting reports from stations with regard to damage, rain fall rates and road closings due to flash flooding. WX4LWX was operated by a licensed ham, but her name was unknown. WX4LWX's participation directly in the Stafford SKYWARN net was instrumental in field reports from area hams being delivered to the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Sterling Virginia quickly providing real-time assistance and confirmation of Doppler radar observations.
Stafford EC / RO “Bart ” /N3GQ reported that the next day the Red Cross and the Stafford Emergency Manager asked ARES to activate in case the landline and mobile phone systems became saturated. A ham station was activated at Gayle Middle School (for the 100 or so displaced residents from the Stafford tornadoes), as well as the ham stations at the Stafford County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Fredericksburg Red Cross EOC in Massaponax.
All of these stations were active at various times during the event and played a great role in forwarding necessary information to the proper authorities for action or analysis: K5JMP Mike, K4ZN Carlos, W4SHG Steve, N4NW Tom, W1DFH Rick, K4IQD Nolan, K4RFP Mark, KG4PDQ Matt, K3EP Emmett, W1CAR Chad, N4WDC Bill, AK1E Tom, WB4LNT Gordon, KB4XF John, AC4SK Carolyn, KI4ZFR Alexander, N3GQ Bart, K3KAT Dee, K4ZRL Emmett, WA4CRL George, and the staff meteorologist at WX4LWX (NWS Sterling). Twenty-one hams were involved in providing essential services for the net effort. All of these fine Americans deserve a sincere “thank you.”
Were the events in Stafford and surrounding areas that night much different from what happens in many other locations around the country during severe storm events? Not really. It does show, however, that when our amateur radio emergency communicators invest the time to prepare for these types of events, train so that they will be able to perform the emergency communications mission when called upon, and therefore gain the experience needed to act properly and efficiently during these events, they will be able to greatly serve our communities in a time of need. With 21 hams donating some 220 manhours during the 21 hour event four words describe it all: “Job well done, folks.”
Irony or what? As I was reviewing the draft of this article a mechanical voice came out over the Gloucester County, Virginia, two meter repeater stating "WEATHER ALERT...WEATHER ALERT...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WAKEFIELD HAS ISSUED TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 307 FOR..." Here we go again.......