Disaster Preparedness Lessons (so far) from observing the disaster in Western North Carolina the last few days:

1. Stay on top of emergency water supply. Lack of drinking water is the biggest issue (and continues to be an issue) in Western North Carolina, people without anything to drink after a flood. This would be an issue in California after a major earthquake, too.

2. Write down the phone numbers for out of the area contacts and put them with emergency supplies. A number of outbound messages were not delivered due to incorrect phone numbers and inability to remember/pull up phone numbers from phones/etc.
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"“I can guarantee you they were not our products,” the AP quoted Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom America’s amateur radio division, as saying during an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, R.I.

Novak said Icom introduced the V82 two-way radio model more than two decades ago and it has long since been discontinued. It was favored by amateur radio operators and for use in social or emergency communications, including by people tracking tornadoes or hurricanes, he said."

Many folks in the US (including #hamradio / amateur radio folks) pooh-pooh the idea that ham radio is useful in the world of the Internet and cell phones. I saw FIRST HAND how useful ham radio is today there. Some coverage of this on NPR from 2017. #hamradio #disasters #emergencies #hurriicanes

The folks who are most likely to have direct information on the status of local islands before/after Beryl is the Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net (CEWN).

Main Frequency is 3.815 Mhz LSB and secondary Frequency is 7.162 Mhz LSB

CEWN was directly involved in many lifesaving efforts during Hurricane Maria (I worked directly with them). This included saving the Prime Minister of the country of Dominica (relaying his location for a helicopter rescue), and dispatching rescuers to many location where people were trapped by debris, etc. #hamradio #disasters