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Home arrow Articles about Prometheus arrow Virginia: Region Hopes to Rely on Radio; Area Localities Work to Get Access to Use in Emergencies
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Virginia: Region Hopes to Rely on Radio; Area Localities Work to Get Access to Use in Emergencies


Copyright 2005 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

April 14, 2005 Thursday
CITY EDITION

SECTION: AREA/STATE; Pg. 6B

LENGTH: 631 words

HEADLINE: REGION HOPES TO RELY ON RADIO;
AREA LOCALITIES WORK TO GET ACCESS TO STATIONS TO USE IN EMERGENCIES

BYLINE: By Tammie Smith Times-Dispatch Staff Writer Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

BODY:


By this time next year, governments in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover and Henrico should all have access to low-power radio stations to use for communicating with residents during major disasters.

It's part of an effort to make sure the localities can get information to residents during such emergencies as hurricanes or terrorist attacks when traditional methods of communicating are disrupted or ineffective.

"We will be able to talk directly to people," Dr. William R. Nelson, director of the Chesterfield Health District, said Monday at a workshop on disaster preparedness and response at the Weinstein JCC.

The two-day workshop brought together Richmond-area emergency-response officials and experts from Emek Hefer, Israel, as part of a Jewish information-exchange effort started in 2000.

"We had a medical conference there one and half years ago," said Dr. Robert Weisberger, president of Virginia Emergency Associates Inc. and an emergency doctor at St. Mary's Hospital.

As for the low-power radio projects, all the localities "are pursuing various solutions," said Don Kappel, who is regional coordinator for the effort.

Kappel, who is Chesterfield's public-affairs director, said each of the localities has been given $300,000 grants through the Urban Area Security Initiative, a project of the federal Department of Homeland Security, to complete the projects and promote them. Chesterfield is the fiscal agent for the grants, said Kappel, who talked about the various localities' projects.

"Henrico is looking at using a high school FM station that currently exists, with modifications to make it more reliable during power outages," said Kappel. "Goochland, Hanover and Chesterfield are looking at low-power radio stations like the travel-advisory stations on highways. All the localities have until Nov. 30 of this year to obligate the federal funding."

Richmond is buying access to a low-power FM station centrally located in the city, said Ben Johnson, emergency-services coordinator for Richmond's office of emergency management.

"We didn't want to purchase a whole station," said Johnson. "We've purchased emergency generators so that station would be up and running and be able to disseminate our message at a moment's notice."

During major emergencies and disasters, residents would be able to turn to the radio stations and get information about shelters, road conditions, bridge problems -- things they need to know to stay safe. The funding includes money for brochures and advertising to let people know the stations exist.

"What happened here was when Hurricane Isabel struck, we found that we were putting out press releases but a lot of people did not have electricity in their homes," Kappel said. "A lot of radio stations went down or didn't have generators." Other radio stations, he said, went back to their regular programming while there was still need to get information to people.

Low-power radio stations typically have a range of less than 5 miles, Kappel said. Chesterfield will have about eight to nine transmitters around the county so that 95 percent of the county's population can be reached, Kappel said.

Richmond's radio partner is centrally located, Johnson said, and capable of being heard throughout most of the city. With other money, Richmond is setting up a reverse-911 system that would also be used during emergencies and that could also be used for public safety purposes, such as notifying residents about missing children. People would also be able to have the calls routed to cells phones or pagers, Johnson said.

Officials say they will continue to work with TV stations, newspapers and other mainstream media to get messages out during emergencies.

"This will be another tool we will be able to use," Kappel said.

LOAD-DATE: April 15, 2005