Francine Updates

09/12/2024

Hurricane Francine Update – Thursday, September 12, 2024 – 10:00 AM Eastern

Ham radio operators volunteering with ARRL® Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) have successfully completed operations for Hurricane Francine, now a tropical storm. “We had a huge positive showing of ARES team members checking in and doing the "thing". I sincerely appreciate everyone leaning into this activation,” said Robert Hayes, KC5IMN, Section Emergency Coordinator of the ARRL Mississippi Section.

The National Hurricane Center reported at 4:00 AM on Thursday September 12, 2024 that Hurricane Francine made landfall early Wednesday evening in Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans, as a Category 2 hurricane, before weakening to a Category 1 hurricane. It has now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Currently the storm is moving inland over southeastern Louisiana with heavy rainfall spreading across Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. Early Thursday morning the storm was 20 miles northwest of New Orleans with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (MPH) and moving northeast toward Mississippi at 14 mph.

At least 419,942 people were without power early Thursday morning . PowerOutage.us reported 392,440 people without power in Louisiana and 27,502 in Mississippi.

Francine is moving toward the northeast near at 12 mph A turn toward the north-northeast and north is expected during the next day or so, with some decrease in forward speed. On the forecast track, the center of Francine will move over central and northern portions of Mississippi through early Friday.

The Hurricane Watch Net has secured operations.

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Hurricance Francine Update Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 6:15 PM Eastern:

Hurricane Francine has made landfall in Louisiana as a Category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 100 MPH.

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Hurricance Francine Update Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 5:30 PM Eastern:

The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Hurricane Francine to a Category 2 Hurricane. As of 5:30 PM Eastern the eye is approaching the Louisiana Coast with life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions.

The hurricane is now about 40 miles from Morgan City, Louisiana and 100 miles from New Orleans with winds of 100 miles per hour (MPH) and moving at 17 miles per hour.

This general motion should continue through this afternoon, and Francine is anticipated to make landfall in Louisiana within the warning area in the next few hours. After landfall, the center is expected to cross southeastern Louisiana tonight, then move northward across Mississippi on Thursday and Thursday night. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles.

Francine is expected to bring storm total rainfall of 4 to 8 inches, with local amounts to 12 inches across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, far southern Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle through Thursday night. This rainfall could lead to considerable flash, urban and river flooding.

The Hurricane Watch Net is Active on 14.325.00 MHz and 7.268.00 MHz

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Hurricance Francine Update Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 3:30 PM Eastern:

Situational Awareness Report - Louisiana Section ARRL

Afternoon Update – September 11, 2024, 1800 CDT

2:00 PM CDT Wed Sep 11
Location: 28.7°N 91.8°W
Moving: NE at 17 mph
Min pressure: 976 mb
Max sustained: 90 mph

WebEOC Incident:24-033 TC Francine –Statewide -Sep
ActivationLevel:3
State Declaration: JML 24-142

...TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE WINDS AND HEAVY RAINFALL SPREADING INLAND ACROSS SOUTHERN LOUISIANA...

1. There is a danger of life-threatening storm surge today for the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines, where a Storm Surge Warning iS in effect. Residents in the warning area should continue to follow advice given by local officials.

2. Damaging and life-threatening hurricane-force winds are expected in portions of southern Louisiana later today, where a Hurricane Warning is in effect. Ensure you are in a safe location before the onset of strong winds or possible flooding.

3. Francine is expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of considerable flash and urban flooding, along with river flooding, across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, far southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle through Thursday night. Flash and urban flooding is probable across the Lower Tennessee Valley and Lower Mississippi Valley tonight into Friday morning.

ESF-02 COMMUNICATIONS

Louisiana GOHSEP is now QRV utilizing WB5LHS and is monitoring the 40 and 80 meter frequencies as per page 41 of the Louisiana ARES Emergency Communications Plan (7.255 mhz and 3.878 mhz on hf) as well as their normal VHF and UHF frequencies.

Call signs for AUXCOMM personnel with access to LWIN radios and the appropriate talk groups can be found at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oyszyMOU92wVfxsV5i1IA2o6sr5h9LahYcBTUBahxpM/edit?usp=sharing

From Louisiana ARES

The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net will take check-ins and test propagation on Wednesday, September 11 as follows:

Wednesday, September 11, on 3.878 Mhz at 1800 PM CDT.

The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net when activated, operates as follows:

7.211 or 7.217 Mhz from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM CDT.

3.878 Mhz from 6:00 PM CDT to 8:00 AM.

The Louisiana Traffic Net will be active at 1830 CDT, every day, on 3.910 MHz.

Please refer to the Louisiana Emergency Communications Plan 8.1.22 for specific guidance. This document is available at:

https://www.wpcde-911.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Louisiana-ARES-Emergency-Comm-Plan-7.1.24-with-Attachments.pdf

Stay safe before, during, and after this event.

James Coleman AI5B
Louisiana SEC
Cell (985) 516-2632

Additional Contact Information

James Coleman
Washington Parish Communications District
54100 Dollar Rd
Franklinton, LA 70438

985 726-8704 (Office)

985 726-8770 (EOC COML-Main)
985 726-8774 (EOC COML-Backup 1)
985 205-7301 (EOC COML-Backup 2)

HamShack Hotline at EOC COML 4104

985 247-4295 EOC Tertiary Satellite Backup
985 247-4296 EOC Tertiary Satellite Backup
985 247-4257 EOC Tertiary Satellite Backup
985 247-4258 EOC Tertiary Satellite Backup

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Hurricance Francine Update Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 11:30AM:

Hurricane Francine is now a Category 1 storm and is moving northeastward towards the Louisiana coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida reports that Francine will make landfall in late morning or early afternoon Wednesday with the possibility of becoming a Category 2 hurricane. Life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds are expected to hit Louisiana later today. Winds now are 90 miles per hour and the hurricane is about 245 miles southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana.

The Hurricane Watch Net is active.

WX4NHC, the amateur station at the National Hurricane Center, will be activated Wednesday September 11th at 12:00 PM EDT for Hurricane Francine’s forecast track affecting Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. The net is expected to be active until approximately 9 PM EDT, or a few hours past the forecast Landfall.

WX4NHC will be on the Hurricane Watch Net frequency, 14.325 MHz, most of the time and 7.268 MHz depending on propagation. The Hurricane Watch Net (https://www.hwn.org) is active now on 14.325 MHz.

A VoIP Hurricane Net will also be active (IRLP node 9219 / EchoLink WX-TALK Conference node 7203). http://www.voipwx.net/. Winlink and online reports will also be monitored.

From Louisiana Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®)

The Louisiana LWIN ARES® identifier list will be sent to all personnel tomorrow.

Louisiana ARES is on standby status in preparation for potential severe weather. This status is described as, “Monitor in severe weather or during other community emergencies for possible net activation. Equipment / Supplies are Ready”.

After a request for activation has been received from local emergency management officials or served agencies, the ARRL Emergency Coordinator (EC) will activate ARES within their parish and will notify the District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) and Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) as soon as possible.

The SEC and DECs may activate a Region if additional volunteers are needed to support those ECs which have activated their parish level ARES organizations.

The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net is on standby status. The net will take check-ins and test propagation on Wednesday, September 11 as follows:

7.211 or 7.217 MHz at 1000 CDT.

3.878 MHz at 1800 CDT.

The Louisiana ARES Emergency Net when activated, operates as follows:

7.211 or 7.217 MHz from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM CDT.

3.878 MHz from 6:00 PM CDT to 8:00 AM.

The Louisiana Traffic Net will be active at 1830 CDT, every day, on 3.910 MHz.

Emergency communications kits from ARRL Headquarters have been pre-positioned in Louisiana in preparation for this event.

In addition, the leadership within the ARRL Delta Division (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee) have pledged mutual aid support (ARESMAT) to any parish or county in need of emergency communications assistance during this event.

Please refer to the Louisiana Emergency Communications Plan 8.1.22 for specific guidance.

From ARRL Mississippi Section ARES:

SITUATION

The MS Section of ARES will activate beginning at 5PM on 11 Sep 2024 in support of Hurricane Francine Emergency and Response Operations

BLUF: Hurricane Francine, a Category 2 hurricane, is rapidly approaching the Louisiana coast and poses a significant threat of life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds, and heavy rainfall. The hurricane is expected to make landfall within the hurricane warning area late this afternoon or evening. After landfall, the storm will track northeastward across eastern Louisiana and Mississippi.

There will be an immediate need for HF net control operators beginning at 6PM today, September 11.

Please coordinate with Jeff Wimmer ([email protected]) and Bobby Allen ([email protected]) if you are available to support HF Voice Net OperationsKey Elements of this Operation:

A landfalling hurricane will impact the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines as well as create negative weather impacts well inland to include Tropical Storm Force winds, tornados, and significant flooding.
Emergency Communications Support will be required for served agencies and utility service providers as well as ARES operations in Louisiana.
Power Disruptions, Hardline and Wireless Communications Infrastructure Disruptions are certain to occur within the impacted areas.
Pre and Post landfall and recovery operations may be hampered by damage and flooding to normal routes of travel, into and out of the impacted areas.

AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR ROLES

ARES/RACES and Non-Member ARES operators are now asked to provide emergency communications in support of Public Safety, Public Service, State, and Local Government entities beginning at 5PM local today Wednesday 11 September 2024 and running until emergency operations are no longer required.

ACTIONS DURING THE EVENT

ARES team members will be operating from home stations, as well as mobile and portable locations. If required, operators may deploy to EOC's and at other served agency locations during the course of this response.
Primary modes of communication include, but are not limited to HF, VHF, UHF, Analog Voice, SSB, Digital voice and data.
District Emergency Coordinators along with County Emergency Coordinators are responsible for the actual deployment of their teams in their respective jurisdictions as well as the rallying efforts of the supporting ARES/RACES teams and other amateur radio operators in their local and regional areas.
ARES Team members should provide emergency and welfare communications between local emergency responders, other public safety, and public service organizations.
The overall control of this emergency operation is the MS Section Emergency Coordinator (KC5IMN). The SEC will maintain control of the operations throughout the state, and it his absence, the Section Manager, Malcolm Keown (W5XX) will take over operations, with Kirk Frazier (AA1NA) and Mark Williams (W5DIX) Assistant Section Emergency Coordinators working to support if KC5IMN or W5XX are not available.

MISSION

It is the mission of the Mississippi Section Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) to serve as the coordinating point for amateur radio operators and their served agencies in the event of a communications emergency.

ARES is a national level volunteer organization whose purpose is to serve the public by providing licensed, certified, and competent Amateur Radio communications to federal, state, county, and local government agencies, as well as to nonprofit disaster relief organizations.

The primary activity of ARES is to provide emergency communications during disasters or remarkable events such as severe weather (hurricanes, flashfloods, ice storms), power failures, large area events (parades, marathons, races, walks, bicycle tours), etc... During an event, ARES will supplement public service communications or stand in the place of primary normal communications when other channels become unavailable. ARES will operate before, during, and after major disasters.

EXECUTION

Each District Emergency Coordinator and Emergency Coordinator should strategically station their supporting amateur radio operators to maximize their ability to communicate with state and county emergency operations centers (EOC) as well as impacted public safety and public service organizations to pass emergency and health/welfare traffic via voice and digital modes.

COMMAND AND SIGNALS

Event Command and Control- The Section Emergency Coordinator, Robert Hayes KC5IMN, shall initiate and terminate this emergency operation.

Specific HF Frequencies in use:

· 3862 KHz: primary net frequency is. In the event of adverse conditions, the net has a secondary and tertiary backup frequencies:

o 7238 kHz and

o 5.3715 MHz (60 meter channel #4 USB)

DMR Operations

· Talk Group (TG) 3128 Brandmeister.

NOTE ABOUT DMR: Mississippi Statewide 3128 will be the primary contact TG for questions and brief updates (reminder there is a 10 minute time limit on QSOs on this TG). If a longer QSO is required, a secondary TG can be chosen at that time. Local TG are encouraged for county and adjacent county comms and then Statewide for broader coverage

· Mississippi Tac 31280: Alternate TG from MS Statewide

· Biloxi 314309: Local TG for Coastal Mississippi and surrounding area (alternate TG)

· Lucedale 312801: Local TG for George County and surrounding area (alternate TG)

· NE Mississippi 32185: Alternate TG (still awaiting final emergency use approval)

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SPECIAL NOTE: For Pearl River County:

DMR Server Amcomm 3108 SW Louisiana Link TG 314299 or Pearl League SWLA Link.

· The Pearl River team will be on 146.520 MHz simplex and on the Slidell VHF repeater: 147.000MHz (-600) 107.2 PL Tone.

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Please refer to the 2024 Mississippi ARES Emergency Communications Plan (ICS-205) located

HERE

for specific frequencies in use as well as notes for each ARES district in the state.

MS ARES Links

· Mississippi ARRL ARES Emergency Operations Plan

· Mississippi

ARES Emergency Communications Plan (ICS-205)

· MS ARES GroupMe mass messaging system LINK

KEY LEADER CONTACT INFORMATION:

Malcolm Keown W5XX Mississippi Section Manager

Email [email protected] phone 601-636-0827

Robert Hayes KC5IMN Mississippi Section ARES SEC

Email [email protected] phone 903-244-9254

Kirk Frazier AA1NA, Mississippi Section ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator

Email [email protected] phone 601-606-8027, text or leave voicemail.

Mark Williams W5DIX Mississippi ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for Digital Operations, [email protected] phone 601-566-0468, text or leave a voicemail.

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Francine update September 10, 2024 Noon Eastern:

ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, just participated in a call with the National Weather Service Shreveport, Louisiana Field Office. "Our partners at NWS are closely monitoring the situation and preparing Louisiana for multiple possibilities, that each could change as the situation unfolds," he said.

ARRL members and Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) volunteers in the path of the storm should prepare for impacts.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida reports this morning that tropical storm Francine is likely to become a hurricane today, Tuesday September 10, 2024. A hurricane warning has been extended eastward along the Louisiana coast. The storm is now about 125 miles southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande river and 395 miles south-southwest of Cameron, Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour.

A Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect for the Louisiana coast east of Grand Isle to the mouth of the Pearl River, including metropolitan New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Maurepas.

The Hurricane Watch Net will be active Wednesday morning.

Current Activation Plans:

Wednesday
• 20 meters: 14.325 MHz (USB) at 9:00 AM EDT (1300 UTC) until we lose propagation at night.
• 40 meters: 7.268 MHz (LSB) at 9:00 AM EDT (1300 UTC). We will remain active on this frequency throughout the day and overnight, if needed, for as long as propagation allows or until 5:00 AM EDT (1000 UTC).

They closely monitor the track of Francine and make adjustments as needed. Any changes to this plan will be announced on their website (www.hwn.org), and on their social media pages.

WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center will be activated Wednesday September 11th at 9am EDT for Hurricane Francine’s forecast track affecting the Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

We expect to be active until approximately 9pm EDT, or a few hours past the forecast Landfall.

WX4NHC will be On-The-Air on the Hurricane Watch Net frequency 14.325 MHz most of the time and 7.268 MHz depending on propagation.

WX4NHC will also be on VoIP Hurricane Net (IRLP node 9219 / EchoLink WX-TALK Conference node 7203). http://www.voipwx.net/

WX4NHC will also be monitoring WinLink and Online reports. Please send or relay any Surface Reports (weather data, flooding, damage) to the Hurricane Nets or using any of the available modes listed.

WX4NHC On-line Hurricane report Form

Hurricane On-line Report Form (fiu.edu)

ARRL is also closely monitoring several other potential areas of development in the Caribbean.