Statewide Hurricane Exercise Tests Emergency Officials Preparedness

Ham Radio, Jackson Country Emergency Operations Center

A fictional hurricane passed through the state yesterday so that officials could make sure the emergency response system is ready to go for the start of hurricane season. MPB’s Phoebe Judge has more.

“Whisky five whisky alpha message please.”

Emergency Operation Officials are sitting around a ham radio at the Jackson County Emergency Operation Center in Pascagoula, relaying messages to the state operations center in Jackson. Those messages have to do with Hurricane Wendi, a fictional category four storm with 160 mile per hour winds. The fictional storm is part of the once yearly statewide hurricane exercise that is run to ensure that lines of communication are open and functional before the start of hurricane season. One major line of communication is the ham radio says Donald Langham, director of emergency management for Jackson County,

“Because telephone lines going down, no internet, phone lines, cell phones. Things like that go down. Ham radio we can work off a car battery and an antennae.”

While the statewide emergency operations center is in Jackson, and hurricanes occur on the Coast, Mike Womack, executive director of Mississippi’s Emergency Management Agency says the whole state needs to be prepared because resources will be pulled from all over the state if needed,

“What they would be able to provide is law enforcement and fire, search and rescue, and emergency medical personnel that we could bring down to the affected area.”

Hurricane Season begins on June 1st, and emergency officials plan on announcing new contra-flow evacuation procedures in the next week.