Past Activiations of Salt Lake County A.R.E.S. Inc.

Salt Lake County A.R.E.S. Inc. is pleased to support the recover effort for a wide variety of emergency and disaster events. Being in the capitol city, we have the privilege and responsibility of supporting agencies at all levels of government. Salt Lake County is home to 16 incorporated cities, towns and community councils, and various county state, federal and military agencies. In addition to government agencies, Salt Lake County A.R.E.S. Inc. is pleased to provide service to eight hospitals, the American Red Cross and other relief agencies. We also provide public service communication and coordination for annual parades and races.

Over the years we have been mobilized for a wide variety of emergency and disaster events. We hope that the number of these events remains small. These events are very difficult to schedule and are a great test of our readiness.

• Search for Elizabeth Smart
• Major gas line rupture
• Hazardous material spills
• Flood monitoring
• Y2K [We were there with emergency personnel through the night. It turned out to be a real yawner, to the delight of agencies and hams alike.]
• Apartment and neighborhood fires
• Tornado damage assessment and recovery
• Major snow storm communications outage
• Hospital communications during a telephone equipment failure
• The Wasatch Back Relay in June
• Garret Bardsley Search in August
• Katrina Relocation in September

We participate in many agency training exercises. These exercises put us in front of the agency personnel and also expose and train us in their particular communication needs and practices. Some are tabletop exercises while others take to the field for a greater test. They are invaluable, and we express our deep appreciation to the agencies that have made the extra effort to write us into their exercises. The following list gives you a taste of what we have experienced.

• Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Plan (CSEPP 93) [we handled the only piece of bona-fide emergency traffic during the exercise]
• Earthquake exercise
• Business recovery
• Midair collision response with the Utah Medical Examiner’s Office
• Triennial airport disaster field exercises

Community activities provide more opportunities for use to practice our skills. Sponsorship varies from the Boy Scouts of America, to municipalities and many private organizations. Some of the activities rely solely on Salt Lake County ARES while many more invite us to join with other hams from the community to work together in the best traditions of the Amateur Radio Service.

• Jordan River Clean Up
• Scouting For Food
• Days of 47 Parade
• West Valley City West-Fest
• Wasatch 100-Mile Endurance Run
• KJZZ Deseret Morning News Marathon

• Rotarians of Amateur Radio Support (State Fair Park)
• Scouting for Food (National Boy Scouts of America)
• St. Mark’s Hospital Disaster Drill
• Search for Son Na Mu (South Salt Lake)
• Taylorsville Land Slide (Unified Fire)
• Corner Canyon Wildfire (Unified Fire / USFS)
• Salt Lake County Preparedness Fair (Unified Fire)
• Draper/So. Jordan Preparedness Fair
• SLAA Mock Disaster Drill

We will update this list as events happen. Please check back often.