The ARRL has an official agreement with FEMA to raise awareness, provide training, etc. You can read the actual agreement here: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/mou/FEMA-ARRL-SOA1.pdf. It didn't exist until 2003, however. I don't know if anything was in place prior to that, but my guess would be that there was not.
As you might expect, Amateur Radio's direct involvement with organizations like FEMA, as well as state, county and city agencies across the country, became much more formalized after 9/11. And even more formalized still after Katrina. For example, the ARRL now offers certification training for hams, and many local agencies require at least the first level of that training for hams to volunteer as communicators in their areas.
In some ways, Katrina had a bigger impact on all of this than 9/11. One of the things people realized after Katrina is that you can't necessarily rely on the local hams to come to the aid of the area -- they're too busy taking care of their own families! And unlike 9/11, which was localized to a few specific sites, Katrina covered a vast area. So help had to be called in from neighboring states, etc., and then the problem became figuring out who was there, who was qualified to do what, etc. The volunteers coming in didn't necessarily know the areas they were volunteering in either, and there weren't always enough local volunteers to help them figure it out, so coordination became a challenge.
The training classes that are being offered now -- both from the ARRL for communications related training, and the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) programs that are offered by local agencies -- are aiming to solve not only the training of prospective volunteers, but also to keep track of who's available and what their expertise might be.
(By the way, the CERT training is aimed at anyone that wants to help... it isn't a ham radio certification, but a generic volunteer certification. I live in San Jose, CA, and you can't even volunteer for most public events (a parade or what have you) if you don't have basic CERT training and a City ID badge.)
I've been a ham for over 30 years, and I have to admit that all this formalized training is taking some getting used to; I'm used to just grabbing my gear and heading out the door when someone needs assistance. But I recognize that it's the right thing to do. And if hams are to continue to provide support when needed, we have to keep up with the times... even OM's (ham-speak for "Old Men") like me.
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The ARRL has an official agreement with FEMA to raise awareness, provide training, etc. You can read the actual agreement here: http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/mou/FEMA-ARRL-SOA1.pdf. It didn't exist until 2003, however. I don't know if anything was in place prior to that, but my guess would be that there was not.
As you might expect, Amateur Radio's direct involvement with organizations like FEMA, as well as state, county and city agencies across the country, became much more formalized after 9/11. And even more formalized still after Katrina. For example, the ARRL now offers certification training for hams, and many local agencies require at least the first level of that training for hams to volunteer as communicators in their areas.
In some ways, Katrina had a bigger impact on all of this than 9/11. One of the things people realized after Katrina is that you can't necessarily rely on the local hams to come to the aid of the area -- they're too busy taking care of their own families! And unlike 9/11, which was localized to a few specific sites, Katrina covered a vast area. So help had to be called in from neighboring states, etc., and then the problem became figuring out who was there, who was qualified to do what, etc. The volunteers coming in didn't necessarily know the areas they were volunteering in either, and there weren't always enough local volunteers to help them figure it out, so coordination became a challenge.
The training classes that are being offered now -- both from the ARRL for communications related training, and the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) programs that are offered by local agencies -- are aiming to solve not only the training of prospective volunteers, but also to keep track of who's available and what their expertise might be.
(By the way, the CERT training is aimed at anyone that wants to help... it isn't a ham radio certification, but a generic volunteer certification. I live in San Jose, CA, and you can't even volunteer for most public events (a parade or what have you) if you don't have basic CERT training and a City ID badge.)
I've been a ham for over 30 years, and I have to admit that all this formalized training is taking some getting used to; I'm used to just grabbing my gear and heading out the door when someone needs assistance. But I recognize that it's the right thing to do. And if hams are to continue to provide support when needed, we have to keep up with the times... even OM's (ham-speak for "Old Men") like me.