New Haven Register
September 10, 2005
Ham radio operator facilitates rescue of Hurricane Katrina victim
Elizabeth Benton, Register Staff
SHELTON — Betsey Doane was online at home Sept. 2 when she received
a disturbing cry for help from a desperate mother in Virginia.
The woman had learned that her daughter, Julie, was trapped on the
second floor of her New Orleans home without a phone or Internet access.
Ten feet of contaminated floodwater stood between her and safety. The
woman, who identified herself as Alice, was combing the Internet, unsure
how to get help for her daughter. She posted a SOS notice on a Web
site for ham operators; it fell into Doane’s hands.
Doane immediately relayed the message online to the state emergency
coordinator of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, a network of civic-minded
ham radio operators, who forwarded the cry for help to a Texas emergency
coordinator.
After that, the message was sent by e-mail to emergency crews in New Orleans.
But when Doane reached Alice by telephone later that day, Alice said she still
had no word from her daughter. Doane jumped into action, and sent Alice’s
story onto the radio waves.
By 6 p.m. Sept. 3, the next day, the New Orleans Fire Department arrived at
Julie’s home and lifted her to safety, a rescue Doane attributes in part
to the network of ham radio operators trained in relaying crucial messages.
For radio operators like Doane, located hundreds of miles away from disaster
areas, their relay efforts often use a combination of communication technology,
including Internet, telephones and ham radios.
But often, when messages reach a disaster zone, the final recipient is limited
only to radio communication as other services often are hurt by natural disasters.
Doane, 59, who has been blind since birth, uses a computer speech program to
navigate the Web, and has been a ham radio enthusiast since 1958, when she
and her twin sister, Barbara Lombardi, first received their amateur radio operator
licenses.
"The network is designed to handle this particular situation," she
said. "They are in contact and know people, what authority, and who is in
charge. God forbid anything should happen here, we would know the agencies that
are doing various tasks and the people in those agencies to contact."
Doane used a ham radio in 1964, before the days of cell phones and e-mail,
to relay messages between survivors of an earthquake in Alaska and relatives
desperate for contact. In the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, Doane was on
the airways helping to keep survivors in touch with worried families. She is
also a retired professor who still works part time at Housatonic Community
College in Bridgeport, teaching computer science and math.
Fellow ham radio operator Ray Sabb of Cromwell called the ham radio network
a "vital part of emergency services."
"It’s a matter of helping your neighbor. When we are called and needed
for something, we are there to help," he said.
Doane and Sabb were on the airways Thursday morning when a message came via
Internet from a Red Cross worker in Connecticut, who had spoken to a local
man worried about a relative in Mississippi. He feared the town had no water,
and wells were contaminated. Contact had been tried by phone, but failed.
Doane and Sabb relayed the message by radio to officials in Mississippi; by
afternoon, the National Guard was on its way with water and ice, Sabb said. "The
hair went up on the back of my neck," said Sabb. "They were 1,800
miles away and we were able to get this message through. They had nothing but
hams."
Doane said there are about 8,000 ham radio operators in Connecticut. The FCC
must license operators.
Elizabeth Benton can be reached at 734-2813 or ebenton@nhregister.com
