On September 21st, 2024, the Clatsop County Auxilary Communications Team participated in a simulated emergency food delivery exercise.
The organizer was the Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team (ODART). The exercise simulated that there had been a major ground shaking event followed by tsunami activity shutting off a number of airfields in the County. There was a necessity for food to be brought into the County due to road closures thus the County was also shut off from incoming vehicular traffic. ODART organized an airlift to bring food into the grass airfield in Knappa - Karpens Field. As normal means off communication was offline, AuxComm was available to send and receive aircraft information along with winlink radio messaging to keep the ‘mother’ airfield (Aurora) informed of local weather, arrival and departure times of the aircraft.
Six small aircraft arrived carrying a total payload of 1100lbs of non-perishable food items. Knappa Food Bank was on-hand to unload the aircraft and take delivery of the cargo for distribution. As September is the annual emergency preparedness month for the state of Oregon, the timing of the exercise couldn’t have been better. The exercise went without incident and was a complete success. Thanks goes out to ALL of the participants and the organizers of the event.
