COTN Supports Franklin County Full-Scale Exercise

COTN operators joined Franklin County CERT, COARES, COSWN, and others in support of the RiskEx ’15 Regional Cyberterrorism/Severe Weather Full-Scale Exercise conducted by Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security.

The incident called for a strong tornado to pass through the Ohio State University area, taking out infrastructure along the way, and for cyberterror attacks to cripple critical information resources. Franklin County CERT and other volunteer organizations deployed to assist in the response and recovery efforts undertaken in the region.

Franklin County CERT's mission was damage assessment -- determining the extent of damage done to residences -- needed to support declarations of emergency by the governor or the president. With infrastructure crippled, CERT relied on radio communications to complete its mission, including radio relay of damage assessment reports from the site's Incident Command Post (ICP) to the Franklin County Emergency Operations Center.

COTN operators KD8KBX and KD8SYP responded to the call for volunteers and manned the positions. KD8TTE, of both CERT and COTN was stationed at the ICP in the role of communications unit leader.