When a fierce cyclone came ashore in India, and a dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake struck the Philip­pines, it was radio ama­teurs who pro­vid­ed vital communications. 

As Cyclone Phailin head­ed towards Indi­a’s Bay of Ben­gal author­i­ties quick­ly evac­u­at­ed dan­ger­ous areas. The Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety of India was set to go with trained radio amateurs.

That mon­ster storm in the very same region 14 years ago killed 10,000 peo­ple. This time, with the ear­ly evac­u­a­tion of many thou­sands, the death toll was about 21.

Jayu Bhide VU2JAU asked that 7145 kHz be kept clear as Dilip VU2DPI, Mith­ilesh VU3BHI and Sameer VU2AOR worked around the clock, pass­ing essen­tial mes­sages and doing what they could to help.

Then an earth­quake two days lat­er saw acti­va­tion of the Ham Emer­gency Radio Oper­a­tors by the Philip­pine Ama­teur Radio Association.

Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ said as crews were about to clean up the debris left by Typhoon San­ti, the 7.2 mag­ni­tude earth­quake occurred in the Bohol Province caus­ing numer­ous casu­al­ties and dam­age. He asked that 7095 kHz be kept clear for emer­gency traffic.

Mes­sages over HF, on 2‑metres and via Echolink includ­ed that many build­ings had been dam­aged, bridges col­lapsed, pow­er out­ages, schools closed, weath­er reports and aftershocks.

When dis­as­ter strikes, often the emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by radio ama­teurs sup­ple­ments and sup­ports those engaged in relief and res­cue work.

-Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.