SEQUIM--Keith Koehler is a volunteer who has dedicated an extraordinary amount of time an effort to the important cause of preparing our community for the possibility of a major disaster. Sequim is threatened by the prospect of a major (Cascadia Subduction Richter scale 9.0 magnitude+) earthquake and resulting tsunami flooding that will severely interrupt and prevent our entire community's access to power, water and food supplies for an extended period.
Preparedness for such an event will be crucial to mitigate loss of life and speed of our city's recovery. Keith has been a tireless worker, assisting with emergency planning efforts of the City of Sequim and Fire District 3. His insights and personal expertise in information technologies and communications systems greatly advances the ability of our emergency managers to handle the severe challenges that such widespread disasters will surely present.
Specifically, Keith has contributed in these important ways. First, he designed a low-cost, highly effective radio communications architecture for eastern Clallam County that can be used by hundreds of volunteer members of Community Emergency Response Teams, CERTs. In any widespread disaster event in which normal cellular phone communications are predicted to be unavailable, the ability to communicate among first responder personnel is a critical factor in any emergency operation. Keith's radio architecture has proven to be a stellar alternative that will ensure that our needed command-and-control links will be in place to help save the lives of many disaster victims.
Second, to prove the concept of his communications architecture, Keith planned, organized, and executed a systematic radio auditory survey covering our entire 120 square mile operational area, involving all of eastern Clallam County. Using mobile radios in the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) category, which transmits no greater than five watts of power, Keith conducted over 2,000 radio-to-radio checks. His documentation proved CERT operations in all potentially affected neighborhoods in our region could remain in constant radio contact with emergency managers located in the Sequim Emergency Coordination Center and the Clallam County Emergency Operations Center. Keith achieved this impressive and low-cost radio connectivity by designing a portable, emergency transmission mast that was placed a high gain antenna atop a 13-foot-tall (photographic lighting) tripod stand.
By deploying fewer than a dozen of these masts, hundreds of CERT members assigned to Fire District 3 can convey important information using just their handheld radios in near-real time to any other location within our operational area.
Those who know Keith say his selfless dedication to the service of our community, comprising hundreds of volunteered hours of his time, has improved the operational capabilities of our first responders and significantly enhanced eastern Clallam County's overall disaster preparedness so that more people in need can be found, assisted, and saved in times of widespread disaster, and that Keith's contributions will benefit us all for years to come.
