Emergency service is handled by the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES).

Many PEARL volunteers are registered with the Putnam County Office of Emergency Management as RACES members. While RACES can be activated at any time, some examples of Putnam County RACES support follow.

The first area of support is in the event of an emergency at the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan, N.Y. Entergy  run a reactor at the Indian Point site. RACES participation in the N.Y. State and FEMA observed drills is evaluated to the same criteria as professional employees at other nuclear plant locations. The FEMA web site has information about dealing with nuclear plant problems and background information about radation. Some of the services RACES provides are:

• Radiological field monitoring and reporting
• Radiological decomtamination
• Evacuation communications to the Emergengy Operations Center
• JNC communications to the Emergengy Operations Center
• Plant communications to the Emergengy Operations Center

RACES also provides communications for NORMET. Based in Newburgh, NORMET is composed of 35 hospitals in 7 counties in the northern metropolitan area of New York State. In the event of a major disaster where there are many victims, such as an airliner crash, RACES is ready to provide the communications needed to link the hospitals and the site of the disaster to determine which victims are transported to which hospital. This is a joint effort of seven different RACES organiztions.

If you would like more information on RACES, contact the Putnam County RACES Radio Officer, E-mail: races@k2put.org