Florida Guard's Ice Storm Expertise

At first it may seem bizarre why the state of Kentucky would ask National Guard units based in the Sunshine State of Florida for help in dealing with the aftermath of last week's ice storm, described by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear as the worst natural disaster in that state's history.

But as the Florida Guard public affairs officer, Air Force Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, explained to me, it makes a lot of sense why Kentucky asked his state for help. It's because the Florida Guard has in its inventory some Regional Emergency Response Network (RERN) vehicles packed with communications gear that will help fill in the gaps in Kentucky's communications systems, which were knocked out by storm.

Tittle said the Florida Guard has dispatched six of RERNs to Kentucky along with 24 operators from the Air Guard's 290th Combat Communications Support Squadron at MacDill Air Force base in Florida and three Army National Guard maintenance personnel.

Mike Garvey, executive vice president of Applied Global Technology, which built the RERN system, which is also used in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He said each vehicle has a dual Ku/Ka band satellite terminal, which provides data connectivity for up to 500 users on classified and unclassified Defense networks and land mobile radio systems to support state and local emergency responders.

Little sent along fact sheets, which show that the RERNs also come equipped with Wi-Fi access points and voice over IP phones. In other words, everything needed to provide communications as Kentucky recovers from the ice storm.