Hurricane News : Families Rely on Radio Ties to Caribbean

Thousands of Southland residents were besieging local ham radio operators Tuesday for word of relatives and friends on Caribbean islands who may have been in the path of Hurricane Hugo.

But with requests for emergency disaster assistance taking priority in ham communications to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, most of those concerned are not likely to get their messages answered for several more days, according to amateur radio instructor Gordon West of Costa Mesa.

But West said “no news is good news” in this situation, because if the relatives had been seriously hurt or killed, that information would be passed along quickly. As of Tuesday, 25 storm-related deaths had been reported in the eastern Caribbean, including two in Puerto Rico.

That is little comfort to Cynthia Harper Miley. The Newport Beach woman has tried frantically to get word of her sister and brother-in-law, who were marooned on the tiny island of Culebra off the east coast of Puerto Rico when Hugo, packing 125-m.p.h. winds, struck Monday.

With power and telephone communications knocked out in the Caribbean, Miley, 37, asked a ham operator late Monday to try to track down her sister, Joan Foley, 45, and Foley’s husband, Ed Burnsed, 48, on

Culebra, where the two had been stranded since Saturday for emergency boat repairs.

The word Miley got back Tuesday was not reassuring: Culebra’s harbor, where Foley and Burnsed were towed after the engine of their boat stalled, was a scene of devastation, a ham operator told her. But no word has trickled out on casualties there.

“I’ve cried all night,” Miley said Tuesday, who is maintaining a vigil beside her telephone. “If we (her family) can at least hear there are not any casualties, and everybody is safe on the island, then we’ll be fine. But now, I’m on pins and needles.”

West, who helps mobilize the county’s 5,000 amateur ham enthusiasts in such disasters, said his network received about 1,000 calls in one three-hour period early Tuesday from county residents seeking information on loved ones caught by the hurricane.

“I received 25 messages” in 45 minutes, West said.

Such calls as Miley’s are forwarded by West and the other ham volunteers to the National Amateur Traffic Network, which is relying upon East Coast ham operators to forward messages to hams in Puerto Rico, West said.

The messages for information are given secondary priority to information on the devastated area, the hardest-hit communities and the need for medical aid and supplies, he said. After those messages are relayed, the radio operators in Puerto Rico will be asked to check on such people as Foley and her husband.

West hopes that all of the responses come back as Message 1, which is the radio operators’ code for: “Everybody safe here. Please don’t worry.”

Less reassuring, however, is Message 26, which means: “Immediate help for sick and injured in evacuation needed at once.”

Any death announcements, West added, would be handled by the State Department or through other radio channels.

Joe Gallant, 67, a ham from Newport Beach who has been monitoring his radio for nearly three days straight during Hugo’s march, said information on casualties was still being tallied Tuesday. Gallant said radio frequencies have been filled, instead, with reports of damage.

“It’s just a disaster,” Gallant said Tuesday as his radio crackled in the background.

It was Gallant who radioed Miley’s request for information. Gallant said the response he received from the disaster region indicated that Culebra, about 40 miles from Puerto Rico, had been pummeled.

“The harbor was devastated, and all the boats are devastated,” he said.

Miley said her sister and husband--retired and living on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in their 40-foot yacht Hiatus--had gone into Puerto Rico last week to refurbish the vessel and were on their way home when the engine failed. The vessel was towed to nearby Culebra, where Foley and Burnsed were last reported awaiting repairs Saturday.

Miley’s sister, Beth Andrini, 40, of Costa Mesa, is also waiting anxiously for news, as is the rest of the family in Jacksonville, Fla.

Another status request had been filed with local ham operators Tuesday by Lynne Weintraub, 43, a housewife from Orange whose friend, Joe Linares, along with his family, were caught in the storm.

Linares lives near San Juan with his wife, four children and 82-year-old mother.

But unlike Miley, Weintraub heard back Tuesday that the Linares family is safe. Linares, 52, managed to call his sister--Estelle Nash, 55, of Riverside--from a business telephone that had been restored to service.

HURRICANE TOLL RISES

At least 25 die as storm aims at U.S. Part I, Page 1