One of them, is learning the resources and capabilities of the people and organizations here in Clay County. There has been a big push over the last 2-3 years for interoperable communications.

The State of Indiana has been building a statewide infrastructure of radio towers so we can communicate from one end of the state to the other. One of the problems with this system is, if an event happens that destroys a group of these towers, a specific area communications will not exist.

For years, there has been interoperable communications in a basic form called Radio Amateur Civil Emergency System (RACES) or HAM or Amateur Radio operators.

These radio operators can basically set up anywhere and in no time start passing information across the state and the nation, linking an area where communications has been destroyed back to the rest of the world.

Now, my reason for writing this blog: I was given a list of Amateur Radio Operators here in Clay County about a month ago and I could not believe how many we had. It was three pages long.

Many counties have an organized group of these communicators to help during large scale disasters, to help assess the needs of the people in the disaster area and link them to the responders trying to help.

If you are one of these radio operators, or know some of them, I would like to do something that will help organize a RACES group for our county.

It's like having an insurance policy that gives us countywide ability to make sure everyone is helped to the best of our ability.

If the group is already been started, I would like to see what I could do to help make a place for it when a disaster happens.

We need to prepare ourselves as if lives depend on it, because it does!

Bryan Husband

Clay County Emergency Management Agency Director

611 E. Jackson St. 


Brazil, Indiana 47834 


Office Phone Number: 812-446-2535 Ext. 156 



Fax Number: 812-448-8400 


E-mail: clayema@claycountyin.gov or husband@cebridge.net