janet spencer w7jes
Until 1989 Janet lived her life believing she could rely on the authorities to rush in and handle any emergency that might arise in the Helena community. That changed on February 2, 1989, when railroad cars without brakes rolled nine miles backwards from Mullan Pass and collided with a work train at a crossing near Carroll College. There was a terrific explosion and fire. The blast shattered windows for miles around. People in a two-mile square area had to be evacuated because of possible chemical contamination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Helena_train_wreck The authorities did not rush in, because they could not. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero, there was no electrical service, and the water froze in the fire hoses. Janet had no means of communication with the outside world – no television, no broadcast radio. She could not even find out what had happened, and that was scary! Her home, though undamaged, was rapidly losing heat. She could not find a candle or a flashlight. Why hadn’t she made even minimal preparations? Janet went out and sat in her idling car to stay warm. She still had no communication. And she had plenty of time to think. That is when she got interested in emergency preparedness. She started by keeping a flashlight and radio where she could find them. She began to gather supplies. Then she realized she could get specialized training in emergency preparedness. At the Red Cross she earned certification in mass shelter care under Cindy Bender. With Chaya (Karen) Semple KE7ILN, Deputy DES Coordinator, she did extensive work in citizen emergency response. Under Paul Spengler, L&C County DES Coordinator (retired), Janet became a certified public information officer. In emergency situations she went to his office and answered the emergency hotline. While there she noticed a large amateur radio and a very tall antenna. When she asked, no one knew how to use it. Chaya encouraged her to get her amateur radio license, and she passed the Technician exam. She thought about going for the General, but after 12 weeks of study decided she did not have a “radio brain.” However, over time she did gain a good understanding of the regional communication and participating in the ARES net was just what she wanted. Janet urged her friends to get better prepared, but they turned her down. “Don’t worry,” they would say. “Emergency services will take care of us.” Or they would say, “We will come over to your house in an emergency.” Janet made her collection of preparedness ideas into a website, www.calamityjanet.com. She directed friends to her website and tried to persuade them to spend just $2 and 10 minutes a week to be prepared. The average person will live through 3 disasters in a lifetime. In 2011 National Geographic was gathering information for a program on “Doomsday Preppers,” and they contacted Janet. Their piece on her took about 20 minutes of their hour-long program. They featured her preparedness for nuclear war because they needed a “juicier” topic. She had built a Faraday cage to protect her radio from nuclear blast. However, Janet’s preps are truly geared toward earthquake, power outage, and fire. You can watch the program here: Doomsday Preppers (Janet’s segment is about 17 minutes in.) Janet says, “To me, prepping is just a funky hobby. Ham radio is part of that funky hobby. It's a bit weird, I guess, but at least I had plenty of toilet paper on hand when Covid-19 wiped out the supply!!” October 2020 |
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Janet packing her supplies
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Storage under the bed
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