The Middleton Tract is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, adjacent to Portola Redwoods State Park, between La Honda and Loma Mar, in San Mateo County. See the Wikipedia article for more about the history of the neighborhood.
This neighborhood:
- Has a mutual water company run by volunteers
- Holds community meetings annually
- Communications and notifications mostly rely on GMRS radio
- Six residents have Ham radio licenses, including 2 ARES members
- Has several CERT volunteers
- Many houses are equipped with fire hydrants
The GMRS Radio Project
The neighborhood is remote and accessible by a single road. After years of poor phone, internet, and power services, it became clear that residents needed a way to communicate with the outside world during emergencies. This reached a tipping point when a mudslide cut off the only access road and a team of fire fighters and ham radio volunteers literally hiked a ham radio into Middleton. After that, several residents became licensed ham radio operators.
Then the CZU fire came. As crucial as the ham radios were during the CZU evacuation process — during which there were no phones or power — it became clear that Middleton needed a more efficient way to reach every household in an emergency.
With guidance from SSEPO and the local ham radio club (SC4ARC), Middleton decided to try out GMRS radios and applied for a grant from SSEPO to purchase them.
Now, every family has their own emergency radio. Common uses include: reporting a downed tree across the road, checking on neighbors during a power outage, sharing road condition updates, weather updates, and power restoration information.
The Middleton radio project has been a huge success! Thanks to SC4ARC and SSEPO.