Instructions for the Situation Reports 1B & 1C
Overview of Situation Reports
A key role of the NET program is to be the eyes and ears in Portland neighborhoods to allow the city to allocate resources during a disaster. Like the official NET Form 1 -- Damage Assessment, volunteers use NET Form 1-B-1 and Form 1-B-2 to record damage and injuries observed in a neighborhood while moving through the area to the NET Staging Area or during a search and rescue operation.
The new forms were created based on a system developed by the Cupertino, California Amateur Radio Emergency Service and facilitates the gathering of statistical information that can be used by city emergency management personnel. At the same time, the information on the forms can be used by NET teams to keep track of problems in their neighborhoods. The Form 1-B-2 closely resembles the layout of the NET Form 1. The Form 1-B-1 rotates the columns and rows, providing more room for descriptions of the categories.
Originally developed as experimental forms in 2019, Forms IB-1, 1B-2 and 1C were formally approved by Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) in the summer of 2022.
Note: The values that individuals put on these forms are the number of instances that the person has discovered. These are not intended to be the total number of buildings damaged or individuals injured. In particular, the figure zero (0) for an injured-persons category does not mean that there are not any injured individuals, merely that the individual has not encountered any injured. It is anticipated that these values will go up and down as more information is obtained. It's important to provide actionable information to the Emergency Coordination Center (ECC), so that it can assign limited resources where they are needed most.
NET Form 1B-1: Individual Report by Category. This form allows you to keep the category details in view as you enter information. The comments/notes box allows you space to enter the addresses of houses or units that have the damage/injuries shown in the category column. Use this form when the number of affected units/individuals in each category is the priority. Each individual should fill out a copy of the form and turn it into the NET’s Incident Commander or Team Leader.
NET Form 1B-2: Individual Report by Dwelling. Use this form when the status of specific dwellings and their occupants is the priority. For instance, you may want to use this form if you are doing a house-by-house or apartment-by-apartment inventory of damage and injuries. Each individual should fill out a copy of the form and turn it into the NET’s Incident Commander or Team Leader. If an individual surveys more dwellings than will fit on a single page, multiple forms can be used.
NET Form 1C: Team Report with Totals. This form has two purposes: (a) To consolidate the information from multiple individuals that have reported on Form 1Bs, creating a neighborhood-wide summary of the situation. (b) To calculate a set of totals by category that can be reported by radio to the team’s regional subnet controller for forwarding the PBEM’s ECC.
The primary advantages of Form 1B-1 are that it provides more description of the kinds of damage or injuries that would belong in each section and may allow you to describe more buildings per page. The primary advantage of Form 1B-2 is it preserves the association of damage or injuries with individual addresses or floor numbers. That is, for each address line, the number of each kind of damage and injury is listed. To preserve this information on a Form 1B-1, it should be placed parenthetically next to the address or floor number entered in the Addresses field.
If a NET team gathers situation information by more than one method, it may want to use a combination of both Form 1B-1 and 1B-2 and consolidate the information on Form 1C.
Information reporting process
Upon arriving at the NET Staging Area, the volunteers turn their form 1Bs in to the Team Leader (TL) or Incident Commander (IC). This person uses all the collected forms to formulate and prioritize action plans.
Similarly, if a NET team performs a search and rescue operation it can use either Form 1B-1 or Form 1B-2 to record information discovered during the search. It may even want to use Form 1B-1 and 1-B2 for different aspects of the search.
As the Form 1B-1 and 1B-2 are turned in to the team’s incident command, the information on them is consolidated on the SITREP Form 1-C and used to track the situation in the team’s neighborhood. A NET amateur radio operator should send the totals on Form 1C to PBEM ECC by passing it to their regional net control operator.
Instructions for NET Form 1B-1 – Individual Situation Report by Category
This form allows you to keep the category descriptions in view as you enter information.
Header:
NET Team: Name of your NET Team. If your team is divided into subteams you can include tat as well.
TL/IC Receiving Report: Name of the Incident Team Leader.
Person Reporting: This is the name of the individual team member who filled out this particular form. Typically, several team members or perhaps all team members will fill out one or more Form 1Bs.
Report Date/Time: The date and time will be important in assessing how current the information is. You can use either military time (e.g. 8:00 pm is 2000) or regular time but if you use the latter make sure you include am or pm.
Streets or Buildings:
“Street: Between:”
- If you are reporting on a street with mostly single family dwellings or small apartment buildings, describe the block(s) you surveyed. For example, “Street: SW 3rd Avenue Between Salmon and Taylor.
- If you’re reporting on a multi-unit building, leave this box empty.
“Building: Address:”
- If you are reporting on a multi-unit building, fill in the building name and its address. For example: Building: Deluxe Apartments Address: 3333 NE 495th Avenue
- If you are reporting on a street with mostly single family dwellings or small apartment buildings, leave this box empty.
- Dwellings Surveyed. Record the number of dwellings surveyed in the third box.
The Count column on this part of the form should be filled in with numbers or tally marks. If you leave a space blank it will be treated as a 0. Blank or 0 means either there were no occurrences of this item or you did not observe any occurrences. If you count multiple occurrences for a category, use tally marks if it's easier. Use any method that will give you an accurate total.
The Dwelling/Notes column should be filled in with the house number or apartment number at which you observed the situation described in the subcategory column.
Here is a description of the rows:
Fires:
1.2 Used for active fires. Fires that have gone out or been extinguished do not need to be recorded.
Hazards:
2.1 Record gas leaks include the detectable smell of gas as well as lines or pipes that are burning
2.2 Record water main break s
2.3 Record downed electrical lines and similar hazards.
2.4 Record chemical hazards.
Structures:
3.1 Light Damage (superficial damage, broken windows, cracked or fallen plaster, primary damage to contents).
3.2 Moderate Damage (large amount of cracking on exterior, small cracks around doors and foundations, no outward sign of structural damage).
3.3 Heavy Damage (partial or full collapse and/or building is off foundation, obvious structural damage).
Injuries:
4.1 Minor, able to walk away from the incident.
4.2 Delayed (no uncontrolled and/or severe bleeding, able to breath regularly, has detectable pulse, and can answer questions and respond to commands correctly).
4.3 Immediate (visible severe bleeding or labored breathing or rapid breathing or is confused and disoriented).
4.4 Deceased (no respiration with open airway).
Road Access:
5.1 Road Access: Record number of roads blocked or other obstruction to access in the immediate vicinity of the apartment.
Dangerous Animals:
6.1 Count the number of animals that could pose a risk to people.
Instructions for NET Form 1B-2 – Individual Situation Report by Dwelling
Use this form when the status of specific dwellings and their occupants is the priority.
Header:
NET Team: Name of your NET Team. If your team is divided into subteams you can include tat as well.
TL/IC Receiving Report: Name of the Incident Team Leader or delegate.
Person Reporting: This is the name of the individual team member who filled out this particular form. Typically, several team members or perhaps all team members will fill out one or more Form 1Bs.
Report Date/Time: The date and time will be important in assessing how current the information is. You can use either military time (e.g. 8:00 pm is 2000) or regular time but if you use the latter make sure you include am or pm.
Streets or Buildings:
“Street: Between:”
- If you are reporting on a street with mostly single family dwellings or small apartment buildings, describe the block(s) you surveyed. For example, “Street: 3rd Avenue Between Salmon and Taylor.
- If your reporting on a multi-unit building, leave this box empty.
“Building: Address:”
- If you are reporting on a multi-unit building, fill in the building name and its address. For example: Building: Deluxe Apartments Address: 3333 NE 495th Avenue
- If you are reporting on a street with mostly single family dwellings or small apartment buildings, leave this box empty.
- Dwellings Surveyed. Record the number of dwellings surveyed in the third box.
IV. RECORDING DATA: Every location (type of incident) on this part of the form should be filled in with a number. If you leave a space blank it will be treated as a 0. Blank or 0 means either there were no occurrences of this item or you did not observe any occurrences. If you count multiple occurrences for a location, use tally marks if it's easier. Use any method that will give you an accurate total.
Here is a description of the columns:
Dwelling: House number or unit number in multi-unit building:
For a multi-unit building, print unit or apartment numbers in this column.
Fires:
1.2 Used for active fires. Fires that have gone out or been extinguished do not need to be recorded.
Hazards:
2.1 Record gas leaks including the detectable smell of gas as well as lines or pipes that are burning.
2.2 Record water main breaks.
2.3 Record downed electrical power lines and similar hazards.
2.4 Record chemical hazards.
Structures:
3.1 Light Damage (superficial damage, broken windows, cracked or fallen plaster, primary damage to contents).
3.2 Moderate Damage (large amount of cracking on exterior, small cracks around doors and foundations, no outward sign of structural damage).
3.3 Heavy Damage (partial or full collapse and/or building is off foundation, obvious structural damage).
Injuries:
4.1 Minor, able to walk away from the incident.
4.2 Delayed (no uncontrolled and/or severe bleeding, able to breath regularly, has detectable pulse, and can answer questions and respond to commands correctly).
4.3 Immediate (visible severe bleeding or labored breathing or rapid breathing or is confused and disoriented).
4.4 Deceased (no respiration with open airway).
Road Access:
5.1 Road Access: Note number of roads blocked or other obstruction to access in the immediate vicinity of the apartment.
Dangerous Animals:
6.1 Count the number of animals that could pose a risk to people.
Totals:
Record the total of each category of hazard, damage or injury in the Totals row at the bottom of the form and route them to your Incident Commander or Team Leader by radio or by delivering the form in person.
Instructions for NET Form 1C – Team Situation Report with Totals
This form has two purposes: (a) To consolidate the information from multiple individuals reporting what they observed on Form 1Bs, creating a neighborhood-wide summary of the situation. (b) To calculate a set of totals by category that can be reported by radio to the team’s regional subnet controller for forwarding to PBEM’s Emergency Coordination Center.
It can be printed and then filled out at your staging area. Alternatively, you can bring a laptop computer with you to your staging area and fill the form out using Adobe Acrobat. You can click on box A, fill it in and then use the tab key to proceed through the form. After you finish the header, the tab key will take you down each column of the form. If you need to make a change, you can either click on the box you want to revise or use shift-tab to back up through the form.
Header:
A1-NET Team: Name of your NET Team. If your team is divided into sub-teams you can include that as well.
A2-Report Date/Time: The date and time will be important in assessing how current the information is. You can use either military time (e.g. 8:00 pm is 2000) or regular time but if you use the latter make sure you include am or pm.
A3-1-Neighborhood Surveyed. Use this box to record the name of a neighborhood if you are reporting statistical information on a particular neighborhood. This is appropriate even if you have not yet surveyed the entire neighborhood.
A3-1-Multi-unit Buildings Surveyed. Use this box to record the names of buildings reported on the form. If a building doesn’t have a name, record its address.
Depending on the circumstances, you should fill in either the A3-1 or A3-2 but not both.
Rows 1.1 to 6.1: These rows correspond to the rows of Form 1B-1 and the columns of Form 1B-2.
Columns under “Teams Members Reporting”. One column should be used for each Form 1B you receive. If you are recording a Form 1B-1, record the Dwellings surveyed from the box on the upper right and the Counts in the count column. If your recording a Form 1B-2, record the Dwellings from the box in the upper right and the Totals from the bottom row.
Totals column: After you have finished recording Form 1Bs for a particular time period, add up the rows and record the totals in the column on the right.
Once a Form 1C has been completed, the information in the header and the Totals column should be transmitted to PBEM ECC by one of your team’s amateur radio operators via your team’s regional subnet controller.