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0003H Handar Alert Automatic Flood Warning SYltem . S_r, The Handar Mere AutCllllatic Flood Warning Syatem (AFWS) providu commu- nitiel with advance warning of potential flooding baled on inatantaneoua (rul-time) meuurements of rainfall and water Ineh in .trum, creek" rivera, and other bodie. of water. Other pertinent weather d.ta, .uch II wind .peed, temperature, etc. Cln allo be obuined at tbe lime time. Flood. are the hrlelt natuul di,uter phenCllllenum in the world. In the U.s. they account for .bout ZOO live. 1011 nch yur and damalU totalling " billion each ye.r. Thouland. of co~nitie. arc affected and more than JOO,OOO people mu.t be ev.cuated each ye.r from their home.. Several houri of adv.nce warning of impendinl flood. can be u.ed to prevent uten.iyt property damale. Even minutu of advance warning can live Iivu. AutOPlatic Flood Warning Sy.t~. are being uled esten.ively throughout the tAli ted SUtu and the tel t of the world. Almo. t hal f of tbe a utu in the U.S. have conmunitiu with one or more autClllluic flood warning 'yltem.. The .y.tem con.i.t. of three ba.ic component. a. ahown in Filure 1: 1. A number of remote .itu collecrinl rainfall, water level, and other weatber data and tranami tring it by VHF or lHF line-of ailht radio. e- Z. One or more optional repeater. to estend the ranle between the rvnote .ite. .nd the bale .tation. The repeater COD- li.t. of a receiver and tran.mitter at a .ite who.e eleva- tion provide. a line-of-.ilht between the remote data col- lection .itu and the Bue Station. J. The Ba.e Station, whicb include. a radio reeeiver and an IBM PC XI" computer or compatible. A .oftware pacble provide. the ability to configure the .y.rem and concurrently col- lect, &tore, procell, and di.play the data. Data ia tun.mitted to the Bue Station by \IE or UiF Jine-of-aiaht radio direetly or throuah optional repeater. that can be u.ed to estend cODKnUDication. ranle. Radio coaxaunication. arc quite reliable even durinl huY)' uinltorm.. Data acquiaition .y.tem. acquirinl data tbroulb tele- phone line. are m.ny tUnc. inoperative due to downed telephone line. or flooded cable.. e- o.ta from many individual remote .ite. and .en.or. can III be tran.- mitted throUlh a .inlle radio frequency in a 10c.1 area. 1hi. i. po..ible becau.e only a minimum amount of information i. tran.mitted; the 10 code for tbe .en.or and the raw value of the data. Thia infonDation can be tran.milled in lell than 1/4 of a aecond. Conaequently, .ince tran.million time. are randomly .paced from different .ite., the probabilitie. for interference are extremely .mall even in den.e network.. Even if there ia 1