During any type of crisis situation, establishing communication is going to be one of your top priorities. Unfortunately, despite huge advancements in communication technology, our modern infrastructure has left us incredibly vulnerable to disaster-related communication outages.
From cell towers being overwhelmed by a flood of traffic during the initial stages of a disaster to entire sections of communications infrastructure being shut down because of power outages, even a small-scale disaster can wreak havoc and limit your ability to communicate.
Let’s face it—most of us are always on the go, and since we can’t predict exactly when and where a disaster will strike, there’s probably a pretty good chance you may not be with your family during the onset of the crisis. Because of the unpredictable nature of disasters, you need to have a plan that guarantees you’ll be able to find your loved ones during an emergency situation. That means developing an emergency communication plan and making sure everyone in your family knows what it is and how to put it in place during a disaster.
Start with making a list of your emergency contacts. This list needs to have the most up-to-date phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and even your contacts’ social media accounts. If there’s a way to get in contact with them, it should be on the list. Provide this information to everyone in your family or survival group.
If you have young children, this information should be printed out on a index card that they can keep with them at all times. They will have a difficult time remembering information like this during times of crisis, so it’s vital that you provide them something that can jog their memory.
Your emergency contact list needs a central point of contact. This should be a close friend or family member, preferably one who lives out of state and will not be affected by localized disasters, who can coordinate emergency planning efforts until everyone finds their way back together or to safety.
Your designated contact person also needs to have an up-to-date copy of your emergency contact list and should immediately inform everyone on the list of the specific details of the situation. This ensures that if something happens to the designated contact, or should someone not be able to make contact, everyone on your list will be on the same page and can help coordinate communication efforts. The designated contact should start a group e-mail, or some sort of status update system where people can easily check the status of the situation without clogging up phone lines. Social media can be a great way for family members who are not in immediate danger to receive these status updates.
Should all other methods of communication fail, your family should have an emergency rally point where everyone meets up during a disaster. This point should be outside of your immediate area and needs to be somewhere that can be easily found and reached by everyone in the group.
After a disaster strikes and you have removed yourself from harm’s way, one of your first priorities should be putting your emergency communication plan into action.
During a disaster, it’s very likely that most communication channels will go down. Hopefully this will only be temporary, but either way you need to plan for the worst-case scenario and have multiple options available to you.
I’ll start with cell phones because these days almost everyone has one. While cell networks are often overwhelmed during the initial phase of any disaster, they still might be useful if you know what to do.
If your initial attempts to make a call fail, try texting or using your phone’s data plan to make contact with everyone on your list. As we’ve seen during past disasters, texting and even social media apps can sometimes work, even when voice calls don’t. A text message takes a lot less bandwidth than a phone call, so during a disaster this might be your best bet for making contact.
While you’ll still need a device and Web service to access them, social networks can be a great way to communicate during a disaster. If you can make your way to an emergency crisis center or access them on your cellphone, you might be able to post a status update to your social networks.
While I wouldn’t rely on this as my primary means of communication, it can be a great way to let friends and family know you’re safe, or let them know what you’re planning on doing next. During a disaster you need to have as many options as possible.
While satellite phones are on the expensive side, during a natural disaster or crisis, having one just might save your life. Satellite phones offer a couple of advantages during a disaster. First, they don’t rely on local cell networks, so they’re less likely to be affected by an increase in call volume. Second, even if the entire local cell network goes down, your satellite phone is still going to be operational. This makes them a definite plus if you can afford one.
I know, you’re probably picturing big-rig trucks or bad movies from the 1980s, but the fact is, a CB radio can be an important part of your emergency communications arsenal. I recommend having one in your vehicle, carrying a handheld radio in your bug out bag, and having a base station at home.
During a localized disaster, you should be able to use a CB radio to make contact within a twenty- to thirty mile-radius (thirty-two- to forty-eight kilometers). This makes a CB radio a great way to coordinate with friends and family during localized disasters.
The Family Radio Service (FRS) and the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) are designed for short-distance, two-way communication. They’re generally used with small walkie-talkie devices and have a range of somewhere between five to thirty-five miles (eight to fifty-six kilometers) and about one mile (two kilometers) in an urban setting. While the range might be a problem, they can be useful in caravan situations where you’re traveling in multiple vehicles with a group.
Owning and knowing how to use a ham radio is probably one of the most important things you can do to ensure your ability to communicate during a disaster. For over a hundred years, the ham radio has played a vital role in almost every major disaster.
When the grid goes down, the cell networks stop working, and every other line of communication fails, there’s a pretty good chance the ham bands are going to be alive and operating. Just remember to have a set list of frequencies where you and your group will try to make contact.