When something happens, the first thing everyone wants is to know where the people they love are. That is also the moment when the phone network is busiest, the power may be out, and the information that matters is coming from official sources you may not have set up to reach you. Communications preparation is mostly decisions and settings, not equipment, and most of it can be done tonight.
This page explains what to arrange and why. Ready.gov’s alerts page explains the official warning systems and how each one reaches you; the National Weather Service explains its warnings and NOAA Weather Radio; and the ARRL explains how amateur radio licensing works for anyone who wants to go further. All three are cited below.
Why it matters
Emergencies break communications in predictable ways. Cell networks are congested when everyone calls at once. Cell towers and the internet fail when the power does, sometimes after a delay while their batteries run down. Phones die. Landlines may or may not work without power, depending on how the service is delivered. Meanwhile, the instructions that keep people safe — evacuate, shelter, boil water — go out through channels that only reach you if you turned them on.
A household with a plan does not need the network to be working to know where to meet, who to call, and where to get news.
What to have
A family communication plan, written down. Where you meet if you cannot get home; who the out-of-area contact is, because a call or text out of the affected area often connects when a local one does not; who collects the children; who checks on whom. This is step two on Start Here, and the household plan printable holds it.
Phone numbers on paper. Family, the out-of-area contact, neighbors, doctor, pharmacy, school, utilities, the county’s non-emergency line. Nobody knows numbers by heart anymore, and a phone that dies takes them with it. A wallet card and a copy on the refrigerator.
Official alerts turned on. Ready.gov describes the systems: Wireless Emergency Alerts, which arrive on phones without any sign-up; the Emergency Alert System on radio and television; NOAA Weather Radio; and the local alert systems that counties run, which usually require you to sign up. Do the county sign-up tonight; it is the channel that carries local evacuation orders and boil-water notices. Check that the alerts are not switched off in your phone’s settings.
A battery-powered or hand-crank radio, with spare batteries, that receives ordinary broadcast stations and, ideally, NOAA Weather Radio. The National Weather Service explains what its radio network broadcasts. When cell service and the internet are gone, broadcast radio is how official information still reaches a household.
A way to keep a phone charged. A power bank, a car charger, a solar charger. Power covers this.
A text habit. Text messages are short and often get through on a congested network when calls will not. Agree that the household texts first, keeps messages short, and does not tie up the network with calls unless it must.
Two-way radio, if you want it. Some handheld radios can be used without a license and others require one; the ARRL’s licensing page explains the amateur radio license, which is the route for anyone who wants to be useful to a neighborhood or a church during a communications outage. Amateur radio operators are part of most counties’ emergency communication plans, and the license is within reach of an ordinary person.
What to do when it stops
- Text, do not call, except for emergencies. Send one short message to the out-of-area contact: where you are, that you are safe, where you are going.
- Turn on the radio and find the local station or NOAA Weather Radio for official instructions.
- Save the phone. Low-power mode, screen dim, apps closed, and check it at agreed times rather than constantly.
- Go to the meeting place if you cannot reach each other, on the schedule the plan says, and leave a note if you move on.
- Check on neighbors in person. When the network is down, walking next door is the communication plan.
Who may need help
People without a smartphone, and people who have one but never set up alerts. Neighbors who do not read the language the alerts arrive in. People who are deaf or hard of hearing, for whom a radio is not a source and a knock is. Elders who rely on a landline that may have stopped. Anyone who lives alone. A neighborhood communication chain — who tells whom, in person — is the answer for all of them, and the Community pages explain how to build one.
What not to do
Do not rely on a single channel, especially a smartphone. Do not spread what you have not confirmed; in an emergency, forwarded rumors do real harm, and the official channels exist to be the source. Do not call 911 for information. Do not leave the county alert sign-up for later. And do not assume silence means something is wrong; it usually means the network is busy and the plan is working.
Longer disruptions
Over weeks, communication becomes a systems and relationship problem: message boards at a gathering place, a schedule for radio check-ins, a church or community hall that becomes the place people go for news, and licensed amateur radio operators relaying between a neighborhood and the county. None of that is improvised well on the day. It is arranged by people who know each other, which is what the rest of this site is about.