Your Family Emergency Communications Plan

When disaster strikes it is quite likely that all members of your family will not be at the same location. Some may be at work, children may be at school, others family members may be traveling or simply away from home for the day.

The first step in creating an emergency communications plan is to select three meeting places where everyone will gather if you can’t go to your home.

1. In Your Neighborhood - Choose a place in your neighborhood where your family members will meet if there is a fire or other emergency and you need to leave your home. This could be under the big tree at the end of your driveway, the 24-hour market down the block, or the gazebo in the city park at the end of the street. Just be sure that this location is close and easily accessible by all members of your family.

2. Outside of your neighborhood - This is a place where your family will meet if a disaster happens when you’re not at home and you can’t get back to your home. This could be a library, community center, house of worship, or family friend’s home.

3. Out of the Area - Having an out-of-town meeting place can help you reunite if a disaster happens and:

• You cannot get home or to your out-of-neighborhood meeting place; or 
• Your family is not together and your community is instructed to evacuate the area.

This meeting place could be the home of a relative or family friend. Make sure everyone knows the address of the meeting place and discuss ways you would get there.

The next step in your emergency communications plan is to review your various communication options. Many people carry mobile phones, and when the cellular network is up and running the mobile phone provides a quick and efficient means of communication. During a disaster however, mobile phone circuits can become quickly overloaded, and lack of power or destruction of cell-towers can cause the network to fail.

As the cellular network becomes more congested, SMS (Text) messages will get through when voice calls fail. During a disaster, all members of your family should send their location and status (condition) by text message. Be sure that everyone knows how to send a group message, so that all family members can stay informed about everyone’s welfare, location, and planned actions.

Keep charged batteries (a power pack), a car phone charger, and a solar charger available for backup power for your mobile phone. Make it a point to keep your mobile phone batteries charged, so that you begin each day with a fully charged battery.

Consider other means of communication if the cellular network fails completely. I previously wrote about GoTenna  as a way to use your mobile phone off of the mobile network. Think about adding FRS, PMR, GMRS, or CB radio to your communications plan. Amateur (HAM) Radio is an excellent means of communication, but it can be a little bit expensive to set up, and everyone will need to get their HAM radio license.  If you choose to add radios to your family emergency communications plan, be sure that everyone is clear on what channel / frequency to operate, and when to make and listen for calls. Practice running your family radio net so that everyone is comfortable using the radios. There can be a bit more to emergency radio communication than push button and talk.

When using radio communications, you will want to conserve your battery power as much as possible. The "Wilderness Protocol" is to monitor specific frequencies Every 3 hours starting from 0700 hours - on the hour until 5 (five) minutes past the hour. (7:00- 7:05 AM, 10:00 - 10:05 AM, ... 10:00 - 10:05 PM). An alternative timing is 0655 to 0705, etc. 5 before until 5 after to allow for differences in peoples watch settings). You can always listen for longer if you want, and if you have a good source of power.

When trying to make initial radio contact, monitoring and transmitting your call for five to ten minutes every three hours can extend your battery life for several days. Once you have made initial contact, you may want to change to radio contact to once per day - say at 11:00 every morning. If you lose contact, such as by missing two consecutive check-ins, return to the Wilderness Protocol until radio contact is re-established.

The Wilderness Protocol is not just limited to radios. If you don’t have a way to keep your mobile phone batteries charged, then maybe you only turn it on every three hours to send and receive text messages.

Use the Internet to communicate by email, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks. These communication channels allow you to share information quickly with a widespread audience or to find out if loved ones are OK. The Internet can also be used for telephone calls through Voice over Internet Protocol. As soon as you get outside of the area most affected by a disaster, it is quite likely that there will be some sort of Internet access available. Include the Internet as part of your communications planning.

Designate an out-of-area emergency contact person. This person should be well out of your local area, so that any disaster affecting you and your family is unlikely to also affect your emergency contact. An out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate with separated family members simply because they aren't in the midst of the disaster situation. If your family can not all get together at one of your three designated meeting places, at least the out of area contact person will be able to serve as a centralized point of contact for everyone until the disaster is over and your family can be reunited. Everyone in the family contacts the out of state designated contact. This person is able to give an update on everyone who has yet to call in, and how everyone is doing. They are the central source of information.

Write out contact telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and your family communications protocols, and keep this on a laminated card in your wallet. Yes, all of this information may be stored in your mobile phone, but what happens if your phone is lost or broken and you are trying to contact your family using a telephone at an emergency shelter.

Every family emergency communications plan will be unique. So build your plan, test it, and practice it regularly.