Prepare in a Year 2025: Make a Communications Plan
Our Prepare in a Year program helps you get ready for disasters, like large-scale earthquakes that isolate us from outside help for weeks or longer. By tackling one simple task per month, you can get your household in good shape by the end of a year.
The task for March is to make a communications plan so that you and your family and friends can stay connected and informed after a disaster.
Any good communications plan includes three key elements:
a strategy and tools for communicating,
access to emergency alerts, and
a way to keep your devices charged.
Strategy & Tools
When there’s a large-scale disaster and power is out pretty much everywhere, you will likely be unable to make local calls—partly because of the damaged infrastructure and partly because any still-working infrastructure will be overwhelmed with use.
At first you may be able to send text messages locally, but even that capability will eventually fail. The last thing to fail in these situations is the ability to make out-of-state calls and send out-of-state texts
Out-of-State Contact. For this reason, everyone in your family/friends group should reach out to the same out-of-state (or at least 100 miles away) contact to provide a status update: I’m ok. I’m at school. OR I’m injured but being treated at the Disaster Medical Center.
When each person checks in with the out-of-state contact, the contact should be able to share updates from the people who have already messaged.
Meetup Plan. Another element of your strategy is to figure out a way to meet up and communicate. That strategy should have different contingencies depending on whether people are home or away from home such as at work or school.
Your strategy might include meeting up at a Disaster Hub. It might include a neighborhood rendezvous point in case homes are damaged. If kids are at school, you will need to pick them up there or, if you can’t get there within 48 hours, at the Child Reunification Center.
Include a plan for reconnecting when someone is in Seattle when disaster strikes. For example, they could seek shelter with a contact there until they are able to get a boat back to the Island, which might not happen for days or weeks. If that’s your plan, agree in advance on a Seattle contact.
Tech. Your strategy can rely on cell phones, walkie talkies, ham radio, and/or a satellite linkup and devices (which should continue working on clear days even when cell service is out).
Zoleo satellite communicator
Emergency Alerts
An important element of a communication plan is the ability to stay abreast of what is happening. Do you need to evacuate? Do you need to shelter in place? Where can you get daily updates?
Make sure to do the following:
Subscribe everyone to Nixle (text 98110 to 888777). Read more here. Nixle is the alert system used by the City of Bainbridge island.
Download the MyShake app to get earthquake early warnings.
In an emergency, Bainbridge Prepares volunteers will within a day or two set up Disaster Hubs to provide limited medical care and information. Know where your closest Disaster Hub is and, post-disaster, visit it to get news updates.
Chargers
Communication devices that lose their charge serve no purpose:
Keep a bunch of pre-charged chargers on hand.
In addition, invest in some solar chargers or solar-charged generators to use when your cell chargers run out of juice.
If you rely on a fuel-run generator, make sure you have enough fuel on hand to last for weeks.
You can also charge your devices on a vehicle battery (but be sure to run the vehicle enough to recharge the battery!).
Luminaid inflatable solar lantern and phone charger.
Want to win prizes? Visit the Prepare in a Year page for March to find out how.
