Monday Matters: Crisis Communications During an Emergency or Disaster

Consider if you will, and give serious thought to what life today would be without email, social media web sites, the Internet, cellular telephones, and even electricity. Our society’s extreme dependence on technology makes us particularly vulnerable to man-made (technological), natural and/or war related/terrorism attack disasters that could completely disrupt our ability to communicate thru any of these heavily used mediums. Electricity is so vital to our day to day lives that most of us fail to realize that no communications technology can run without power of some type! Timely effective communications during an emergency or disaster can well make the difference between life and death!

When looking at crisis communications pre-disaster, during a disaster and post-disaster keep in mind the following when developing, practicing and equipping for your crisis communications plan.

1. Establish your PACE disaster communications plan for your family, key operations personnel, and if in business; vendors, suppliers and contractors. Establish an out of the area message relay person (e.g. relative, associate, etc.) to coordinate calls, messages and rendezvous with family, friends and co-workers when local telephone and cellular service is unavailable.
2. Remember, local telephone and cellular communication services may be damaged and overloaded or non-existent, due to the disaster. You may well be able to call out of the area, but may not be able to complete calls within the affected disaster area. One of the back-ups for standard telephone and cellular service is SATCOM (satellite communications for voice, data and video transmission). For those individuals and organizations (especially critical infrastructure such as public safety, law enforcement, hospitals and banking) that need a true 24/7/365 communications capability, SATCOM must be considered. It’s expensive but well worth the investment when you need to communicate. Here is an excellent resource for First Responders from the Satellite Industry Association; First Responders Guide to Satellite Communications (PDF).
3. Make sure that you know what is going on in your local area by either monitoring a multi-band scanner, local news on radio, or television and have an “active” all hazards radio as a back-up. If you lose power you should not lose your ability to monitor changing disaster conditions. Without one, you’ll be hard pressed to know whether to evacuate, or shelter-in-place when directed to do so. We keep an All Hazards Radio at our receptionist desk in our corporate offices to monitor conditions during the work day, and one at home to keep informed overnight.
4. Back-up power sources ranging from 12 volt DC-to-AC inverters to dedicated back-up generators should be considered as part of your emergency communications equipping plan. Think of “green” power solutions here as small several thousand watt solar power stations like Sunrnr offer unique advantages.
5. Do not depend solely on one communications medium (remember primary, alternate, contingency and emergency). For example, the Internet Social Media website Twitter is a very powerful tool that can disseminate local disaster information far and wide using the power of the Internet, but without power, telephony, cable or wireless technology it can be rendered ineffective. Radio and television are important to keep abreast of local conditions. For those in the coastal regions that use those nice little portable battery operated televisions, please make sure they are updated to receive the new All Digital signal transmissions from your local television stations.
6. Be familiar with local government alert sirens such as tornado warning and flood warning sirens and the like. More importantly, have a practiced plan of what to do when you hear them sound off in your area or one you may be visiting!
7. Two way radio comprise the backbone of communications used during a disaster response and recovery efforts. Looking at the family, business and corporate level equipment, Family Radio Service (FRS) radios typically provide you with short range communications (typically under 300 feet inside a building to around a 1/2 mile outdoors). For a bit longer range around the neighborhood or for rural area communications consider General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) that can provide several miles of communications range outdoors. Citizens Band (CB) Radios have been around for a long time and provide reliable communication ranges of 1 to 5 miles. Do your research to determine what can work for you in times of crisis. Radio transmission ranges will vary with antennas, under different conditions, terrain and structures. Manufacturers advertise long range capabilities; we suggest you learn your gear and test the range of your equipment before you need it.
8. You can even coordinate a communications plan with your family, friends and neighbors using FRS/GMRS/CB in conjunction with local Short Wave Radio Operators (HAM) that have a capability to talk literally around the world. Recently, here in Virginia during the heavy snow storms, HAM radio operators assisted in the dispatch of nearby county public safety personnel during the epic storms.

Make sure you have a viable communications plan and reliable equipment to use in the event of a disaster.