Do you know where your family is?

Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones of them.

- Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome (121-180 AD)

Here's some preparedness advice from FEMA at Ready.gov

Your family may not be together when a disaster strikes so it is important to plan in advance: how you will get to a safe place; how you will contact one another; how you will get back together; and what you will do in different situations. Read more about Family Communication during an emergency.

Ready.gov has made it simple for you to make a family emergency plan. Download the Family Emergency Plan and fill out the sections before printing it or emailing it to your family and friends.

You should also inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school, faith organizations, sports events and commuting. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one. Talk to community leaders, your colleagues, neighbors and members of faith or civic organizations about how you can work together in the event of an emergency. You will be better prepared to safely reunite your family and loved ones during an emergency if you think ahead and communicate with others in advance.

Bottom Line

Identify a contact such as a friend or relative who lives out-of-state for household members to notify after an emergency. Local phone lines can become overloaded so it may be easier to make a long-distance phone call than to call across town. An out-of-town contact may be in a better position to communicate among separated family members.

Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number and has a cell phone, coins or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact.

If you have a cell phone, program that person(s) as "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) in your phone. If you are in an accident, emergency personnel will often check your ICE listings in order to get a hold of someone you know. Make sure to tell your family and friends that you’ve listed them as emergency contacts.

Teach family members how to use text messaging. Text messages can often get around network disruptions when a phone call might not be able to get through.

Subscribe to alert services. Many communities now have systems that will send instant text alerts or e-mails to let you know about bad weather, road closings, local emergencies, etc.

Old Favorites

Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.
~John Ed Pearce

Today I'll point you back to older blog posts that provide more details for Hurricane preparation.

Steps to take before a Hurricane arrives

includes
1. Food Safety
2. Food & Water
3. Lights
4. Stay Informed
5. Evacuation Preparation
6. Health
7. Important Papers
8. Peace of Mind
9. Prepare your Home

See also creating a Family Communication Plan

Bottom Line

Don't just read. Make the plan, build the kits.

Communicating with the Internet

“The Internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had.”
-Eric Schmidt

On January 25 the Egyptian government shut down the Internet in Egypt in response to massive revolt and riots. This has led to much speculation in America and elsewhere - could this happen to us?

This has also led to discussion on what to do if the Internet goes down. For example Wired.com has a great article entitled Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet.  It covers:

• Back up information (like phone lists) that you store online.
• Public radio like CB, HAM and others
• Phone trees
• FAX
• Dial up and other alternatives to your ISP company.
• Satellite access

Bottom Line

I love the Internet. But be careful that you don't rely on it 100% and have backup options in place. It just takes a power outage to lose the Internet.

Automated Phone Systems

"Ring, ring, why don't you give me a call" - ABBA

Automated Calling Systems can be a pain when it's a sales call at dinner or a "vote for me" pitch from a politician. But they can also be very useful when your school or sports team calls to tell you about a cancellation or delay.

Last year when my wife and I were asked to serve as Emergency Preparedness Directors over eight church units one of the first things I did was replace the emergency phone system we used. Almost no one ever used the old system to call members for cancellations during weather emergencies - it was just too complicated and not well suited for weekend meetings.

I chose a company called Call-Em-All. They were not the cheapest but fit our needs quite well.

1. You want to pick a company whose calling center is far away and on a different electrical grid. That way if your region loses power, you can still make emergency calls.

2. Also make sure the calling center has emergency back-up power generators so they work when they lose power.

3. Our old phone system was business centric and kept business hours. For emergency alerts you want 24/7 access.

4. If you make frequent use of the phone list, consider a monthly fee plan with "unlimited" calls. In our case calls are rare so I picked pre-paid credits that do not expire. The cost is 7 to 10 cents per 30 seconds per call. 

5. With our old system you had to use the Internet to upload a phone list and create the phone message for each call. That just won't do when the power is out. Now we have the ability to store phone lists permanently online. Press 1 for everyone, Press 2 for Leaders, Press 3 for Unit #1, etc. I can select a calling list, record a message, and send it - all from a cell phone. We made wallet sized cards that we gave to all church leaders on how to send messages via phone. It was used just the other day during a blizzard on a Sunday.

6. You also want a company that keeps good records of calls sent. Who was called, who was missed? The company I use keeps a copy of the voice message online. This was very helpful when I was asked to supply the text for a phone call sent to all members during a Hurricane Watch. I looked up the call report and just kept replaying the 30 second message until I had dictated the it correctly.

Bottom Line

If you manage a group or team, consider subscribing to a phone system. It can be a real time saver when you need to get a message out to everyone and the cost is quite reasonable.

Family Communication Plan

-I've exceeded my unlimited texting.

When preparing for emergencies, you might think of flashlights, radio, water, food and first aid but few people think about planning for how to communicate. Suppose your child is at school when an evacuation notice is issued. The local phone lines will be overwhelmed. How will you find out where your child is at and how can they communicate to you?

Fortunately new technologies provide many options for social networking like texting, Facebook, and email. For the old fashioned, try calling a relative that is long distance. These are separate phone circuits and often work then local calls can not connect. Make sure everyone knows which relative to call.

To help you create a plan and share it, here are two sites...

1. Create a family contact plan online at http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/fep/fep.do
This site prompts you for descriptions and contact information for all family members, plus work, and school, and police, etc and then location and phone for emergency family gathering sites. The information is NOT saved online. Instead you will print out wallet sized cards with this information for family members to carry.

2. The web site http://ready.adcouncil.org/beprepared/quickshare.html  prompts you for emergency contact information and then displays this back so you can copy and paste the information to friends (and your Bishop and EPS) via email. The following information is collected...

Emergency Plan information for <person X>
My Emergency Contact <a local person>
My Out-of-Town Contact <a distant person>
My Neighborhood Meeting Place <place>

Bottom Line

I hope you find this helpful. There are few things worse than not knowing the status of a loved one during/after an emergency.

Staying Calm During an Emergency

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls 9-1-1. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, and then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, "OK, he’s dead. Now what?"

For the Readyman Webelos Activity, young boys are taught four ways to demonstrate “Courage” during an emergency. Be Strong, Be Calm, Be Clear, Be Careful. I’d like to focus on the importance of being Calm and Clear.

In June of 2009, a natural gas explosion blew the roof off of a ConAgra Food Plant during working hours. Here is one call made to 9-1-1.

"ConAgra just blew up," a caller said.
"ConAgra?" the responder asked.
"ConAgra. In Garner."
"What did it do ma'am?" the responder said. "What do you mean it blew up?"
"It blew up! Please send some help."

Notice how little “real” communication is going on here. When asked a question by the responder, the caller just repeats the same words back, “ConAgra”, “It blew up”. The event is vivid and clear in the mind of the caller to whom ConAgra is obvious and “it blew up” is self-evident. “Please send some help” gives no clue to the scope of the problem, is one EMT needed or a fleet of ambulances?

Callers forget that what is obvious to them may not be obvious to someone at a phone bank in another city. Being Calm and Clear means carefully providing details like “the ConAgra Food Plant #3 in Garner has suffered a huge explosion with dozens injured. We need dozens of ambulances and fire control for an industrial plant.”

Consider this call to 9-1-1 in Arizona in 2008,

"There's three dogs, but one is very aggressive, and the man is holding one, and there's kids over here, too."

How would you interpret this? The responder said she would contact Animal Control. 12 minutes later there is a second call, "We're still waiting for an officer. We've got injuries." Is the picture clear yet? The responder sent a reminder to Animal Control. Then a minute later, "Uh, there's a dogfight over here, and there's been a man bit. And I called about 15 minutes ago, and nobody's here yet." With this call, a different operator, and the magic words, a man’s been bit, medical personal (Fire Dept EMT) were finally mobilized. It turns out a pit bull wriggled out of its leash, lunged at a man with two small kids walking his beagle, bit his right forearm, and dragged him about 7 feet after his beagle barked at the pit bull. Could you have guessed any of this from the original call to 9-1-1?

Watch out for "buzz words" and technical jargon. In another emergency call there was confusion between an armed “robbery” and a “burglary”. Do you know the difference? A robbery is a crime happening now – immediate response is needed to rescue the victim and catch the robber. A burglary is after the fact, the robber is gone, and there is no need for police to hurry. The victim in a Dry Cleaning store armed robbery activated the silent alarm but the emergency dispatcher reported it as a 10-15, burglary just occurred. So the police did not use sirens, arrived slowly at the scene, to find a distressed victim asking, “What took you so long?”

Bottom Line

Be very clear on 9-1-1 to say what you need – police, fire, ambulance. Be clear on what is damaged and injuries and the number of people needing medical attention. Call back if you think 9-1-1 misunderstood or ask to speak with a supervisor.

Emergency Alerts

“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised” - Denis Waitley

When a disaster happens how will you become informed of Emergency and Disaster Warnings?

1. The Emergency Alert System
   You’ve heard this an TV and radio as “This is a test of the National Emergency Alert System, this is only a test….BEEEEEEEP” During an actual emergency the BEEP would be followed by instructions on what to do.


2. TV & Radio Coverage (after the emergency)
   Many emergencies will knock out the power so it’s useful to have a solar powered or hand crank radio to follow the new reports and broadcasts by officials to learn what to do after the disaster has struck. When is the power coming back? What roads are closed? Is it safe to go outdoors?


3. Warning Sirens
   Many towns have sirens to warn of tornadoes, fires, nuclear power plant melt-downs, etc. My blog posting, Emergency Sirens, talks about the importance of understanding what your town sirens mean – is there an all clear signal or just danger signals? One signal or many? Continuous or repeating?


4. Residential Alerts
   Sometimes the police will drive through neighborhoods using their public address system to issue evacuation alerts, see Fire at Night.


5. NOAA Weather Bulletins
   Make sure your emergency radio or HAM radio can pick up the National Weather Service channel for 24 news and alerts. You can also buy alarm clocks or special devices to wake you in the middle of the night if there is a NOAA alert.

Bottom Line

Keep in mind that most emergency operations suffer from terrible communication. Don’t rely solely on news from officials. Use common sense also!

During the East coast blackout, I listened to NYC emergency center radio reports at my office for news when railroad service would be restored. (Electric trains were stuck and needed to be moved out of the way) I slept overnight at my office. The next morning my wife called to say a friend could see trains moving so I should ignore the radio and get to the train station. Sure enough diesel engines were running and I got home.

My first hint of 9-11 after getting off the commuter train in NYC was a crowd of people staring at TVs in a bank’s display window (my first thought –was, Oh no, a stock market collapse). Nothing was said on the train or at the train station about the World Trade Center. No sirens in midtown Manhattan. I got to work and about an hour later was told that all non-essential personnel should go home because Rockefeller Center could be a target. While walking south back to Grand Central Station I passed hordes of people all walking north along Madison Ave. I had no clue why. (Turns out the mayor had evacuated the entire southern region of Manhattan) Next I’m fortunate to be on one of the last trains out of the city before the lines are shut down. It wasn’t until I got home and watched TV that things started to make sense.

More Logical Fallacies & Rhetorical Tricks

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

While I enjoyed my previous two blogs based upon the lecture series, Way with Words, what I really wanted to write about (so I don’t forget) is the list of rhetorical devices that the lecturer presents.

Here are common tricks made in persuasive arguments:

Asserting the Consequent
If X implies Y, then it is NOT necessarily true that Y implies X.
This can be very subtle and easy to miss. Suppose we agree that, “Witches must be burned.” By Asserting the Consequent one can justify burning anyone by saying “Since she was burnable, she must have been a witch.”

Denying the Antecedent
If X implies Y, then it is NOT necessarily true that NOT X implies NOT Y.
Example: We agree that if you play by rules you will succeed. However this does not mean that if you don’t play by the rules, you won’t succeed. It is possible to cheat and win.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
“It follows therefore it was caused” Politicians love this one. “Since I was elected four years ago, the crime rate has fallen, smog has gone away, and people are happier.” The politician may have done NOTHING about crime, smog or happiness. He was just lucky that these things improved while he was in office.

Petitio Principii (Begging the Question)
This trick causes your opponent to lose the debate with a seemingly innocent question. Take abortion for example. One could ask, “Wouldn’t you agree that people have a right to control what happens inside their own body?” If you say yes, the debate is over. On the flip side, anti-abortion advocates try to counter with “Wouldn’t you agree that killing is wrong?” This counter-rhetoric is less effective because you can be anti-murder but, by refusing to recognize a fetus as life, make the question moot.
Petitio Principii is also used when a politician makes an agreeable/popular statement that is meaningless. “I am opposed to wasteful spending”. (Is anyone in favor of wasteful spending?) The thing to ask the speaker is, “what do you consider wasteful”? Is volcano research wasteful? Is Military spending wasteful? NASA and space exploration? You might not agree with his/her interpretation of wasteful once the details are discovered.

Attacking the Messenger: ad Hominem
I discussed this a few weeks ago in Insults & Logical Fallacies
A popular modern variant of the ad Hominem attack is comparing the opponent to Hitler. (In the 19th century Napoleon was the villain of choice). According to Godwin’s Law, any debate on the Internet will eventually include a comparison to Hitler. A bylaw of Godwin says the first person to mention Hitler loses the debate. Ironically, I'll mention Hitler at the end of this blog posting (but I hope in a valid context).

Tu Quoque (the hypocrite fallacy)
Another variant of ad Hominem when the speaker is made to look like a hypocrite. We see this today used against Al Gore – “He can’t be serious about global warming, just look at the carbon footprint of his huge house!”

Red Herring (Ignoratio Elenchi – Irrelevant Thesis)
I'll shift your attention away from this one by mentioning that I covered it in my posting Insults & Logical Fallacies as the Strawman Attack.

Appeal to Popularity (Ad Populum) also called the Bandwagon effect
Very common in advertising – “Everybody loves Jiff!” (Implied, You will too!) Note that parents rarely fall for this, “But mom, everyone is doing it!”

Hasty Generalization
News media does this all the time by turning events into trends. By saying “The President’s falling popularity rating hit X% today…” one implies the rating will continue to fall. It is more honest to say the rate “fell” or “has fallen” to X% without predicting where it might go next. Lookout for “ing” participles in news copy, “the worsening economy”, “the rising deficit”, etc.

Sweeping Generalization
When you say, “Everyone agrees with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” you are making a broad categorical claim without merit. Just one counter example makes the statement false. It is more honest to say “Most everyone agrees…” or “Nearly everyone agrees …” (but even with this you are now using Ad Populum to sway opinion).

Hyperbole
Exaggerating your claim (often falsely) for effect. “This is the best weight loss diet ever!” “This is the worst recession in American history.”

Appeal to Ignorance
This is attempt by sway opinion by saying your point has NOT been disproved. “No one has proved that aliens don’t exist”

Plurium Interrogationum (Badgering the Witness)
When a debater attacks with a long list of questions, Isn’t is true that X and Y and Z and ..., this is a form of badgering your way to victory. Can the defender be expected to remember each question and will he/she be allowed sufficient time to respond to each? Afterwards an accuser might claim, I asked 20 damaging questions but my opponent had answers for only three.

Apophasis and Paralipsis
Making your point by claiming you are NOT saying it.
“Since I’m not a mudslinger, I won’t tell you about my opponent’s drinking problem.” “We haven’t the time (or it’s not relevant) to discuss rumors that my opponent is a wife-beater.”

Passive Voice
The passive voice can be used to avoid disclosing information. “Mistakes were made” is a nice example that avoids saying WHO made the mistake.

Bottom Line
When Plato and other philosophers wrote about government, they were very fearful of democracies. “The People” can be easily led by effective public speakers into voting for the noose that hangs them. Hitler (via amazing speeches) was democratically elected in Germany and, via legal means, transformed his role into dictator. Today Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is doing the same thing with legal changes to the constitution allowing him to be President for Life.
The cure for this is teaching “The People” the tricks of rhetoric so they won’t be fooled by silver-tongued politicians.

Public Speaking

“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.” - Mark Twain

More concepts from the lecture series, Way with Words: the Medieval Sermon and the five-part essay. One of most tested forms of public speaking is the church sermon. Did you know that Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and Yale were founded for the express purpose of training clergymen to give effective sermons? Over a thousand years of sermons, one pattern emerged as the “optimal” structure for addressing an audience and getting your message across. It contains six parts:

1. Theme (describe the topic of this talk)
2. Protheme (introduce the theme with a reference to scripture or other authoritative source)
3. Dilation (explain the reference you just cited)
4. Exemplum (provide an example or story)
5. Peroration (apply the story, what is the moral?)
6. Closing (request for action)

Here’s a brief example

1. Today I'd like to talk to you about Go-Kits.
2. According to the FEMA website, AreYouReady, “You may need to survive on your own after a disaster. This means having your own food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately.”
3. FEMA goes on to explain that, following a disaster, you might get help in hours or it might take days. This is NOT due to negligence or ill will on behalf of the government but rather this is just a fact of logistics. There could be millions of people in need of rescue and only a few hundred or at best thousands of emergency vehicles. It just takes time to clear the roads of debris and reach everyone.
4. During the great Kentucky Ice Storm of 2009, FEMA had "plenty of folks ready to go, but [were] are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions." In effect the roads were too dangerous for the Emergency Teams to use! According to newspaper reports, “Some in rural Kentucky ran short of food and bottled water, and resorted to dipping buckets in a creek. … Rural communities feared it could be days or even weeks before [power company] workers got to areas littered with downed power lines.
5. Someday this might happen to you! No power, no water, and no rescue. You have no choice but to be resilient and survive on your own for at least three days.
6. I urge each and everyone one of you to go home today and build a three-day cache of food, water, flashlights, blankets, medicine and anything else you think you’ll need to survive while waiting for disaster responders to knock on your door.

Bottom Line

Many people are frustated when asked to give a talk. Where do I start? The formula above is the answer to this question. Just fill in the blanks.

Today college English courses teach a simplified version of the six-part sermon. It’s called the five-part essay. You have an opening introduction and a closing conclusion. The meat of your talk fills a three-part body. Why three? Because the human mind likes the number three and starts to become confused when asked to remember four things. To turn the six-part sermon into a five-part essay try merging parts 1 and 2 as the introduction or merging parts 5 and 6 into the conclusion.

Speech-Act Theory

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny”

A few days ago I mentioned the lecture series, Way with Words, that I’ve been listening to during my commute. Today I’ll stretch the meaning of “preparedness” to include public speaking and list some of the interesting things I’ve learned.

Speech-Act Theory
Sometimes words are just words (You’re married!?) and sometimes words change the world (I now pronounce you man and wife). The difference is called non-performative vs performative speech. The difference in wording may be very slight, “I think the Yankees will lose” (an opinion) vs “I bet you the Yankees will lose” (an action). Sometimes the distinction is blurry, misunderstood or deliberately abused. King Henry II once said, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest” (i.e. Thomas Beckett). Henry's statement might have been a rhetorical question but, being the words of a King, his knights took this as a command and beheaded Beckett. A President might abuse this by saying, “If only Castro were dead” (opinion or command?) and then disclaim responsibility when the CIA tries to assassinate Castro.

I bet you’ve experienced the situation where someone misinterprets your words. “That’s not what I said!” or “That’s not what I meant!” Speech-Act breaks communication into three parts:

Locutionary – what you said
Illocutionary – what you are alluding to, the message your listener hears
Perlocutionary – what you hope to persuade your listener to do

Suppose you say, “There is a large rock on my foot!”

Locutionary – stating a fact (rock on foot)
Illocutionary – I’m uncomfortable, this hurts
Perlocutionary – Please move this rock off my foot.

Communication can break down when we pack our words with a lot of implied meaning and the Locutionary is very different from the Perlocutionary. When a parent says, “go to bed”, this is short hand for “brush your teeth, put on PJs, and go to sleep.” If the child jumps into bed fully clothed and reads a book they are following the Locutionary (literal meaning) while ignoring the Illocutionary and implied Perlocutionary.

Bottom Line

In emergency situations it is critical to say exactly what you mean and not assume that people will fill in any blanks. An example of this is, “Someone call 9-1-1!” People standing around understand your intent but most are unlikely or unwilling to apply it to themselves and make the call. The correct thing to do is point to a person at the scene and say, “You. Call 9-1-1!” Now the required action and actor are very clear – the words and the action match. The selected person might object in which case you pick another person until one agrees to make the call.

Unmet Need for Information during Emergencies

"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage" - William Ellery Channing

One thing you can count on during an emergency is terrible communication. During the NorthEast Blackout of 2003 I listened to a radio in my office in New York City to learn if Metro North train service was restored. I slept at the office and again waited the next morning for news of trains running. My wife was more reasonable. She called to say her friend could see trains moving with people. She instructed me to forget the "official reports" and get my butt to Grand Central Terminal and take any train leaving the city. I did and found that although GCT had no power, diesel trains were running and conductors were informing people which trains went where via megaphones. I got home but not with any help from news reports.

On another occasion I played a victim in a drill for a Sarin gas attack. Boom, the pretend bomb goes off. Then we wait and wait. Firemen come and go. Two persons in Bio hazard gear peak in a window but never say a word. Two hours after the bomb we can see shelters being raised and much activity but no one has gives the victims any instructions except for "say put". In real life those of us who could move would have fled the scene by then.

"Disaster victims need information about their options in order to take any meaningful choices about their future, " according to a recent article by the BBC World Trust Service. As the physical and psychological needs of disaster survivors change over time, information needs change also.

First Stage - Survival

1. Victims need to know what happened
2. How to get immediate survival needs satisfied
3. What has happened to family members and friends?

Providing these answers decreases panic and increases survivor capacity to take action. But the infrastructure for radio, television, and telephones has been destroyed. So how do you get information to those who need it most??? There are no easy answers.

Second Stage - Short Term Relief

1. Survivors look for availability of fresh water, shelter, and medical attention.
2. Expectation management is vital as relief may not fulfill needs as quickly as desired.

People who have knowledge of issues such as when and where food will be distributed, the amount of allocated rations per person, and how to cook the rations to maximise nutritional value, can help manage logistics, reduce corruption, and improve health and mental well being.

Third Stage - Long Term Recovery

1. People want to know what relief services are available and to what they are entitled.
2. They need to know about recently implemented policies that affect them, such as housing reconstruction guidelines or victim compensation policies.
3. What are the government and relief agencies accountable and responsible for?
4. Safety instructions (boil your water, etc) must be communicated.

Unmet communication needs can lead to further trauma and stress. "In particular, psychosocial studies increasingly note that information deprivation actually causes stress and exacerbates trauma..."

Bottom Line

Information is essential to give people "a sense of power and purpose over their own destiny" during a disaster. It is a "critical issue." The providing of information becomes a form of aid and deserves prioritisation through the development of effective and properly resourced communication strategies. If you are an Emergency Manager please read the BBC report for communication recommendations.

Which phone to use after a storm?

"In the good ole Houston, USA, in the aftermath of IKE, telephones, Internet and
cable TV were down, and cell phones were unreliable due the spike in traffic. The only means of communication that approached useful levels was SMS messaging
and good ole AM/FM. Sometimes text messages would be delayed for minutes but
they almost always got there. I’m putting my el-cheapo crank-up radio in a pedestal next to my cell phone. They kept us in touch and made us comfortable for 60 hours. And let’s not forget the car charger for our phone. Sure, a generator is great, a car-pluggable DC-AC inverted will do work for small appliances, but a lowly $20 battery charger plugged to your car 12V outlet will power your radios, phones, flashlights, even coffee makers can make the difference between terror and small comfort." - submitted to Instapundit by Fernando Colina

During an emergency, more people are trying to use their phones at the same time. The increased calling volume may create network congestion, leading to “fast busy” signals on your wireless phone or a slow dial tone on your landline phone. If this happens, hang up, wait several seconds and then try the call again. This allows your original call data to clear the network before you try again. Keep non-emergency calls to a minimum, and limit your calls to the most important ones. Chances are many people will be attempting to place calls to loved ones, friends and business associates.

The conventional wisdom is that landlines are better in during natural disaster emergencies. However I'm seeing many personal accounts on blogs that say this isn’t true. Because of the small message size and low bandwidth, SMS’s (texting, blackberrys) were the only lifeline many had to keep in touch with friends and family near New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. If you live outside a city your landlines most likely on power poles which fall over in high winds, snow and earthquakes. During and immediately after Katrina, even with 135 mph winds, the cell phone service stayed up and running in some areas. Power, regular phone service, and cable took over a week to restore because the streets were a giant tangled mess of wires and fallen trees. Same thing during the blackout. Landlines were almost always busy but SMS’s would usually get through.

BOTTOM LINE
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you can afford it, consider having a landline phone (the kind with a phone cord) and a cell phone with texting. Other options include walki-talkies and ham radios. You must be licensed to use a ham radio but if you did well in science in high school, the exam is not so bad. Now-a-days you won't have to learn Morse code to use ham radios.

Community Communication Plan

"Most people are good. They may not be saints, but they are good."
- Jimmy Wales founder of Wikipedia

It's funny how reading one web site can lead to another. I use Google alerts to spot new blogs and web pages dealing with emergency planning. This led to a page on what guns to buy to protect your supplies that I linked to yesterday. That site (From the Bunker) referenced the Disaster Communications Plan for Antioch, CA 1st Ward.

I am quite impressed by this plan. It spells out how to buy a walkie talkie, buying spare batteries, when to call, what channels to use, and how to call in and report. This is a communication plan that could be adopted by any neighborhood watch group, community organizers, or other churches.

When 9/11 occurred the minister of my local church activated our emergency calling tree to find out if anyone was missing since many of us commute to New York City to work. In a phone tree, the leader calls 3 to 5 people. These in turn call 3-5 others that are assigned to them. ( 25 + 5 + 1 people in the tree so far) . This third layer of people may call 3-5 more bringing the number of people covered 150 or so. Now in order for this to work a few rules need to be followed:

1. The calls out must be made. If person A can not reach B in the tree, don't break the chain. If B is unavailable, person A should call all the people C assigned to B so they don't get dropped out.
2. To carry out rule 1 each person should have a listing of the complete phone tree with all phone numbers.
3. Report back up the tree as little as possible. Report immediately after making your assigned 3-5 calls so the person above you knows the phone chain is unbroken and to report what you learned. Next wait for the people you called to call back with results if they are assigned to contact others. Don't call back up with each call you get. Collect the results and report back on some assigned schedule, say every 30 mintues or hourly.
4. Use the tree in reverse order to report back. Don't hit the person at the top of the tree with 150 calls. Call back the person who called you. If you can not reach the person who called you, then call one level up. Don't skip a level just because the phone is busy. Be patient but reasonable (say 15 mintues).
5. Don't neglect to report good news. It is just as valuable to report that family X was called and reports all is well so no one has to call them a second time. Keep track of what you learn with check marks on the phone tree list or some other note keeping system.

Bottom Line
The phone tree rules look complicated but really they are just common sense. Spread out the burden of making calls and be responsible and reasonable to make sure there are no breaks in the chain, no unreasonable delays, and no duplication of effort.

Phone trees are not just for emergencies. They can be used to contact a large group when an event is rescheduled or moved, etc. Let the power of trees work for you.