Effective Strategies for Communicating during Disasters
If history can tell us anything, it leads us to believe that cell phones will be much less effective, during the event of a disaster, economic collapse or terror attack. During the Boston Marathon, cell phone users struggled to get through to their friends and family. As soon as the bombs went off, the news swept the country, which led to millions of people picking up their phones and contacting their loved ones. Those, who found themselves in Boston, attempted to notify their families of their safety to no avail. The phone systems simply shut down, because of the unexpected influx of callers. Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and other providers were all vulnerable and crumbled under the pressure. Although many are calling for upgrades to current systems, according to The Boston Globe, it is unlikely this will come about anytime soon. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that you know how to properly communicate, during a major catastrophe.
Avoid Placing Calls
Although your initial reaction will be to pick up your phone and place a call to your friends and family members, it is crucial to avoid this. Placing calls will only cause a backlog in the system and lead to all kinds of connection problems. Instead, you should only place a voice call, if it is absolutely necessary. It is much easier and will put less stress on the system, if you only stick with text messages. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that you properly structure your text and keep them as small as possible. This will help to ensure that everyone is able to send a message home.
Preparing Before Hand
In order to make sure that you’re actually going to be able to use your phone, you’ll need to make sure that it is properly setup and ready to use. Obviously, you’ll need to keep your phone fully charged, at all times. If you don’t use it often, it is best to keep it turned off, until use is urgent. At the same time, you should remember to purchase extreme straight talk coupons and fill your phone with minutes. This will help to prevent your phone from being out of talk time or minutes for text messages. On the other hand, you should remember that you’d need to charge your phone in a car, if the power goes out.
Prepare a List
On the other hand, you should remember to keep and maintain a list of phone numbers for emergency services. Although you may wish to store this information in your phone, you will want to consider keeping it on a piece of paper, as well. This will make it possible to quickly access the number you need and call it, whether it is the police, fire department or insurance companies.
Keeping the Battery Charged
Finally, you should remember that batteries do not last forever. Make sure to take this into consideration and try to prolong your phone’s battery life. In order to do this you, will want to turn off all fancy settings, especially Bluetooth and other battery hogging features. This will help to improve your phone’s longevity, which will be imperative to your overall survival. Otherwise, it is wise to rely the basics of preparing for a disaster according to CBS News.
This is an archive of: http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2015/03/effective-strategies-for-communicating-during-disasters.html
