SurviveInPlace.com
Urban Survival Newsletter for 27-Aug-2010
Reuniting and Communicating After A Disaster
Welcome to this week’s Urban Survival Newsletter, brought to you by the SurviveInPlace.com Urban Survival Course and UrbanSurvivalPlayingCards.com. This week we’re going to talk briefly about reuniting and communicating after a disaster.
Here’s a specific question on this topic that came in from Tony.
“How should you plan if you and your family are separated during a riot such as your wife works across town, kids in school, etc.. An EMP may have cut off communication or cell lines will be jammed. How can you communicate and reunite your family so everyone reaches safety.” -Tony
Great question. There’s no one answer to this because it’s so easy to keep throwing “what if’s” into the mix until you’re blue in the face. The breakdown in communication could be from an earthquake, hurricane, heatwave, EMP, solar flare, or other issues. So again, it’s important to focus on fundamentals. In the SurviveInPlace.com Urban Survival Course, I cover movement in urban areas after a disaster as well as several methods of alternative communication that are inexpensive and easy to put into place, and we’ll touch on some of them here.
The first thing we’ll talk about is movement after a disaster.
Our family has primary, secondary, and tertiary meetup points in the event of a disaster. In addition, I practice making PACE routes from wherever I happen to be to these meet up points. PACE is a great mnemonic to remember. It stands for:
Primary
Alternate
Contingent
and
Emergency
I learned this from a private military contractor friend of mine and have used it for close protection and it’s a great habit to get into. It basically means that you should have multiple loosely defined, yet clear plans in your mind for getting from wherever you happen to be to a given set of rally points.
The “emergency” option is the only one different. For me, the emergency route is to somewhere I can hole up and gather myself, and possibly resupply and/or take care of medical issues.
So, as I’m stopped at a light, I’ll ask myself, “If X happened, what would my PACE routes be to get to our 3 meet-up points and an emergency location?” You can do the quick math and see that 4 routes to 3 locations means that I’m coming up with 12 routes, but once you train your brain to think this way, it’s a fairly quick process.
Things get very complicated when you throw children into the mix who can’t take the initiative and need outside help. If your children go to school, you should find out what your school’s plan is in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
Will they go into lock-down?
It’s unlikely, but will the school monitor any radio frequencies? If not, and their school uses radios, can you find out or figure out the frequency that they operate on?
Will they even release your kids to you in a lock-down situation?
If you know another set of parents near the school, what do you need to do NOW to authorize them to take their kids to their house?
If these friends are set up to take your kids, what will be their signal?
How will you communicate with them?
If this is a concern for you, these are all things that you need to consider with kids.
This isn’t far fetched or “way out” planning. In many areas, it’s just a way of life. In fact, it was for me. I grew up in blizzard country and getting trapped at school was a real issue for us. Every kid who lived in the country had to have one or more people in town who they could be released to in the event of road closures. It was just something that got handled the first week of school every year.
What about communications after a disaster?
It depends on your particular city and how far you’re separated from the people you need to talk to & get to. I go into more depth on this in the SurviveInPlace.com course, but some of your options are simply texting, using family radios, HF radios, Single Side Band radios, and possibly satellite phones.
If your concern is communicating after an EMP, then you’ve got an entirely different level of planning that you need to do. Your communications will need to be independent of the electrical grid and be shielded when the EMP(s) happen.
If you haven’t already, another thing you should do is memorize or keep long distance numbers in your wallet or purse. The reason for this is that in local disasters, you may be able to make long distance calls long after the local lines are jammed. So, if you and your spouse both have a relative’s number in another state, you can call them and leave messages for each other. If this is a big concern for you, you can also get a Skype, MagicJack or other voicemail number in another area code for a few bucks a month.
The communication and reuniting issue is something that doesn’t have a one size fits all answer, but keep in mind that until 10-15 years ago, everyone didn’t have a cell phone and it took hours or days to get in touch with people during the best of times.
In other words, we may THINK that it’s an emergency if we can’t reach someone on their cell phone at moment’s notice, but not having instant communication after a disaster does not necessarily constitute an emergency.
Hindenburg Omen & a Stock Market Dip Within 40 Days??
Besides extreme physical events, we’re right on the verge of some extreme economic events as well. I’ve talked aout over a dozen critical weaknesses in the US economy in recent months, and it’s looking like the stock market MAY have hit a critical point this week. This week, in fact, technical indicators are showing a 77% chance of a 5% market drop within the next 40 days. They’re also showing the probability of a panic sellout at 41% and a major crash at 24%.
The group of five indicators are called the “Hindenburg Omen” and they have preceded every NYSE crash since 1985. Keep in mind that the 5% drop that has a 77% chance of happening isn’t a crash…it’s just a drop that is newsworthy. It’s more likely that the market will drop simply because the big money traders on Wall Street get back from their summer vacations and start trading again. That phenomenon doesn’t have a scary sounding name, but it’s a fairly likely cause for a drop in the market.
It’s not a sure sign of impending doom, but it is one of many news items that you can use to spur yourself and your family to get prepared for ALL breakdowns in civil order and breakdowns in the food chain.
Of course, one of the best steps you can take is to go through the SurviveInPlace.com Urban Survival Course . We don’t know what disaster will strike first…terrorist attack, natural disaster, or economic emergency…there are just enough vulnerabilities to our food supply and electrical system that it makes sense to get prepared for breakdowns in the system. To learn more about the course and get signed up, go to SurviveInPlace.com.
What are your plans for communicating with your family and or reuniting with them after a disaster? Share your tactics with others by commenting below.
Until next week, stay safe & God Bless,
David Morris
SurviveInPlace.com
UrbanSurvivalPlayingCards.com.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Get a Ham radio license – it’s easy as the questions for the exam are published and in the public domain. Then get a radio – for you and appropriate family members. I’ve got a hand-hald and one in the Jeep. Practice – learn how to use it. Don’t start the learning curve at the end of the game.
Keep those batteries charged! 73 and cheers!
I agree that getting a basic ham license, technician, is a good idea. There are often ham repeaters where there aren’t cell towers. In addition, if cell towers are knocked down, maybe a ham repeater on the 2-metre band will still be working. Of course the reverse could be true, a good redundency.
A sat phone is also a good idea if one can afford one or if a group is going to work together and you’re the person in charge of communication.
movement and communication is vital after a disaster but one needs to plan codes and movements before a disaster should occur look at katrina when a disaster occurs it s to late and your smoked and takeing important gear with u and learing to hump it out is a good idea to train with to see what works and what doesnt to prepaire u for the hard road ahead
Great point, John on the codes. I go into that in the SurviveInPlace.com Urban Survival course. There are a few levels to this:
1. Unencrypted communication. Anyone can hear and gain intelligence.
2. Electronically encrypted communication. Illegal on many frequencies & it attracts the curious and people with bad intent.
3. Using code. This also attracts the curious and those with bad intent.
4. Using code that doesn’t sound like code. It sounds boring and will hopefully persuade people to simply switch to another frequency.
The more common the frequency that you’re operating on, the more important it is to keep this in mind.
Good stuff David, and timely now that school has started, and thanks for the reminder about school lockdown plans – and the parent pickup backup- I grew up in northern midwest and like most kids in that part of the country 30 years ago, I had to get up early to walk the 1.5 miles to high school, and still miss the thrill of walking in a storm, and can recall more than one time getting there to find it closed for blizzards! Apply that today to other problems and kids not having that kind of practice- well, …the need is there for the well understood and practiced backup plan!
Our home communication plan is very simple- wihout going into more detail on family security online- we started with the weakest link-
The kids have cells and we’ve trained them to carry and use them religiously- texting was found to work after 911 when voice was blocked due network traffic overload- and they know to use texting for emergency use only, family only.
Given the chain-letters and spam going around, it wouldnt surprise me to see a network attack on phones, like the DOS attacks on websites, and state sponsored hacks on other utilities, so having the ability to use it, quickly, and avoid the vulnerability to the device, might be what makes the text get thru when others fail. So we dont allow downloads of apps, games, or use of text for any but family contact.
Before you all run out and get ham licenses and think you can communicate around the world with a walkie talkie, may I spread some sunshine and clouds?
Yes, getting a ham license is great. Marvelous hobby. Can work off the grid BUT you have to have prepared all your equipment for that EMP that could come with the next sunspot. All gear shielded… Your outlay for a cross country or ’round the world set up, with EMP shielding you will need to build yourself (it’s not off the shelf stuff)…rough guess $7000.00 to $10,000.00! It takes several years for Joe Schmo to get that gear ready unless he’s Mr Deep Pockets. By the way, who are you going to talk to? Everyone who talks must have license.
Thanks for reminding me to throw a rock at daughter-in-law since grandson has started school this year. I’m too far away to help.
Keep us thinking Dave!
In the event of an EMP or PAW situation, I seriously doubt the FCC will be concerned with who is operating without a liscense.
The concerns you are sharing should not discourage people from pursuing this vital skil set and hobby.
During an emergency you don’t need a license to transmit. If you have a license during an emergency you are part of Homeland Security to help with communications.
Amen the Regs clearly say in an emergency situation any can use ham equipment for emergency purposes. A not about EMP. A study that I was made aware of demonstrated that some equipment will be protected by mountains and land formation depending on the direction of the EMP attack and depend on if the equipment is on line or no. I need more in put from the teacher.
My brother (and fellow prepper) lives about 20 miles away, as the crow flies. We are looking at getting a Single Side Band CB radio for communications. Can be powered by a car battery, requires no license and is relatively inexpensive.
With respect to the Hindenburg Omen, John Williams, the man who founded http://www.shadowstats.org, says in this interview that he estimates a major currency collapse in 6 to 12 months. Considering how many times his economic numbers are quoted by the big gurus, this is very sobering. It could begin that soon…
http://coyoteprime-runningcauseicantfly.blogspot.com/2010/08/economics-interview-john-williams_06.html
Hmmm……interesting approach for everyone here…..true, communication is vital….however, have a plan worked out on where everyone is to meet……I have small pocket mirrors and still know some Morse code……the Native Americans did this with great effectiveness……they didn’t worry about currency(as everyone here should know by now……currency is fiat….worthless…..as well as gold,silver, diamonds, or platinum…….lose the baseball card collections, dvd collections, coin collections,…….if you can’t eat it, wear it, shoot with it, shelter yourself with it, barter with it, and it has no medicinal value……get rid of it. Also, when you do massive stockpiling, you are setting yourself up. You need a fair degree of mobility to keep others off your path and away from your stash. Seeds are important as well as small livestock(i.e. chickens, pigs, goats…..and skills if you know them. There’s a lot ot learn and little time to learn it in!
Lots of great information and I thoroughly look forward to each week’s updates. Communication is extremely important and has to be redundant. I don’t believe that the average person is interested in Ham radios because in the interim it is just a cool hobby. Preps have to benefit you now or else you will lose interest and your spouse (mine especially) will cut the money supply. You can use cell phones w/texting, FRS/GRS radios, and MURS in your current day to day activities. The idea is to keep things simple, this relates to both your operational plans as well as your redundant equipment. With the economic predictions in this weekly post it is more important to take the ham radio money (7-10K) and buy food with it. Once the immediate crisis is over it will be time to settle in and sustain your family over the long haul. My advice to everyone is to concentrate on life sustaining preps and leave all the high tech gear for later when these basic needs are stockpiled.
First off I already own the ham Equipment and in all I have about $2,000 invested over time including my CB equipment. I do not trust that which I can not control. I was there we the government let us civilians us the GPS system they my choose to not let us use the GPS system. Cell phones are unreliable now when there is a break in the system you believe that cell phone are going to work JB?
“With the economic predictions in this weekly post it is more important to take the ham radio money (7-10K) and buy food with it.”
I would LIKE to have 7-10K in radio gear…. However my 2 M ham rig, which will easily let me communicate within a 50 mile area cost under $300.00 and that was ith some bells and whistles. There are a bunch of radils out there [used] for under $50 which will do the same.
I understand that a person can make a decent Morse code set for under $50 and text several hundred miles hich is way farther than we would have to.
ymmv
Rich
Hi all,
I’m new to this site so can someone explain what a “Ham” radio is???
Does anyone know or think that just a CB radio (like truckers use) would be very useful? Do you think that many others would have one? And do I really want to communicate with others?
My partner and I have two small boys and to be honest with you, we know that alot of people do not like our life style. Wouldn’t communicating with others just be putting ourselves in danger?
Also, do I really want to find a group of people who I may not get along with or who have no clue how to survive? That could put a burden on my family.
Questions, questions, questions.
Anybody have any suggestions?!?!
Deanna
Maybe just being able to LISTEN to others will help you avoid problems.
Great info! My husband works 40 miles from home and I worry how he will get home especially if cars are disabled. I have thought about a bicycle being kept in the trunk. Is that just too unrealistic? Thanks for all the input out there.
I think a bike should absolutely part a part of everyone’s stash. No need for gas, just a banana once in a while. I have a bike that’s capable of carrying heavy loads. Also, a good supply of parts—-tires tubes etc.
Thanks , I’ve just been looking for information about this topic for a long time and yours is the best I have came upon till now. However, what concerning the bottom line? Are you certain in regards to the source? Executive Elite, 18a Greycoat Gardens, Greycoat Street, London, SW1P 2QA, 028 2088 0135
Hey Curt,
Which topic in particular?