Tag: home base

In a true emergency, you may have no easy way to communicate.

In a widespread or severe emergency we know that phone communications may be spotty, at best.

An earthquake may cut cables and topple cell towers. A bad storm or hurricane may not cut underground cables, but it can damage all above-ground services including electricity.

For sure, in an extended power outage, even if distant towers and/or satellites are still functioning properly, cell phones and computers will eventually run out of battery. (Yes, yes, if you have solar panels, you may be able to recharge your devices.)

Being cut off from family members is terrifying.

Naturally, you and they imagine the worst. You will be desperate to get in touch.

When local phone service is out, what’s your best course of action?

Reach out to your family’s “Home Base.”

Trying to make a local phone call, whether via landline or cell, may be impossible. However, an outbound long-distance call or text may get through!

This is why we recommend that you talk things over with your family and come up with an out-of-state person who is willing to serve as your “Home Base” – the one place that every family member knows about and tries to contact as soon as possible.

Qualifications for your “Home Base” contact.

Naturally, this needs to be a person you trust. In addition, is your Home Base contact . . .

• Willing to answer the phone day or night?
• Able to take down and forward complete messages from people who may be nervous or even injured?
• Able to receive TEXT messages (cell phone) and EMAIL messages (computer) as well as phone messages?

Remember, family members may be trying to send messages themselves, or they may be asking others (Red Cross, medical personnel, school employees, colleagues, First Responders) to communicate on their behalf. Those other people may have any one of a variety of communications devices.

Your job: Know your family’s Home Base phone number.

In a true emergency, you won’t be able to check your phone contacts on your cell phone or computer. You may not have your address book.

Your children will be in this same situation.

The only thing you can count on is an emergency listing that you carry in your wallet (assuming it hasn’t been lost or ruined) or a number that you have memorized.

Protect your family!

Take the time, as a family, to discuss who your Home Base contact should be, and get their agreement. Discuss safe places you could go if you can’t go home.

Talk about the importance of confidentiality for this information.

Most important of all, make sure all family members memorize the Home Base phone number!

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

By now, you have heard that in an emergency, you may be able to get a text message through even when phones are down or overwhelmed.

Do you know how to send a text message?

This brief Advisory is for those parents and grand-parents who really haven’t taken the time to learn how to text, even though texting is going on all around them.

Start with a cell phone.

Just about any cell phone (with enough battery power) can send a text message to another cell phone. You don’t have to be on the same network or have the same phone company.

For this exercise, pretend your personal phone has disappeared. A kind stranger offers to let you use her phone to call your family.

Do you know the phone number of the cell phone you want to send the text to?

This isn’t your phone, so you have no numbers stored. Your emergency number has to be a number you know by heart or have written down!

First choice: the number of your emergency, out-of-town contact person, your “Home Base.” (More on that, below.)

Prepare the message.

• Find the “messages” icon on the phone. It may look like the blue square or the green bubble on the image above. Tap it. (If you are really interested in the difference between the blue square and the green bubble, you can find out more here. I find it confusing!)
• What comes up next will depend. What you’re looking for is a little square with a pencil in it – that’s the “write” icon. Tap that icon to bring up the message screen.
• In the “To” area, type the phone number including area code. (You can toggle between ABC and 123 to get the keys you need.) No need for any punctuation.
• In the “Message” area, type your message. Be sure you say WHO you are (It’s not your phone, remember?), WHERE you are, HOW you are, and how you can be reached. Limit your text to 160 characters. (To erase, hit the back arrow.)

Send the message.

Hit the “send” button. You’ve done it! Most phones will tell you that the message has been “delivered.”

Of course, there are all kinds of clever twists and turns to texting, but you don’t need any of them now. You just want to be able to send a simple message!

My recommendation? Find a friend (child? grandchild?) who texts often and get him to send a few back and forth with you, so you become comfortable with how it all works.

You may find out, like I did, that it’s fun and convenient! No texting while driving, though . . .

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. Remember that “Home Base” comment, above?

If you didn’t immediately know what number to call, you need our new Emergency Plan Guide worksheet, called Family Communications Plan. It’s 2 simple pages that explain the Home Base concept, and give you a place to fill in the blanks.