Emergency Preparedness Resources –
Your Contacts

Your family may not be together when disaster strikes, so plan how you will contact one another. Think about how you will communicate in different situations.

Plan now for how you will communicate with loved ones after a disaster.

• Long-distance phone lines often work before local phone lines, so identify an out-of-state contact and provide this person with the contact information of people you want to keep informed of your situation. Share this information with your family and friends locally.
• You may have trouble getting through, or the telephone system may be down altogether, but be patient.
• Be sure every member of your family knows the phone number and has coins or a prepaid phone card to call the emergency contact.
• The second page of the “Family Emergency Plan” has wallet cards to record contact information.
• Keep coins in your Go-bag. Pay phones may work before other phone lines.
• Avoid making non-urgent phone calls after a disaster – even if phone lines are un-damaged, increased phone traffic can jam phone circuits.
• Cordless phones or phone systems require electricity; make sure you have a backup phone that requires no electricity.
• Don’t count on your cell phone – increased traffic on cell phone networks can quickly overload wireless capacity.
• Record an outgoing message on your voice mail so that callers can be re-assured of your safety status.
• Learn how to use text messaging. It uses a different part of the cell phone network and it might be possible to send and receive text messages when voice channels for mobile phones and land lines are jammed.
• After an earthquake, check all your telephones to be sure they have not shaken off the hook and are tying up a line.

Click here to return to the main page and find out how you and your employees can be prepared for an emergency. You can also learn what to do in response to a specific disaster.