As I watched the tragic events unfold in India last week, the many people shown using cell phones impressed on me the need to be able to communicate with family during a crisis. I’ve talked about the “Ready in 3” program before. (More information is available at www.dhss.mo.gov/Ready_in_3.) One of the recommendations of “Ready in 3,” like all emergency plans, is to have contact numbers readily available. For families, having one or more “central” contact numbers may make the difference between knowing that a family member is okay or being worried to death about them because you can’t contact them.
Here are some possible strategies to consider.
- Identify one or more relatives or friends who live outside of your home area. Make sure all family members have their phone number(s) and let your relatives or friends know that they will be your central contact. Instruct all of your family members to call this central contact if you are unable to reach each other during an emergency. You can each leave a message with your contact that you are okay and find out if other members of your family have reported in yet.
- Compile a written list of family telephone numbers and make sure each family member has a copy. If all family members have cell phones, take the time to sit down together and enter these into your phones. Then add your central contact number(s) and the numbers of others you may need to contact during an emergency. Make copies of the written list for each family member to keep in one or more locations.
- Pretty much every cell phone today supports text messaging. During disasters when many people are trying to call family members and friends, voice lines are often congested and it is very difficult or impossible to successfully make a telephone call. At the same time, the experience has been that text messages often do go through. Does everyone in your family with a cell phone know how to text message? If not, it would be worth your while to show them how. It could mean the difference between communicating and not communicating during a disaster.
- E-mail is another potential means of communicating. Get family and friends e-mail addresses and enter them into the address books of computers you use. If you have an internet enabled cell phone account enter them into that address book as well.