Stay Informed and Communicate

What's the best way to communicate in an emergency? ​
This is a tricky question. There is no one right way to do emergency communication.  Emergency are by definition unpredictable, First of all, you never know what will go wrong. Will your internet work? Your phones? Your radio? To be ready for nature's maximum fury, you need to have a couple of options, because your favorite might not work. In addition our mountains have such a range of topography and connectivity, that the answer will be different for every neighborhood. Let's review the possibilities.

• Radio based internet (Starlink, microwave, e.g. Etheric, Surfnet...) for email, messaging, WhatsApp, cell phone calls over Wifi... works great if you can see the sky, very resilient!
• Wired solutions (ATT, Comcast) for internet, and voice -- works as long as the lines aren't destroyed and there is power for the equipment, but more reliable in some areas than others
  
• Cellular Service - much our our area has poor coverage, and without power the towers will only last for 24 hours, but a few areas have good coverage
  
• Low power radio (Gmrs, Murs) - works with line of sight, requires neighbors to practice regularly, but easy, cheap and very resilient!
  
• FRS (Family Radio Service):  Cheap walkie-talkies, of little or no value in our type of terrain.
  
• Ham Radio - requires license and serious practice, but maximally capable and resilient.  For most neighborhoods, no plan is complete without this.
  

So what should your neighborhood do?  You need to think about what will physically work in your neighborhood, what skills your neighbors have, which media they prefer, and what they're willing to learn. 

A great way to to conceptualize this is the PACE framework. PACE is an acronym for Primary, Alternate, Contingency and Emergency. When creating a PACE plan,  think about how you would communicate to folks within each category. The primary plan is what you do when the world is operating as normal, with no interruptions to power grids or communications systems.  Alternate plans are methods of communication that would not be as convenient nor as good as the primary plan’s methods but are still viable options. Contingency plans come into play if primary and alternate plan methods fail. This plan solution is not as convenient as the first two plan options. In this scenario, cell phone networks and the internet are likely down. An example of a contingency plan is to use low power handheld GMRS radios to communicate. The last step in PACE planning is the emergency plan and method. This is your last-ditch option. Nothing else has worked and you need to think out of the box. In this scenario, your last- ditch effort might be to meet your team or a family member at a mutually agreed upon location. If the person doesn’t show up, then maybe you can leave a note in a pre-identified location and head home. 

Here's a real example, for a neighborhood along a ridge top that is mostly rather tech savvy, here communication works something like this:

• Primary – Radio base internet - This is what most of us do all the time
• Alternate –Land lines/cell phones  -Less reliable, more failure prone, but may work if there's no internet, at least for a while
  
• Contingency – GMRS & Ham radio -This is a fallback method that uses totally different technology, systems, etc.
  
• Emergency– Pure Satellite Phones/iPhone SOS/ meet or notes at time and place - last resort communication methods

Your neighborhood will likely have completely different priorities here.

Quite a few neighborhoods do GMRS radio very intensively. For our purposes, GMRS  radios work well because of the low cost and the lack of need for a Ham license. SSEPO has installed a GMRS repeater, which allows GMRS to actually work across much of the South Skyline Area, and down to La Honda and Middleton Tract, see the frequency list. SSEPO has also provided grants to allow many of the neighborhoods to purchase GMRS radios for those who want to participate in radio communications. At the same time, Ham radio is very useful for longer range communication, especially given our large and often challenging terrain. On the other hand, some neighborhoods have too much tree cover for radio internet, others lack line of sight for some of the radio options. Some places do have fairly decent landlines or Comcast. 

The key point is (a) there's no magic answer, and (b) you always need a plan B, and a plan C, because you never know when your plan A will fail! Also keep in mind, that no matter what you choose, if your goal is to reach the whole neighborhood you may have to mix and match because there is no one option that reliably reaches everyone, and even on a good day you have to use a couple of these.  Each neighborhood should use the PACE framework tothink through which combination of options will work for them!

During an emergency

Now, besides talking to each other, you need to be able to get help! When there is a large scale event, the fire department will activate a Department Operation Center (DOC) at the fire stations for communications.   The DOCs are staffed with ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) HAM operators and CERTs.  This allows contacting fire stations using any combination of radio, telephone calls or in person visits. Communications from the neighborhoods requesting assistance will come to the DOC via GMRS radio or HAM radio.  The ARES operator will then relay this information to the Emergency Operation Center (EOC).  This will allow GMRS and HAM traffic to be brought to emergency services outside of calling 911.  

To sum up 

• Watch Duty notifications about wild fire
  
• Official communications via County Alerts (SMC Alert, etc), 911 and law enforcement driving door to door
  
• Neighborhood communications on local mailing list, text, WhatsApp, phones and GMRS radios
  
• Ham Radio and Satellite/microwave internet bridge gap between neighborhoods and outside world leveraging work of ARES at Fire Department DOC's. 
  

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Get Prepared Now

1. Work on your Neighborhood Directory and plan your Neighborhood Communications
   
2. Sign up for Watch Duty
   
3. Sign up for County Alert Messages
   
4. Sign up for mailing lists.
   
5. Get a radio and program it  with the appropriate frequencies: GMRS/MURS for neighborhood use only, or the complete emergency communications plan including HAM/GMRS/MURS. 
   
6. Print out the emergency numbers and communications plans.
   

Staying Informed During a Disaster

1. Monitor Watch Duty and County Alert Messages
   
2. Monitor Mailing Lists and Neighborhood Communications
   
3. Turn on your radio
   
4. Fires are especially confusing, and multiple websites need to be watched: Getting Fire Information. 

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Get Help During a Disaster

1. Always try 911 first
   
2. Contact your neighbors by email, text, phone. 
3. Use GMRS radio to talk to neighbors
   
4. Use Ham Radio to contact Fire Department DOC