Communicating During an Emergency:
Alternatives to Phone Calls
I am based on the Florida Gulf Coast. For the past week or so, we have been watching Hurricane Dorian. As the storm gets closer to Florida, the misinformation starts circulating. And there is a whole lot of misinformation circulating when it comes to communicating with others during an Emergency Event.
Facebook and Twitter are riddled with posts about which app to download so you can still communicate when you have no service. Cell phones are great, but they are not magic. NO APP will work when you have no service whatsoever. But there are many apps that will function perfectly fine when cell service is down and internet service is up. You need to have some strategy in mind that does not rely on voice communications and/or working cellular service. You do need to plan for how you will contact folks when cell lines are overloaded. In this article, we'll look at what you need to do to prep for this type of situation.
Why Can't I Depend on Cell Service During an Emergency?
Unfortunately, our cell towers are overloaded in many places. Different towers have different carriers, and often, your carrier may not have service on a particular tower. Additionally, different towers have different capacities. During emergencies, certain frequencies may be set aside for Emergency Officials and Governmental communications only, leaving little capacity to serve other callers. Voice calls are more taxing on the infrastructure than data transmissions, so calls may not go through. Additionally, cell service transmitters are often the first thing to fail in any type of storm. For this reason, it is better for everyone if you limit voice communications and switch to data communications, whenever possible. If you must use voice communications, it is preferable to use those that rely on wifi or VOIP, rather than those that utilize the over-taxed cell system.
