What is your back up communications plan?

This is an excerpt from a Stake in Eastern North Carolina right after Hurricane Helene:

As an Eastern North Carolina Stake we are working on Crisis Cleanup for an immediate help to our neighbors in the Western part of our state as well as surrounding areas. Please pray for them and all that have been affected by the storms. If you feel you need to do more may I suggest donating blood. There is always a need but supplies are going to be gone quickly.

As our Stakes Emergency Preparedness Specialist I am currently waiting for the assignment to pull supplies together to send. This is going to be a long road ahead as roads as well as towns are ..gone. literally gone. There are some things that also can be done- if you have ever- even the tiniest blink of thought of getting your Ham Radio license - Do it! Cell towers were knocked down in most places and literally ham radio Operators were heroes helping families connect to civilization.

We have a distinct advantage here in the Ogden Valley in that we can use GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) radios to get from one end of the valley to the other. In addition, we can use the GMRS repeater on Mt. Ogden to get over the mountain. GMRS radios require a license but you do not need to take a test, you simply go online and get your FRS number then fill out the form for the license. The great thing is the license will also cover your family.

Another concern may also be that radios are too complicated to learn how to use. How about we make it simple and start from the very basics? Get yourself a GMRS radio such as a baofeng GM-15 or GM-21 (both found on Amazon) These radios have channels with up and down arrows to change channels, pretty much like your basic two way radio.

Channels 15 - 22 are your GMRS channels and one of the easiest ways to learn to use your radio is to find and participate in a local radio net, find someone like family or friends who are experienced with radios to talk to, or simply scan channels and listen in without talking.

There are road crews up in the valley who use some of these channels and very few of them use proper radio etiquette so it would not be a good idea to try and learn anything from them.

If nothing else, you can just obtain the radio even if you do not use it. We do not know when or where we might loose communications here in the valley (like the lines that were cut knocking out cell and internet service) a few months back) but what a relief it will be to have what you need ahead of time.