Why every household needs a family emergency communication plan
Every household in Hot Springs should have a family emergency communication plan, a simple written answer to how you reach each other if something happens, whether that’s a flood, a downed tree blocking the road, or something nobody could have predicted. A short plan on paper does more good than a good plan that only lives in someone’s head.
Choose an out-of-town contact
Start with an out-of-town contact, someone who lives outside the region entirely, a friend or relative a few states away works well. During a local emergency, phone lines and cell towers here can get overloaded fast, but long-distance calls and texts often go through even when local ones won’t. If your household gets separated, everyone can reach that same outside contact and get word to each other through them.
Text before you call
The FCC and FEMA say the same thing in their joint guidance on communicating during an emergency: text before you call, if you can. A text uses far less of the network than a call, and it will often send even when a call fails. It may just take a few tries or a short delay. One more thing from that same guidance, since almost nobody knows it: if your phone shows no signal bars at all, power it off completely rather than leaving it searching for a tower it cannot find. Set that expectation with your family now, so nobody’s confused later about why calls aren’t connecting.
Pick two meeting places
Pick two meeting places. One should be close to home, a spot up the road or a neighbor’s driveway, useful if something happens fast, like a fire, and you need to get out quickly. The second should be somewhere outside town entirely, in case you can’t get back to your own street. Make sure everyone in the household, including kids old enough to understand, knows both locations by name, not just by address.
Write it down
Write the plan down. Put the out-of-town contact’s number, the two meeting spots, and any other key numbers on a card that goes in a wallet, a backpack, or the family’s emergency kit. Phones die, get lost, or lose signal, so a plan that depends entirely on a phone has one point of failure built in. FEMA’s ready.gov has a printable family communication plan card that works well for this: Family Communication Plan, ready.gov.
Plan for every member of the household
If your household includes pets, someone with specific medical needs, or anyone who doesn’t speak English as a first language, build that into the plan directly rather than leaving it to figure out in the moment. This matters even more for anyone who doesn’t carry a phone: young kids, older relatives, or anyone who might be home alone when something happens. A plan that only works for the average adult in the house isn’t a finished plan.
Radios: a backup when phones don’t work
Phones depend on cell towers and networks that can get overloaded or knocked out entirely. A radio doesn’t. A few options fit different households and budgets:
FRS (Family Radio Service): the walkie-talkies sold in most stores. No license needed, but range is short, often under a mile in Hot Springs’ hills and hollows. Details at the FCC’s Family Radio Service page.
GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service): more power and range than FRS, with the option to use repeaters that extend range further. GMRS requires a license from the FCC, though there’s no test involved, just an application and a fee, and one license covers your immediate family. Details at the FCC’s General Mobile Radio Service page.
MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service): another license-free option from the FCC, on different frequencies than FRS, often useful for coordinating around a property or a small neighborhood. Details at the FCC’s Multi-Use Radio Service page.
Ham radio (Amateur Radio): the most capable option, with far greater range and the ability to reach far beyond town when the situation calls for it. Ham radio operators are often the backbone of emergency communication when cell networks and power are both down. It does require passing an FCC exam, and the entry-level Technician license is the one to start with. The nearest active club is the Western Carolina Amateur Radio Society, in the Asheville area. There is no amateur radio club based in Madison County, and the ARRL directory’s listings for a “Madison County” club and a “Hot Springs” club are in Ohio and South Dakota. The American Radio Relay League has the study material: Getting Licensed, ARRL.
Put it together with a PACE plan
Emergency planners use something called a PACE plan to organize exactly this kind of layered thinking: Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency. Instead of one method you hope works, you line up several, ranked in the order you’d try them. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has a good overview of how PACE works in emergency communications: CISA, PACE plan for emergency communications.
Example: one family’s plan
Here’s what that might look like written out for one Hot Springs household, as an example:
Primary: Text or call each other, and text the out-of-town contact if anyone gets separated.
Alternate: If cell service is down, switch to FRS radios at home. If you’re a mile or more apart, GMRS reaches further.
Contingency: If radios don’t reach, meet at the mailbox at the end of the driveway. If that’s not possible or safe, meet at a pre-agreed spot outside town.
Emergency: If none of that works, check in at a known community gathering point, or ask a local ham radio operator to help relay a message.
What’s next
None of this takes long to put together, and it costs nothing beyond a radio if you choose to add one. The next post in this series walks through signing up for Hot Springs emergency alerts, so the plan you build now has real information behind it when it matters.
Resources mentioned in this post
- Family Communication Plan, Ready.gov: https://www.ready.gov/collection/family-communication-plan
- Family Radio Service (FRS), FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/family-radio-service-frs
- General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs
- Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS), FCC: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/multi-use-radio-service-murs
- Getting Licensed, ARRL: https://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed
- Leveraging the PACE Plan, CISA: https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/leveraging-pace-plan-emergency-communications-ecosystem