The solar flare activity a week ago had the potential to take down electric grids and phone systems. A few months ago there was a huge cellular network outage in the U.S. Cyber attacks and EMP could also take down the grid or communications at any time.
An important part of your preparedness plans are having alternate ways to communicate with family and key associates, and plans for a rendezvous. Whether your collapse survival plan is stay at home, or bug out to a safer area or a secure survival community, you all need to know the meetup plan. Satellite phones, two-way VHF/UHF radios, and HF ham radios can work when cell phones are down, but likely aren’t feasible for most people. So you should have plans for emergency meetup without communication. Most likely this meet up spot will be home. But if someone has no car and may need a ride to get home, then designate a place to meet near the school, workplace, etc. Also should agree on how long you’ll attempt to wait and meet up before you give up and move on to the next meet up place (probably home). If you live in a dangerous city or suburb and have a bug out place or survival community to head to, you probably would meet up at home and then head out. If you have a group and plans to travel as a group, leaving from different homes, then you may want to designate a meet up point. More important, you’d need to agree on when you’ll meet there, and how long you’ll wait. For example, “we’ll meet at the North Park campground ideally within 4 hours of the start of a disaster or loss of communications, and head out when either all expected have arrived or 24 hours after the disaster/communicaitons loss has started. Anyone who arrives late must travel on alone.” If your home is in a particularly bad area, where looting/marauding may start in the first hour of a collapse you may want to establish a meet up point before you go home. You’d rendezvous there and then as a group head home. Won’t get into bug out bag discussions here, but this is another reason why an office or car bug out bag with a pistol is a wise move. You may also want to designate a secure hiding place in your home, especially for children to hide in until the adults get home. Train your children to go there in a disaster, loss of communications, hide, and assume that someone coming into the house is not parents, but potentially a thief—so stay hidden and quiet until you hear family call out for you. People forget, so review your plans periodically. People change jobs, schools, homes—more reason to review regularly and update as needed.
