No communications
Getting news and staying in touch when phones and internet fail.
First 10 minutes
- Try a text instead of a call. Texts often get through when networks are busy.
- Turn on a radio for official news.
- Save phone battery: battery saver on, brightness down, close apps, turn off Bluetooth and location if not needed.
- If the family is apart, follow the agreed plan: see Family separated.
Emergency calls
- 999 or 112 work on any network and from any phone with a signal, even if your own network is down, and even without credit.
- If a call will not connect, move higher up or outdoors and try again.
- Emergency text: deaf and speech-impaired people can register for emergency SMS by texting register to 999 in advance.
Official news
- Radio: BBC local radio carries emergency information. In the North West:
- BBC Radio Manchester: 95.1 FM
- BBC Radio Merseyside: 95.8 FM
- BBC Radio Lancashire: 95.5 / 103.9 FM
- BBC Radio Cumbria: 95.6 FM (more frequencies by area)
- Check these on your own radio before you need them, as frequencies vary by location.
- Emergency Alerts: the government can send an alert with a loud alarm to phones in an area. Read it, follow it, and do not phone 999 just to ask about it.
- Word of mouth: treat rumours with caution until confirmed by an official source.
Talking to each other without the network
- PMR446 walkie-talkies need no licence in the UK. Range is about 1 to 3 km in towns, more on open ground and hills.
- Agree a channel in advance, plus a backup channel.
- Agree times to switch on (for example, on the hour for 10 minutes) to save batteries.
- Notes: leave a written note at home saying where you have gone and when. Use a discreet place agreed by the family.
Messages that work
Keep messages short and clear:
- Who you are.
- Where you are.
- Are you safe? Anyone hurt?
- What you are doing next.
Example: "Dad. At Gran's. All OK. Staying put tonight. Will try again 6pm."
At home
- Keep a list of key numbers on paper, by the door. Phones die.
- An old-fashioned corded landline phone may still work in some power cuts, but most landlines now go through the broadband router and stop when the power does.
In the van
- The van radio is a good source of news while charging from the engine, but do not run the engine in an enclosed space or in snow.
- Keep a paper road atlas. Sat-nav and phone maps may not work.
Get ready before it happens
- Wind-up or battery FM radio, with spare batteries
- Two or more PMR446 walkie-talkies, with spare batteries
- Paper list of key numbers and addresses (one each, and one in the van)
- Agreed family plan: meeting points, channel, check-in times
- Power banks, kept charged
- Paper map of the North West
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