EMERGENCY ACTION PLANNING > Blog > Communication > DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS TTP’s PART IV
DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS TTP’s PART IV
Disaster Communications Plan
The Disaster Communications report started with the three things you need to know when creation a disaster communication plan.
Who do you need to communicate with?
Why do you need to communicate with them?
How will you communicate?
During the creation of the initial report. I discovered the need to break down the information into separate installments.
In prior installments of the disaster communications series we discussed who are we talking to, why are we talking to them, and how are we going to communicate.
The majority of these articles revolved around the tools necessary to communicate during a disaster. We discussed tools for inbound one-way information gathering and tools for two-way information gathering and dissemination.
In this, part four of the disaster communications series we will circle around to the beginning.
Who do we need to communicate with?
Why do we need to communicate with them?
We will look at this in two parts.
Point of Contact List
Communications Plan
In a follow on report we will discuss two-way radio communication procedures.
In this report, you’ll learn three techniques to create a working disaster communication plan.
We will review, and provide links for additional information for…
Your Point of Contact List.
Your Disaster Communications plan.
Your Emergency Calling Tree
We will not discuss communications with City, County or State emergency personnel in this installment. That will be discussed in its own section of the report.
Previous posts on Disaster Communication can be found here:
Part I: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-vk
Part II: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-vw
Part IIA: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-vP
Part IIIA: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-y4
Part IIIB: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-yc
Part IIIC: https://wp.me/p7NwNC-z2
Disaster Communications Plan
A plan to communicate during a disaster.
Who do you need to contact?
Who needs to contact you?
Your husband, wife, significant other?
Do you have children?
Are they in school?
Are your children needing to contact you?
Are you trying to contact your child?
Is there an Elderly next-door neighbor or family member that might need help?
Parents?
Should you call your business or employees?
Who is your out of town emergency contact?
After you have completed your Point of Contact (POC) list, it will be used to complete your Communications Plan.
Keep in mind; A woman responsible for her husband and two children will have different communication needs than a college student living by himself in a dormitory.
After you have completed your Point of Contact (POC) list, it will be used to complete your Communications Plan.
***NOTE***
POC information is perishable. Review and update the information periodically. People move, change phone numbers and email addresses.
Point of Contact List
The point of contact list is a simple outline of the people that you intend to communicate with. This list will have their basic contact information to include a name, primary phone number and email addresses. Include any additional contact information, you deem necessary.
The idea of this point of contact list is for you to identify who you, and everybody on your emergency plan will be contacting during an emergency situation.
***Side note***
Those of you who are business owners should keep a separate emergency POC list for business purposes. Business emergency communications planning is not in the scope of this report.
All of you may not be in the same location at the same time. And this is how you will know who to call, how to contact them.
A pre-formatted POC list can be found here: https://wp.me/P7NwNC-rC
K.I.S.S.
Keep it simple. Who is in your plan and who is your out-of-town contact?
There is no need to over burden your list with Just-in-Case contacts.
You will want to distribute this list both physically and digitally to everyone on the list.
During this distribution, create an Emergency Contact Group in your phone memory. This will make it easy to text the whole group your status during or after the emergency.
*** NOTE *** I do not recommend this tactic as a first response. It can cause information overload and hide critical information in a wall of words.
We will cover using your POC list in the Disaster Communication Plan and the Emergency Calling Tree.
Disaster Communications Plan
Here is where the rubber meets the road.
You have created you POC list. Now it is time to use the POC list and create the Communication Plan/Calling Tree.
The Communications Plan Worksheet can be found here: e/P7NwNC-rC
Page one of the Communication Plan Worksheet is intended to allow you to determine your communication needs in relation to who you are communicating with.
The following pages identify how you are going to accomplish your communications vision.
Who do you need to communicate with?
Why do you need to communicate with them?
When writing out your Communication Plan, place the Out of Town contact in the first position. Then you will fill out the list in your order of preference. Place yourself in the last position.
This covers your Who, How, When and What. This is your calling tree.
Everyone on the list will have their own calling plan/tree.
Everyone calls or texts the Out of Town Contact (OOTC) first, and then starts working down their list in sequential order. Note outcomes of contact attempts on this list. And follow the procedures outlined in the notes if no contact is made.
This should be practiced by everyone on the list.
If you are relying on cell phone coverage it will only work if you have cell towers up and running and power to your cell phone.
Exploring the possibility of GRMS Radio, Amateur Radio and Satellite Phones may be advisable.
In the next post we will look at:
Two-way-radio etiquette.
Two-way radios operate much different than your cell phone.
You cannot listen and talk at the same time.
To effectively communicate, proper two-way radio communication procedures need to be learned, practiced and used.
Till next time
“Be Safe”
P.S.
Your comments and observations will be greatly appreciated.