Communications: Community Plan

Step 1. Recruit volunteers for the Communications Team and train them in equipment operation, cybersecurity basics, and coordination procedures. Conduct background checks.

Step 2. Conduct semi-weekly or monthly meetings to connect members as well as answer questions, practice radio skills, and better plan for an emergency scenario. Use these meetings to standardize equipment and to make sure emergency radio kits work.

Step 3. Develop a leadership plan that allows for easy successions during a disaster in case one or multiple people are unable to fulfill their roles.

Step 4. Identify your community’s main communication infrastructure before a disaster. This could be fiber optic lines, cell towers, internet service provider hubs, power substations, or something else. Knowing how information flows in and out of your community is important because you will know how and where you are most vulnerable when a disaster happens. 

Step 5. Determine connectivity to critical infrastructure (such as hospitals, emergency services, schools). Know how to maintain communications to these places and make a plan to restore connectivity quickly.

Step 6. Identify if there are backup communication routes in and out of your community and map them. This could include satellite internet access points, amateur radio networks, or mesh networking capabilities. These backup systems will most likely also have limitations but can help in creating emergency communication routes if main infrastructure is severely damaged.

Step 7. Identify and map your community’s Disaster Hubs. Make sure you include where communication equipment will be stored at each Hub and how connectivity will be extended to different areas. Identify different forms of communication that can be used.

Step 8. Equip the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) with communications technology. Set up a professional satellite communication array, a mesh network system, and long-distance communication radios

Step 9. Protect the EOC with a cybersecurity system and network monitoring and protection software.

Step 10. Ensure the EOC has uninterrupted power by establishing a solar power system and storing fuel for a backup generator system.

Step 11. Protect the communication system at the EOC with emergency Cloud services and backup data storage.

Step 12. Ensure your community has a mobile command system ready to deploy in case the EOC is damaged or destroyed.