"mad amoeba" wrote in message
. net...
I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking
of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.

In our area (Detroit and suburbs), the phones are powered by the phone
companies and were not out. Apparently the phone companies do have some
type of backup power. However, if all a person had was a cordless phone,
then it did not do any good since those have to be plugged in to external
power to operate. The non-cordless variety doesn't need that. After
swapping my phone over, I was able to call my daughter to check to see if
she was OK since she was stuck at a friend's house until gasoline pumps were
operational.

Cell phone coverage here was erratic either because of overload or because
the cell sites lost power too without sufficient backup power.

My best means of tracking the situation was ham radio. I got a lot more
detail on exactly where and when power came became available and where and
when it would be possible to get gas for the car and generator. Commercial
radio broadcasting did not give very good or timely information on these
aspects of the situation. They would state that "power is back on in parts
of xxx" with no further detail. Via ham radio, I was able to find out what
parts were back up so I could assess whether to go try to find gasoline or
wait a bit longer.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE