- A: Where Will You Meet After a Disaster?
- B: Make Your Phone Numbers Follow You
- C: Recognize the Benefits and Pitfalls of Wireless Phones
- D: Consider Two-Way Radios
- E: Carry Pagers
- F: Large Campus? Consider a Low-Power AM Broadcast Station
- G: Who Will Clean Up the Mess?
- H: Who Rewires the Building?
- I: Consult a Commercial Disaster-Recovery Center
- J: Are Your People Willing to Leave Town in a Disaster?
- K: What If Some People Dont Show Up?
- L: Does Everyone Know How to Get to the Recovery Center?
- M: Test Your Recovery Center
- N: Do You Know How to Use the Recovery Center Phones?
- O: Whos in Charge of the Recovery?
- P: Keeping the EMT Apprised
- Q: Who Will Retrieve Data Stored Offsite?
- R: Consider Online Vaulting
- S: Where Is Your Voice Mail System?
- T: Look Carefully at Automated Call Distribution Units
- U: Dont Expect Anything to Work the First Time After a Disaster
- V: Where Will You Get Telecommunications Test Equipment?
- W: For Want of a Nail
- X: Seen Any Good Books Lately?
- Y: Could You Work at the Recovery Center for a Long Time?
- Z: What Did You Learn From Your Last Test?
- Summary: What Did You Learn from This Series?
F: Large Campus? Consider a Low-Power AM Broadcast Station
Issue: Another option for receiving and disseminating information and instructions is a broadcast station. The typical telecommunications department doesn’t have one, so you might be surprised to learn that a low-power radio station (similar to the kind that supplies traffic or airport information) needn’t be cost-prohibitive. They run around $15,000—including the broadcast license. A low-power station broadcasts on a standard AM radio and can be heard for 5–10 miles. This arrangement can be particularly valuable in campus locations, or as a means of getting emergency instructions out to many employees simultaneously. In non-disaster mode, you can use the station to broadcast general items of interest, such as changes in benefit plans or the company’s stock price. This approach will encourage employees to listen regularly. When the time comes to tune in for a disaster, they’ll know where the station is on their dial.
Action: If appropriate, investigate setting up a low-power radio station for your organization. If you go this route, remember that you’ll need staff who know how to run it and have that responsibility assigned in case of emergency.