Hurricane Katrina has come and gone but in her wake has left major destruction, including communication failure. We are going to repost our Emergency Communication Tips for Blackberry users that we put up during the London Subway attacks when communications failed aswell.
So here’s our list of advice
1. Invest in a Blackberry 5790 on the Mobitex network. They proved their reliability during 9/11 and can also be used in the air, have better coverage through buildings, and is data-only.
2. Send PIN 2 PIN messages instead of email or voice. PIN messages go directly through the Blackberry network and does route through the internet. So if there’s a catastrophic event and the internet is down, PIN messaging is your best bet. PIN messages is also typically smaller than email, so it’ll keep the strain down on the network. Another benefit is that you will know when someone receives and reads your message which is not the case with email.
3. Keep your address book up-to-date with your contact’s Blackberry PIN. This can be hard because some people switch Blackberrys several times a year but you will be glad you did if anything happens.
4. Send SMS to non-Blackberry users.
5. Send emails if you can not reach anyone by PIN or SMS messages. Email is still less bandwidth intensive than voice so you still have a good chance of your email going through.
