Interested in communicating during a disaster?  Get your technician class amateur radio license, it’s easier than you might think.  The Morse code is no longer needed.  All that is required is a 35-question multiple-choice test given from a testing pool.  There are one-day “cram” classes that prepare you to take the test and at the end of the day you take the test.  That is all that is needed for the entry-level license.  But for those not interested in this time commitment.  There is a less effective, yet better than nothing way.

FRS (family radio service) radios are available everywhere, literally millions of these have been sold and they are very inexpensive.  They are normally used to communicate while hiking, during sporting events, or during festivals and by neighborhood kids to communicate with one another.  Best of all no licensing is required.  Range is limited to only a couple of blocks, but it will allow you to communicate with neighbors. When all other modes of communications are down, it is better than nothing.

National SOS radio is a program that promotes the use of FRS radio using channel 1 as an emergency call channel.  The program also encourages licensed GMRS and Ham radio stations to relay the messages to authorities that can provide assistance.

This link will take you to a twenty-minute mp3 file of the Rain Report broadcast on the subject.