draggar - 4:56 pm on Oct 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

I can think of one reason for not implementing reverse-911 registration for cell phones: it might encourage people to enter an evacuation area. (For example, if they are at work, they might want to return home and retrieve things.)

Plus it would be a strain on the wirless network which does not have the capacity limit as landlines do. Most of the calls would not go though and would strain emergency services that need the wireless network to communicate. Yes, emergency service communications are on a higher priority but if a tower goes down due to high capacty (which was seen during 9-11 in NYC, NJ, and CT) then no emergency calls can be made.

Plus, the more usage, the smaller the coverage area of the tower will be (especailly with digital networks) so some emergency workers copuld be "pushed" out of the service area.

An effective way to communicate would be though text messages. They're short and don't hog up as much bandwidth as a call does (most text messaging uses a different part of the spectrum than voice calls do). I doubt many emergency workers are texting at times like this. ;)

Another effective way to communicate would be though the top web sites traffic wise,

News sites (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News etc..)
Merchant sites (Amazon.com, Buy.com, Overstock.com)
EBay and AOL
I'm sure if each of these sites had a banner about the disaster most of the US-based web traffic would be able to see it (who here doesn't go a day without going to one of these sites?)
Plus ISPs can push emails to their clients to communicate these messages.

Here in south Florida in preperations to hurricanes our news media (radio and TV) go into "Hurricane Mode" which is non-stop hurricane coverage, more intense as the storm comes and stays up after the storm (as we saw w/ Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma). Radio stations keep this up to communicate to the people, locations of FEMA assisstance, disaster relieft centers, insurance claim senters, meals, stores (needed, grocerey stores, Home Depot etc..) that are open, gas stations that are open.

In New Orleans post Katrina local companies set up WiFi hot spots all over to help out with communications, that is a great and inexpensive way to get the infrastructure back up (for a start).