Hurricane Helene, Lahaina, Paradise had One Thing in Common: No organized General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) Two-Way Radio Backup for Citizens

Local government can help its community members prepare to help themselves during natural disasters by creating the infrastructure for a community-wide GMRS radio system.

As the title of this article indicates, Hurricane Helene, Lahaina, Hawaii and Paradise, California had one thing in common: no organized General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) two-way radio backup system for citizens to increase their personal safety during disasters. These population areas were overly reliant on cellphone based alert systems. They had no contingency. Simply put, fires and floods swept through so rapidly alerts were delayed. In some cases, alerts were never received due to the destruction of fiber optic lines, the internet, cellphone towers and their generators. As a result, hundreds of people died.

When alerts were sent, the rapid destruction exceeded the population’s ability to read the alerts in a timely manner. Hurricane Helene destroyed multiple means of communication, including police and fire primary radio and phone systems which has hampered rescue and recovery phases due to the inability to communicate. Separated local family members could not get in touch to confirm their status and their needs. It would take days before satellite dishes and portable cellular stations could be deployed, and then it would be spotty at best.

It's been stated that each national cellular service company averages four to five degradations of service or outages per year for whatever the reason, and yet many local emergency management agencies have no contingency in their local plans.

FEMA Continuity Guidance Circular (2018, 2024):

National Continuity Program: Recommendations

If the obvious need for a local communication backup for citizens isn’t enough, FEMA stated “Organizations should establish a cybersecurity plan that includes a continuity of communication component such as radio frequency-based communications that do not rely on public infrastructure (p. 29, 2024).”  GMRS is frequency-based communications, in other words, two-way mobile radio, not dependent on cellular service, fiber, or the internet, ideal for local, shared communications.

“During an emergency, the ability of a department or agency to execute its essential functions at its primary or alternate location depends on the availability of its communication system (p. 24).”

“The public will expect information to flow from an affected area…” and “systems to support connectivity among key government leadership, internal elements, other organizations and the public under all conditions.” Key word is the “public” as an equal partner with the need to know. Public Safety agencies have robust communication systems-citizens do not. But even so, when public safety agencies have lost communications, they could have broadcasted locally over GMRS, but they don’t have that contingency.

How Did We Get Here?

As wireless smartphones took over, families disconnected from their traditional copper wire landline phones, and phone companies have become reluctant to maintain copper wires. Decades ago, many families used low power Citizen Band (CB) radios in their cars and homes as a backup for local communications and awareness of community incidents. Families today no longer have a two-way radio backup and have become precariously reliant on only one mode of communication, cell service. Public safety agencies stopped monitoring CB radios.  GMRS does not take the place of cell phones or 911.

As a college student hitchhiking home during an Ohio blizzard, I was able to direct drivers stranded at a Washington Court House, Ohio truck stop at I-71 and US-35 to their homes by providing them open road information from truckers, simply because I was carrying a high-quality CB walkie talkie radio, and they were not.

GMRS: A Practical, Affordable and Easy Contingency for Citizens.

GMRS two-way radio requires no special knowledge or FCC exams like amateur radio, making it more accessible to the public at large. If you can operate a smartphone, you can operate a much simpler GMRS radio. It requires a thirty-five-dollar, ten-year FCC family license and a repeater capable two-way radio. There are no monthly fees. The maximum transmit power allowed by the FCC for a GMRS mobile or base radio is fifty watts, compared to about five watts for CB radio.  

GMRS operates anywhere in the US if you are in range of another user or a repeater. A repeater is an additional component usually located on a tower that boosts radio range by several miles, not accessible by CB radios.  A low power five-watt GMRS repeater capable walkie-talkie may only have a 1–2-mile range, but if within range of a repeater, the range will increase to several miles depending on conditions.

Communities out west in Oswego (OR), El Dorado (CA) and West Chester (OH) have organized their GMRS family networks and neighborhood radio watches which routinely look out for one other and warn of critical incidents over the air in real-time, no delays. My community, Washington Court House, Ohio, and Redlands, California are two in process. Washington Court House is less than 20,000 people, less than ten square miles, with flat land.

According to the Wash. C.H. City Manager Joe Denen, “GMRS provides people with communication options with minor barriers to entry.  You don’t have to have a technical background in radio and the financial cost is relatively small.” 

Making GMRS Effective and Respected: Government Collaboration Provides Credibility

It was my priority for the city to invest in a robust Motorola GMRS programmed repeater which will be located on the city’s police and fire communication 80-foot supplemental antenna tower by 2025. This provides a secure site with emergency generator power when needed, keeping in mind GMRS works without the range boosting repeater, but at a lesser range between users.

Another advantage of GMRS is a mobile car radio will generally have power even during household power outages, and advantageous during mobile evacuations.  The city’s cost of an installed repeater is approximately $14,000.00, paid for by the city, and registered in the name of the GMRS license holder, the city manager.  Besides the obvious need for a backup, a communication contingency should not be financially dependent on “cookie sales;” he agreed it will be another component of the existing city’s communications backbone, which also includes the State of Ohio MARCS public safety radio system. It’s a good fit because GMRS is not overly dependent upon infrastructure, meeting the FEMA recommendation. It enables citizen connectivity and community building.

Per FEMA, “It is incumbent upon local government to best apply a localized understanding of risks and hazards in order to most effectively plan and implement continuity strategies and programs.”  Communications contingencies for citizens should be priority work for emergency management. After your next critical incident or phone outage, you don’t want to be on stage at your public briefing and hear a shoutout, “Why didn’t you have a backup plan?”  GMRS is not ideal. But no communication is downright frightening and consequential for citizens.

About the author: John Nestor, PhD, is a retired education executive, Police Chief, EMS Chief, Emergency Management Coordinator, and Threat Assessment Team director, recognized for best practices and for maintaining one of the top three safest urban college campuses in the US, Columbus State (OH). He is a co-author of “On Leadership: An Interdisciplinary Approach,” Information Age Publishing, as well as other published articles.   More on the Washington Court House, Ohio GMRS effort can be tracked on John’s Facebook page “WCH Connect” or contact him at drjohn.nestor@gmail.com.