Telephone

You may have noticed that corded phones don’t need to be plugged into an electrical outlet. That is because they get all the power that they need to operate directly from the phone line itself. The phone company sends this power directly to your house through a pair of dedicated wires that connect to your phone jack. The phones lines even have power during a blackout in most cases. This is because the phone company maintains their own backup power system. Your phone lines may be powered even if 􏰇ou do􏰁’t have a land line service set up. Having a traditional landline during emergencies means you may have a powered, working telephone, however keep in mind, more sophisticated telephone sets that require being plugged into a household electrical receptacle will not work in a power outage. While cellular and cordless phones are ideal for keeping you mobile, these new technologies may not always work when the power goes out.

Emergency officials strongly urge residents to limit the use of their home and wireless telephones during periods of severe weather. Too many callers can jam telephone lines or cell towers and leave emergency personnel with busy signals or dropped calls. By keeping the lines clear, emergency personnel can communicate quickly and efficiently and persons with emergencies will have less a chance of their call not going through. Residents should refrain from calling 911 unless it is an actual emergency. In an emergency always dial 911.

When severe weather threatens, keep your cell phone charged. Keep an auxiliary power supply charged as well in the event of a prolonged power outage. You may also want to charge your cell phone periodically using a USB outlet in your car or via an adapter plugged into your car’s auxiliary power supply source.

Teach all family member how to send text messages via a cell phone. Often times, when communications networks are overwhelmed during an emergency, text messages may still go through even though an actual telephone call may not.

Register your cell phone for your community’s emergency alert messages.

Follow local emergency agencies on Twitter and Facebook to receive additional sources of emergency information.