Wow...out of all of this I am going to invest in a small Ham Rig with scanner capabilities and get the into/Tehcnicians License. Its only 35 questions for the FCC License (plus a bit of cash) . For the price of Baofeng radios I can get a couple. We got the mandatory evac order. My wife was there and I was in Fresno working. I could not for the life of me get any handle through the internet or telephone calls to authorities a to just where the fire was so I could judge as to its distance from my wife.
Luckily for us, the fire moved away from us and we were out of danger and did not have to face what those folks in Loma Rica, Bangor and of course the North Bay Counties, faced. But she was packed and ready to go at a second’s notice and stayed that way until I could get here some accurate information.
Before we left all phone lines were down and all cell phones.
The local radio station did a great job and let us know that route was clear and open to get out of here.
On the way to the coast, my wife tried to call or text family and friends in the fire impacted areas, and no one answered nor responded. Then, she lost all 4g coverage for 24 hours. She is on AT&T.
Later on the west side of Bodega Bay, my cell phone on Verizon had connections. We texted family and friends to let them know we were safe.
Later that night, my wife’s premium Android never picked up the hotel’s wifi. My $100 Toshiba and ACER Chromebook worked with the house wifi most of the time.
Two adult sons are considered by their companies and critical managers. Their companies provide the latest Apple I phones and pay for supposedly some type of premium service from AT&T for one and Verizon for the others so they can be reached 24/7 if necessary. The local one’s phone was not available for over 24 hours, and the other one’s was not available until late Monday. So much for their premium high priced cell phones and lines.