Important tips for communication during power failures from NZ Federated Farmers, June 2013: All farmers in Canterbury will have distinct memories of the 2006 Antarctic blast, with a month of snow and ice which knocked our power and communications for some time. South Canterbury provincial president, Ivon Hurst, has been at a briefing with Civil Defence and Telecom and wishes to relay some vital advice applicable to all members. In the event of power failure maintaining communications will become vital: 1. Ensure you have a conventional plug-in telephone in your house. Cordless phones need mains power which may be lost in the event of a severe storm. A plug-in phone draws current from fixed copper lines. If you don’t have one, retailers such as Dick Smith and The Warehouse sell them for less than $20. They are a vital back-up in case of power failure. 2. Ensure your mobile phone(s) are fully charged at all times. In the event of a power loss, go to your phone’s settings and disable all services except the phone itself (services like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, mobile data and even screen rotation will rapidly drain your battery). Another battery extension tip is to turn down screen brightness to the absolute minimum. When you do need to check the internet, or your email, simply turn the service on, do what you need to do and turn it off again. 3. Use mobile text messaging, not voice communication. SMS texting does not overload mobile networks and they do get through. Cellphones use 20 times less power if usage is restricted to texting too. What is more in an area wide emergency (discovered during the Christchurch earthquakes) cellphone systems become overloaded quickly if everyone attempts to communicate by voice. Federated Farmers also considers it prudent to buy a ‘pay as you go’ SIM card on another network as further back up. If you have older SIM-based mobile phones in a draw, please charge them up too. These may come in handy if you need to swap phones or to use as an additional phone. This is especially the case if your main mobile phone takes a micro or nano SIM.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 02:01:25 +0000
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