Out-of-Area Contact Card
Contact Name: _______________________
Phone (cell): _______________________
Phone (alternate): _______________________
Email: _______________________
Location (city/state): _______________________
What to Tell Them When You Call
- Your name and that you're safe (or your status)
- Your current location
- Whether you're staying or moving
- Where you're going (if moving)
- When you expect to check in again
- Any message for other family members
What They Do
- Write down the message with time
- Relay to other family members who call
- Track who has checked in and where they are
- Be patient — family members may call hours apart
How This Works in Practice
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits your city at 11:30 AM on a Tuesday. Your cell provider's local towers either drop or are flooded with calls. Locally routed calls fail. You try to call your spouse — busy signal or dropped call. They try to call you — same result.
You both call your out-of-area contact in Phoenix. You get through. You tell them you're okay, at the parking structure on 4th Street, waiting for traffic to clear. Your spouse calls the same number twenty minutes later. The contact says: "Your spouse called. They're okay, at the office on Main Street, will drive home as soon as traffic moves."
Twenty minutes of frustrating failed local calls accomplished nothing. Two calls to Phoenix solved it.
Selecting the Right Person
Not every family member or friend makes a good out-of-area contact. Criteria:
Availability: They should be someone who is reliably reachable by phone during the day. A stay-at-home parent, a retiree, or someone with predictable hours is better than someone with an unpredictable schedule.
Reliability: They need to write things down. A person who says "I'll remember to tell your wife" is not sufficient. The messages need to be recorded with timestamps.
Calm under pressure: Multiple family members calling with urgent updates during a stressful event requires someone who stays organized and doesn't escalate anxiety.
Geographic separation: Different state, ideally different region. Your Phoenix contact is unaffected by a Seattle earthquake.
Prior agreement: This is non-negotiable. Call the person before an emergency and explain their role specifically. "We're designating you as our out-of-area contact for emergencies. If a disaster hits our area, family members will call you to check in. Would you be willing to do that?" Most people say yes when asked directly.
Backup Contact
Designate a second out-of-area contact in case the first is unreachable (traveling, sick, no signal). The second contact should also be briefed in advance.
Store both numbers:
- In every family member's phone (not just in your head)
- On the laminated family communications card
- Written on paper in the emergency kit
What the Contact Should Have
Give your out-of-area contact:
- A list of all family members by name, phone number, and usual location
- Your family's meeting points (both near-home and away-from-neighborhood)
- Your work and school addresses
- Permission to make decisions on your behalf if you ask them to (e.g., telling a family member to go to a specific location)
A contact who has this information can be more helpful than one who only knows your phone number.
When Phones Are Down Entirely
If all communication is down (not just congested — actually down), your out-of-area contact system doesn't work. This is the scenario where:
- Everyone executes the pre-agreed plan without communication
- Meeting points and schedules replace real-time coordination
- Ham radio or Meshtastic networks serve those who have them
The out-of-area contact system works for the most common scenario: congested networks after a regional event. For the harder scenario (extended grid-down, communication infrastructure destroyed), the backup is the physical family plan — specific meeting points, specific times, executed independently.
Most emergencies are the first kind, not the second. The out-of-area contact solves the problem you're actually likely to face.
Sources
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't family members just call each other directly?
Local calls create loops of congestion. After a local disaster, thousands of people in the same area code are simultaneously trying to call others in the same area code — the local switching infrastructure is overwhelmed. Long-distance calls to other area codes route through different network infrastructure that may not be congested. Your out-of-area contact serves as a relay: you call them (long-distance call, often works), your spouse calls them (another long-distance call), and they relay the messages between you.
What if the disaster is nationwide?
A truly nationwide communication blackout is rare and would involve scenarios beyond standard emergency planning. For regional disasters (the far more common scenario), an out-of-area contact in a different state works because that region's communication infrastructure is unaffected. Choose a contact who is geographically far from you — different state, different region.
Can the out-of-area contact be a family member or does it need to be a neutral party?
Family is fine and often preferable — they have motivation to help and you trust them. The requirements are: they live in a different region, they understand their role before an emergency, and they are reliably reachable. A grandparent in another state, a sibling in a different city, a close friend in another region all work. Have a conversation with them specifically about this role so they know to expect calls and what to do.