National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #2: Landline Phone

An emergency may mean that you have no phone capabilities, especially if you have only walk-about models that must be recharged in their consoles. Just because the electricity goes out, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will lose phone service. But, if your phone must be plugged into an electrical outlet, it will lose power if the electricity is off.

Several years ago when we lived in Maryland, we had an ice storm that left much of the area without power for over a week. Our power lines were underground, so thankfully, we didn't lose power. One of our neighbors, though, thought the phones were out because she only had phones that had to be plugged into an electrical outlet.

It is important to have at least one landline phone in the location where you will take shelter in an emergency. A landline phone is one that doesn’t have to be plugged into an electrical outlet in any way – only a phone jack.

We have a landline phone on the third floor of our house, but we would not likely shelter on the third floor, but in the basement. I bought an inexpensive (around $11) landline phone that I keep in our basement to be plugged into the phone jack should we need it. In the meantime, I prefer to use my walk-around phone.

I thought I had a brilliant idea, but I was wrong. I got a y-adapter that plugs into my phone jack. The y-adapter allows two phones to be plugged into one phone jack. I thought I could just leave both phones plugged in all the time. However, when I did that, my DSL on my computer stopped working.

I’m sure my nephew Jeff (our family tech guru) could tell me why, but it doesn’t make sense to me. As I said yesterday, I may be organized, but I don’t think I’ll be applying to become one of the Geek Squad any time soon!.

Having a landline phone is just one less thing to think about in an emergency! Keep it in your emergency kit or stored near your phone jack. I have designated a drawer in my basement to keep my phone and my SAME list for my NOAA radio. I keep my radio plugged in and on so we will be alerted in a time of emergency.

Resource: National Preparedness Month

Related Posts: National Preparedness Month - Making a Plan, National Preparedness Month - Determining Potential Emergencies, National Preparedness Month - Emergency Kit #1: NOAA Radio