Having an emergency preparedness plan to keep you and your family connected when disasters strike is a must.
SAN ANTONIO — Some of you may have lost power during the severe storms in the past 48 hours. Even your cell phone may have died if you didn’t have a way to charge it. Having reliable communication is just as important as food or water when it comes to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
Emergency preparedness has become essential no matter where you live, and having a plan helps everyone act quickly to prevent injury or even death.
When disaster strikes, you may realize that always having the ability to communicate is something many take for granted.
“How many of our families train for scenarios? How many of you have had a fire drill with your with your wife and kids or your spouse, your kids?” Craig Martinez, T-Mobile National’s Public Safety Strategist said.
The National Centers for Environmental Education reports 190 confirmed weather or climate disaster events in Texas from the years 1980 to 2024. Each event tallied at least $1 billion in losses. Those events include flooding, drought, severe storms, tropical storms, wildfires and winter storms. In all of those events having a go bag is imperative with non-perishable food, water, a flashlight.
But don’t forget about a portable phone charger power is just not possible.
In that phone make sure you have all emergency numbers you need like SAWS or CPS Energy.
“Also go into your settings on your cell phone and enable the wireless emergency alerts. That way you’re getting those notifications when they send them out,” Martinez added.
AI is also being used if a cell tower goes down because of extreme weather, with nearby towers sensing the problem and pitching in.
“Because of AI and technology, the other three towers in that area can actually see that other tower is having some issues and adjust accordingly, meaning tilt antennas, turn up capacity,” said Martinez.
T-Mobile is taking a step to helping first responders save lives with their product T-Priority.
Martinez tells us is it like a traffic cop in the 5G world. “It’s a network slice given to agencies or entities that qualify for this product. That gives them more capacity, faster 5G speeds, the highest level of prioritization…Because as you know, technology is always evolving and we need a solution that would evolve with it.”