Feature: Make Portable Devices Part of Your Emergency Plan

From the South Pacific tsunami in December 2004 to last summer's London bombings to the Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Pakistan earthquake, it's been a disaster-filled 18 months.

We've all been haunted by these horrific tragedies. Unfortunately, for some of us there may be more to come. I know this all too well since I live in San Francisco, where an earthquake can strike at any time.

If there's a major disaster in your area--or even just a power outage--your portable electronic devices can help. Here are some tips for making the most of your gadgets in dire circumstances.

Use Text Messaging

When all else fails, send a text message. When disaster strikes, landline phones go down and cell phone networks can be either knocked out or overwhelmed. To the rescue comes text messaging, via cell phones or Research In Motion BlackBerry PDAs. After the World Trade Center attacks this was one of the only ways that people could communicate. Text messages travel on a separate, low-bandwidth spectrum on cellular networks, so they're more likely to go through than voice calls.

Now's a good time to ensure that you know how to use your cell phone's text messaging, or at least check to see you have it. It's a good idea to send trial messages to family, friends, and coworkers--anyone with whom you might need to communicate in an emergency. Ask them to reply, to confirm you can receive messages properly. Send messages every so often, to make sure you remember how it's done.

Ensure Your Gadgets Get Power

Get an in-car power adapter for your cell phone or smart phone. Like any portable gadget, your cell phone battery will need recharging after several hours of use. Given that your cell phone can be your lifeline during an emergency, and that electricity could be out for days, make sure you've got a in-car power recharger/adapter so you can recharge your cell phone as needed.

If your car is out of commission, you can hand-crank your cell phone battery back to life. IST's SideWinder Cell Phone Charger ($25) gives you 6 minutes of talk time for every 2 minutes of winding and works with most cell phone models.

If you have a desktop PC, make sure you have an uninterruptible power supply. A good UPS will allow your desktop enough working time to properly save your files when the electricity goes out. But keep in mind that they may not have enough juice to boot up your system back up in an emergency. The UPS will also help protect your system from surges when the power comes back on.

Be sure to keep your notebook and UPS batteries charged. One advantage of using your notebook as your main PC is that, as long as it's plugged into a UPS, you can keep working for a while when the power's out. More important, you can make sure your files are properly saved and don't get corrupted before you shut down.

Protect Your Data

Back up important files to your keychain drive. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. Synchronize your important computer files, as well as e-mail, contacts, and such, to a USB drive that fits onto your keychain. Then, in an emergency, grab your keys and head out the door, knowing you've got your most important files with you.

Read my October 6 column, "Peace-of-Mind Backup," for more tips on protecting your data, plus a review of Migo, a software/USB drive combo.

Be Prepared

Now that I've added a backup drive to your keychain, let me add one more thing: an LED flashlight. In good times, I use one to read menus in dark restaurants; I imagine they'd be helpful in a blackout, too. My favorite is Brookstone's white Microbeam ($20).

You could also use your PDA or mobile-phone LCD as a makeshift flashlight. I've read that, after the Twin Towers attack on 9/11, some people navigated their way through dark stairways using the backlighting from their PDAs and cell phones. Granted, no gadget screen will be as powerful as a flashlight--but it'll help in an emergency.

The American Red Cross features lots of helpful information about emergency preparedness.