Why Do I Need A Roll of Quarters In My 72 Hr. Kit?

I, myself am guilty of not fully knowing why I would need a roll of quarters in my grab and run bag. Sure I understood that it would be to use at a pay phone, but I didn't really understand what an asset it could be until I read this information I found on another blog which I quote:

"Can you hear me now?"
(The following recommendations where found in the AlphaGeek diary of September 16, 2005)

"Quick, name the public voice communications service that will be brought online first after a major disaster. Home phones? Nope. Business lines? Negative. Cellphones? Not likely.Give up?

The answer: pay phones. Yes, that dying breed, those dinosaur relics of the pre-cellphone age will be a shining beacon of civilization in the aftermath of a disaster.

Recommendation: All emergency kits should include a $10 roll of quarters and prepaid phone cards from two major long-distance providers. Why two major long-distance providers? In the chaos following a natural disaster, especially an earthquake, it's hard to predict which portions of the phone network will be reliable and which will fail. Having two different long-distance providers gives you a much better shot at getting a call to go through.Recommendation: Take one of your city/region maps and go on a payphone hunt. Find at least two payphones within walking/biking distance of home and work and mark the locations of each on the map. When you're done copy those locations to the map in each of your emergency kits.

Next quiz question: are you more likely to be able to complete a call to a local number, a number in a different part of your state, or a number in a different state altogether?

The answer, surprisingly, is that interstate long-distance calls are the most likely to go through in an emergency. This is because these calls are handed off from your local phone company to the long-distance networks at special "tandem" switching locations in every city.

Recommendation: Each family member and each emergency kit MUST have a durable card (i.e. laminated) with comprehensive contact information, including multiple out-of-state emergency contacts. Enlist the help of distant friends or relatives to act as a message switchboard in a crisis. This is a proven, reliable technique for reuniting separated family members when local communications are degraded or offline. If you take away nothing else from the recommendations in this series, take this one and run with it. Take care of it today. Now. Go!

Finally, let us speak for a moment of the oft-overlooked capabilities of our mobile phones. As mentioned above, making or receiving voice calls will be near impossible in many disaster situations. However, I'll let you in on a little secret:If your mobile phone can register with the network, it is very likely that you will be able to send and receive text messages even if you can't make a voice call.

Recommendation: Everyone named in your emergency plan should have a mobile phone capable of text messaging, and should know how to send and receive text messages. Using a single network provider for the whole family will further increase your chances of getting text messages through quickly during a crisis. "

Hope This Helps Someone!