Well, then, the question then becomes:

How far away are your immediate family members, and/or how far away are they likely to be at the onset of an emergency?

In my own case, due to the nature of my business as a technology consultant, it is likely that I could be anywhere up to 60 miles (or 2 hours) away from my residence on any given day. Secondly, the only family I have nearby is my sister-in-law and her (soon-to-be) husband. The rest of our families generally live about 60-100 miles away.

For the immediate local needs of a single family, GMRS is probably the best option. In our case, two GMRS licenses would cover both households.

If we wanted to communicate with the rest of the extended family, Amateur HF bands would be the best option, probably 40 or 80 meters on an NVIS antenna (read, antenna that's not high/big enough to go around the world). A good NVIS system on those bands should give reliable communications out to 300-500 miles. Amateur Radio would also be my best means of contact while on the job. While 60 miles is a bit of a stretch for simplex comunications, if a suitable repeater is available (not something to be counted upon in an emergency situation), 30 miles each way should be no problem for either UHF or VHF communications. My mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-100, so HF is also an option.

The biggest problem I'm having with all this right now is convincing my wife to study for and obtain a Technician Class license, and of course no other family members other than my wife's grandfather seem to have any interest in Amateur Radio. This is one of the reasons why GMRS is such a good option--it doesn't require wrangling other family members into sitting for examinations! With the 50 W GMRS limit, 60 miles might be do-able with a good antenna system or through a repeater (not sure of any in my area), but even a 5 W HT will cover our whole town without breaking a sweat.

One more thing about marine radios...the Icom IC-M802 is a very, very good marine HF unit that is rated for 150 W @ 100% duty cycle, and has the capability of being programmed to transmit on the Amateur bands. The basic system can be had for less than 2K USD. The marine radios tend to be a bit more robust than your average rig, since when you're far from dry land, you need an utterly reliable communications system.

There are also land-mobile units that are capable of being programmed for both GMRS and Amateur frequencies. These often share accessories with some of the Amateur-specific radios available.

Just remember, like a firearm, a radio is not of optimal use to you in an emergency if it's not with you/not loaded/not setup, or if you are not familiar with it's proper operation...

The secondary question is:

What emergency personnel are you likely to need to communicate with in the event of an emergency, and what frequencies do they use? More and more police units are being outfitted with consumer-type radios, but it would be best to check with public service groups in your area to find out what's going to work best for you and them. I would encourage you to get involved with a CERT Team in your area, as familiarity with the local officials might get them to respond to you better or faster in an emergency than someone they don't know.