I, too, live on the West Coast and have family in the Midwest. Often, long distance still works even when you can't make a local call. (The SF police chief said he could call his brother in Hawaii, but not his wife at home during the phone outage of Loma Prieta - too many locals have their phones off the hook, trying to call loved ones.) I'd expect to be able to make a long distance call, and I'd expect my brother to be able to call in to my home number, if it's on the hook.

During a New York City black out, I read that people were using their cellphones to light up darkened building lobbies - they couldn't get a cell dial tone, but payphones still worked. Do you know where your payphones are? Got quarters?

Satellite phones should work as long as you have power. The last time I checked (last fall), a QualComm satphone could be had for $300 used, $500 refurbished, $645 new. That includes no time, not even an account. Buying a dial tone on a satellite phone is expensive. GlobalStar service plans (GlobalStar is the satellite that the QualComm uses) includes a $50 activation fee, and the cheapest is 50 minutes a month for $50 a month, with any minutes over your allowable number billed at a dollar each. Voicemail is an additional $7.95 a month. The early termination fee is $250 if you don't keep the service for a year.

Their cheapest airtime plan is $350 a year with no minutes. Use of the phone costs $1.49 per minute. The same early termination fee applies. In all plans, you pay per minute for incoming and outgoing calls. There are roaming fees for calls not originating and terminating in the US. I rent a satphone occasionally for camping trips where there is no cellphone and being stranded in winter weather is a possibility. The QualComm phone worked fine; an Iridium phone suffered from dropped calls. This is anecdotal, so I can't make a judgment on quality withhout more experience.

Based on the economics, I can't afford a satphone.

I have a general license for amateur radio and an HF transceiver, so I might be able to reach a ham in the Midwest (or where ever) to ask for a phone call at her expense to my family. Frankly, I'm less concerned about them knowing I'm okay than I am about knowing my wife here in the Bay Area is okay.

We have our own plan. We both have ham and GMRS licenses, and we carry a little card with us to remind us that we are to meet in one of two locations (if one is destroyed or unreachable, we use the secondary). We have our ham and GMRS radios programmed with our "personal" frequencies to communicate. We don't expect cellphones to work, so we don't have a plan that includes them. Local health and welfare takes priority over communications out of state. Meet up with my wife face to face or by radio to know we're both okay. Coordinate actual meeting and get to our stash at home for food & shelter.

If we are in a long term survival situation, which I would expect in a big earthquake just like big hurricanes in New Orleans, I would give my phone my first try at letting folks off the coast know we're okay, then give ham radio a try, and then use either Red Cross or Salvation Army's people for health and welfare traffic.

I live in a high traffic area, and lots of cars are parked on the street. With my siphon and Beil tool, I'll have gas and batteries for a long time, but that's a very last resort, as some people might take offense to having their car peeled. I can power and recharge my radios off car batteries, so I could be able transmit on my own for some time, assuming my radios and antennas are in working order.