Tracfone has a deal where you can get a year of service for $124 or so. Even if the minutes or service is expired you can call 911. I personally have a Tracfone as my cell. my old one (old lg from tracfone) currently lives in my glove-box as a back-up. it is in a little bag with the car charger.

I know 124 + the 10-30 dollars for the phone seems high, but it will work on pretty much any network, in my experience. I usually have better coverage than all of my coworkers with us cellular and a local company. My Motorola 376g runs on the at and t network here. my old lg, 3018? was on the us cellular network. The great thing about tracfone is that if there is cellular service available, it works. That is what it seems, i have been told that it is a secondary to any regular cell phone, so in an emergency, with overloaded circuits, prepaid might not be the best.