A Practical PACE Strategy:
Emergency preparedness, whether for natural disasters or man-made disruptions, often focuses on food, water, and physical safety.
These are essential. But one critical element is consistently underestimated: Communication...
Why Communication Is the Most Overlooked Part of Emergency Preparedness:
Emergency preparedness discussions usually revolve around food storage, water supply, and physical safety. While these are critical, they miss a key operational reality:
When communication breaks down, everything else follows.
During a crisis: Families get separated – Plans become unclear – Decisions are delayed or poorly executed.
As civilian, a strong communication plan is not about having the best technology.
It’s about:
Behavior under stress – Defining Clear Goals – Trust and Relationship Building – Planification – Discipline, and it must remain functional across different levels of disruption, including high-impact scenarios.
Understanding Levels of Disruption (Risk-Based Planning):
Before building your plan, you need to define what you are preparing for. Not all emergencies require the same response.
1 – High Probability:
- Power outages
- Network congestion
- Severe weather (storms, floods, wildfires)
- Temporary evacuations
These are frequent. Your communication plan must work here first.
2 – Moderate Disruption:
Cellular network outages – Infrastructure failure lasting 24–72 hours – Regional emergencies affecting mobility.
Communication becomes unreliable, but not completely unavailable.
3 – Edge Cases – High Impact:
Communication becomes unreliable, but in some cases not completely unavailable.
- Civil unrest
- Intentional communication restrictions
- Confinements – increased surveillance – police drone monitoring
- Civil war / dictatorship / being tracked by government
These scenarios introduce:
Increased need for discretion and autonomy, reduced trust, in individuals, in official organizations and, when they still function occasionally, in communication channels.
What Is the PACE Model? (Military Communication Doctrine)
The PACE model is a communication planning framework used in military operations to ensure reliability in dynamic and high-risk environments.
P.A.C.E stands for:
Primary:
The main communication method used under normal conditions.
Alternate:
A secondary method used if the primary fails or becomes unreliable.
Contingency:
A backup system that works under degraded conditions, often less convenient but more resilient.
Emergency:
A last-resort method used when all communication systems fail.
Why the Military Uses PACE:
In an official military operation context – or when a Private Military Contractor (PMC) is doing a government’s dirty job during a foreign mission, communications are the only way to get resupplied or extracted from a war zone.
The loss of all communications (Emergency) might initiate the escape plan. The loss of all communications almost always means giving up the mission and figuring out your own escape.
In an official military operations:
Communication failure can compromise missions – Units operate in unpredictable environments – Redundancy is essential for survival and coordination.
PACE ensures that: There is always a fallback – Teams can continue operating even when systems degrade – Decisions can still be executed without too much confusion.
Let’s Adapt The PACE Model For Civilian Use:
The PACE framework is highly effective but it must be adapted for civilians.
Here is an example of adaptation:
Primary:
Everyday Communication Tools
- Requires minimal bandwidth
- Often works during network congestion
- A text message may get through when a call will not.
- Messages can be delayed and delivered automatically
Best practice: Keep messages short and action-focused.
Examples: “Safe. Go to Point A.” – “Delayed 20 min.” – “Switch to Plan B.”
Avoid long explanations. It’s about communicate decisions, not a full story.
Alternate:
Reinforcing Communication
- Short phone calls
- Voice notes
- Secondary messaging platforms
Purpose: Most often to reduce ambiguity concerning the situation.
Examples: “I’m ok, Meet you where planned”. All good.” or ” The road was closed, so I had to take a 2-hours detour, but everything’s fine, the children are with me. See you at point “B.”
Keep all details for your meetings in person.
Contingency:
When Networks Fail:
This is the most overlooked layer in civilian planning. They act as a bridge between normal communication and total loss.
Practical tools:
- FRS/GMRS radios
- HAM radio (requires license but highly reliable)
- Vehicle-based communication systems
These tools:
- Do not rely on cellular infrastructure
- Work during outages
- Enable local coordination
Emergency: No Communication Available
At this stage: No phones – No internet – No radios.
Execution relies entirely on:
Predefined meeting points – Timelines and Roles.
Only the execution of the pre-defined plan. It could be, for some of us, to plan using our grandparents’ resistance fighter communications style during WW2, which was:
No technologies involved. Only meeting in places planned in advance. Everyone must know what to do, where to go and what to take with them.
Behavioral Discipline: The Core of Any Communication Plan
Message Discipline: Under stress, people tend to over communicate.
Over communicating creates confusion. Keep it short – clear and controlled.
I.e. Instead of: “Traffic is bad, something feels off, I might be late…”
Use: “Delayed 20 min.”
Predefined Language (Simple Codes):
You don’t need complex encryption. You need shared meaning. Examples:
- “All good” → No action required
- “Running late” → Delay but proceed
- “Change of plan” → Switch location
- “Go now” → Immediate action
Benefits: Faster decisions – Less confusion – Reduced information exposure
Decision Triggers (Remove Hesitation):
Hesitation is a major failure point. Try to define triggers in advance:
- No contact for 2 hrs → Move to Point B
- Network down → Switch to radio
- Missed meeting → Proceed to fallback
Timing Protocols (Critical for Coordination):
Hesitation is a major failure point. Try to define triggers in advance:
Without timing rules: Teams miss each other – Plans break down
Try to Define: Waiting times – Movement deadlines – Final cutoffs.
Example:
- Wait 30 minutes at Point A
- Move to Point B
- Then proceed to final location
Adapting Your Plan For High-risk Scenarios:
High-risk scenarios change 100% of the communication environment: be it by technology or in person.
In some cases, such as civil war or restricted communication (i.e. government imposed blackout), you might deal with: Monitoring – Restrictions – Communications that may be observed or delayed.
Watch who you talk with. Avoid sharing exact locations, detailed plans, or sensitive information.
Building a Reliable Team:
Your plan depends on people; not just systems.
Define Clear Roles, exemple:
- Coordinator,
- Navigator,
- Medical,
- Logistics, etc
Prioritize high-value skills, for example focus on:
- First aid / wilderness & remote First Aid
- Navigation (map & compass)
- Movement planning,
- Improvised cooking,
- Self-defence skills, etc
Building a team is not easy. Communication and leadership are essential, egos and conflicts must be put aside.
Make sure to involve the right people. Ask yourself: What are their values? Are they reliable people?
Diversify as much as possible, different life experiences, ages and skills are an asset.
All together, define each role within the team according to each person’s skills.
The goal is to bring people together into a cohesive unit and being able to act during hard times.
Create your emergency contacts:
- Share all contact details
- Include medical information
- Phone number of people you might have to call, in case of a natural disaster, like your insurance company or utilities service provider.
- Keep all paper backups inside a waterproof bag.
Meeting Points: Your team’s emergency meeting place.
If you are in an Emergency situation, remember: PAC-E – It is the loss of all mean of communication.
You should have planned ahead safe and familiar places where you team can go for protection or reunite and work on the next step.
According to the threats you are facing, and your level of preparedness, your team could meet either indoor or outdoor.
Indoor Meeting Point: Secure – Known to all – Equipped with basic supplies.
This could be a safe place designed for this purpose. Such as the house of one of your team member. Emergency food, and some gears, would be available for your team members, while all of you are working on the next step.
It requires that every team members show up with their own emergency kit, otherwise you have to plan ahead enough gear for everyone.
Outdoor Meeting Point: Outside immediate risk zone – If possible accessible via multiple routes.
In extreme cases, having an out-of-town meeting place can help you to reunite if you can’t stay home and need to leave your neighbourhood.
This meeting place could be, for exemple, a cabin you all know, lost in the middle of nowhere.
In this case, you need to plan how to carry at least your emergency bags, including your gear and all stuff you need.
Movement and Evacuation Planning:
Movement is often more complex than communication.
Try to plan for multiple routes, different conditions (day, night, seasons) and limited transportation. Be realist and ask yourself: What if roads are blocked? Can you reach the location on foot? by bicycle? Etc.
Training and Repetition: Making the Plan Work
Your plan should be updated regularly, especially during unstable times. A plan that is not practiced will mostly fail because under stress people rely on habits. Training builds those habits.
Make some realistic scenarios about facing a sudden emergency, for example discuss and plan according to the latest threats following some political events.
That’s not something that’s been lacking over the years…
Final Reality Check: Keep It Practical
As a civilian facing an emergency, there is no perfect solution that works 100%.
You are not part of a Combat Unit assisted by Air Forces, training full- time for every possible scenario.
You are civilians, parents, friends, who try to do their best protecting people who depend on you while managing safety and limited resources during a challenging time.
The 4 Questions Your Plan Must Answer: Where do I go? – When do I move? – What if communication fails? – How to deal with food and water?
If your system answers these questions in degraded or high-risk conditions, you are operating at a level far above the average civilian. And in a real emergency, that difference matters.