SOS / Distress Beacon
Turn your phone into a visible & audible distress beacon when you can't reach anyone. Tap a button, then tap the screen to stop.
Honest note: a phone cannot transmit CB or ham radio — those need dedicated radio hardware. This page does what your phone CAN do: a blazing SOS screen-flare, a high-volume siren, and a one-tap 911 call. For real two-way radio when towers fall, see the Resources page and the Emergency Comms guide in the Survival Library.
Built-in phone SOS (no app needed)
- iPhone: press the side button + volume 5 times → Emergency SOS, which can call 911 and alert your emergency contacts. On iPhone 14+ with a clear sky, it offers SOS via satellite when there is no cell service.
- Android: press the power button 5 times → Emergency SOS (turn on in Settings → Safety & emergency). Many new Pixels also support satellite SOS.
- Set up your Medical ID + emergency contacts on the lock screen now so first responders see allergies, blood type and who to call even while your phone is locked.
If you are trapped or stranded
- Use Flash SOS at night toward any open air; the screen can be seen by air & ground search.
- In a collapsed building, use Siren in bursts — sound carries further than shouting and saves your air.
- Conserve battery: turn the beacon on for spells, then off. Airplane mode the rest of the time.
- Three of anything (3 flashes, 3 blasts, 3 fires) is the universal distress signal.
Minutes Matter — Your Region's Protocol
Ten minutes is survivable. Ten minutes spent deciding is not. Pick the region you actually live in, read the plan for the hazard that region actually faces, then rehearse it against the real clock until nobody has to think.
Where do you live?
Washington · Capital Region
Decapitation strike, EMP burst, drone and cruise-missile attack
Extreme Risk
Minutes
Blast & Immediate Fallout — DOWN and IN. Mass between you and the sky.
Planning budget: 4:00 — the low end of the public window, because you plan against the worst case.
Know which rule applies before the alert
For blast and fallout you go down and inside — mass and earth between you and the sky. For a chemical or refinery release you go up and upwind, because heavy vapors pool in basements and low ground. Getting these backwards is lethal, and nobody sorts it out correctly while an alert is going off.
Run The Drill
Practice against your region's real window. Walk it physically — actually go to the shelter spot, actually pick up the bag. Most families discover their plan does not fit in the time they have.
Budget: 4:00
1.Confirm, do not debate
0:00 – 0:24- Read the actual alert text on your phone. A real one names the threat and says to seek shelter immediately.
- Do not call family, do not open social media. The network is already collapsing under everyone else doing it.
- Say the plan out loud once so every person in the house is moving to the same place.
2.Move to the center of mass
0:24 – 1:36- Lowest floor, center of the building, away from every window and exterior wall.
- Best to worst: underground basement · interior concrete stairwell · interior windowless room · interior bathroom (the tub and pipes add mass).
- Concrete, brick and earth stop radiation. Wood and drywall do not. Distance and mass are the only two things that protect you.
3.Take only what is already staged
1:36 – 2:36- Go-bag, water, battery radio, medications, sturdy shoes, coat. If it is not already by the door, you leave it.
- Fill every container and the bathtub with water on the way past — municipal pressure may not survive.
- Kill the HVAC so it stops pulling outside air in.
4.Get low and cover before impact
2:36 – 3:36- Lie flat, face down, feet toward the likely blast, hands behind your head, mouth open so pressure does not rupture your eardrums.
- Never look at the flash — it blinds instantly at distances far beyond the blast radius.
- The flash comes first, the blast wave seconds to a minute later. Stay down until the pressure and the debris have both passed.
5.Then stay put 24–48 hours
3:36 – 4:00- Fallout loses about 99% of its intensity in the first 24 hours. Leaving early is what kills survivors.
- Battery radio only. Wait for official word that the route out is clear.
- Strip and bag outer clothing if you were caught outside, then wash with soap and water — no scrubbing.
What has to be true before any alert fires
Everything above only works if these seven things are already done. This list — not any warning feed — is what actually saves a family.
- 1.One agreed shelter spot in the house, named out loud, that every person including the children can say back to you.
- 2.A battery or hand-crank NOAA radio, tested, where you sleep.
- 3.Government alerts switched ON on every phone in the household.
- 4.Two weeks of water stored, or containers staged and ready to fill.
- 5.A go-bag by the door: meds, copies of documents, cash, shoes, coat, flashlight.
- 6.One out-of-state contact everyone can text, because local lines fail before long-distance does.
- 7.An agreed rally point if the family is split up and phones are down.
Guidance follows public civil-defense doctrine from ready.gov, FEMA and CDC radiation guidance, generalized to region. Nothing here is a warning, a prediction, or intelligence about any actual threat. In a real event, official instructions from your local authorities override every word on this page.