 2014 through 2018, Northern California was under siege. I had no cell, no internet, no TV. I didn't know what was going on. Unusually aggressive wildfires. Among them, 2017's wall fire and 2019's Swedes fire. Entire towns burned and trapped residents. Some died, but none was as deadly as the campfire. She called me up to say goodbye on her cell phone. Too often was the terrifying inability to communicate with loved ones, with anyone. I was under the impression for about five hours that my wife had died a fiery and horrific death. Fires burned through phone, cable and power lines, as well as cell towers. I have no cell signal. I can't do anything. There was no information on what to do, where to go, or just how dangerous the situations were. So, Lois Miller connected with fellow Butte County neighbor Marissa Broward Gifford to figure out some kind of solution to the communication breakdown. People like Marissa and Lois, who live in rural areas, have to rely more on themselves and each other during emergencies. It could take too much time for help to arrive, if at all. Lois and Marissa held a community meeting in July of 2019. A hundred people showed up, and they all felt the same. Helpless. It was time for that to change. By the end of that meeting, a solution was proposed. Expert recommendations from two men who happened to be at that meeting, Kevin Fullerton and Theodore Cochran. How are we going to communicate? Radios? Batteries? A network? Come on. We can do this. There's a way. General Mobile Radio Service, or GMRS. It's a two-way radio system similar to those family walkie-talkies, but with much more power and transmission distance. This is WREA 9-1-1. John, are you available? Over. This is Gull Alpha 864. Hi, Lois. In two months, Lois bought her first radio. Soon after, about 75 of her neighbors bought them too. They put units in their homes, in their cars, and installed antennas on their roofs to get the most distance, some 50 miles or more. But a ridgeline was blocking radio signals between the east and west zones of Butte County. Right out here is the dam. So from that point there, going all the way down this ridgeline to Bangor is the affected area. No worries. Theodore had the expertise and a plan. Okay. Well, over my shoulder is the repeater antenna. That antenna will get those radio signals over that problematic ridge and send them miles farther. And that includes a direct two-way signal to the Butte County Sheriff's Office. And we're going to be sharing evacuation routes, the knowledge that we know about the situation, how it's playing out, and what we're doing to get people out of the area. Linda Oslin's neighbors have gathered at her Mount Ida home. They all spent the $250 to $600 for the radios and have nothing but praise for their new lifelines. I can get on that radio if I need to contact somebody very fast without having to remember a phone number or where my cell phone is or something like that. So for me, it's very comforting. This old-school technology has given them peace of mind, something today's technology couldn't. Got the radio. First time we did our roll call, I slept like a log.