Invent the first day

Reedford needs a day-one communications plan, not a promise that normal service will return soon. The clinic may have two useful paths: a powered satellite dish for the shared operations site and direct-to-phone text service for short field updates.

Make the proposal specific. Choose the clinic or gym as the communications point. Put the kit, instructions, password, cables, battery or generator connection, and a trained backup person in one known place. Decide which staff member sends the hospital an update, what information each update includes, and when it will be sent.

Use phones for messages that fit their limits: location, head count, urgent requests, and confirmation that a message was received. Use the dish link for tasks that need more capacity. Keep a paper log so staff can reconstruct what was sent if the connection drops.

Test the plan during an ordinary week. Turn on the kit using only the instructions available at the site, run it from the backup power source, and send a real practice update to the hospital. If Rosa’s team cannot do that before noon on the first day of an outage, the plan is incomplete.