Chapter 24 · Vehicle evacuation24.8 Two-car convoy
Chapter 24 · Vehicle evacuation

24.8 Two-car convoy

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Before you start

  1. Split up people, pets, and cargo. Each car carries at least a driver and a front passenger who navigates and communicates. Each car carries its own first-aid kit, water, food, paper map, and a copy of the plan. Split up the pets according to where they travel most safely; if they ride in the same car, each one in its own carrier or harness.
  2. Medicines split up: each person carries their own; the pets' medicines go in the car where the pets ride.
  3. Choose the lead car. Usually the one with the longest range and best visibility. The lead car sets a comfortable pace, without sudden lane changes.
  4. Agree on communication:

◦ Cell phone: text before calling (uses less network and battery). The front passenger handles it; the driver does not touch the phone.

◦ FRS radios (no license required) or GMRS (an FCC license with no exam that covers family members). Choose a main channel and a backup channel. Real-world range on the road: limited, even more so among trees and hills. See chapter 19.

◦ Simple signals with the lights: hazard lights = "I need to stop"; flashes of the high beams = "attention, check the radio or the phone."

  1. Set the regrouping points on the sheet: large places that are easy to find and have services (a specific gas station or a big-box store parking lot in each town along the route), roughly one every hour of normal driving, plus the final destination.

Protocol if you get separated

  1. Nobody stops on the shoulder to wait. It is dangerous and it does not work: the other car may be ahead or behind.
  2. Both continue to the next regrouping point along the agreed route.
  3. Send a text to the other car and to the out-of-state contact: "Separated. Heading to [point]. Time: __."
  4. Wait 30 minutes at the regrouping point (or the time you agreed on).
  5. If the other car does not arrive, continue to the next point and then to the final destination. The out-of-state contact is the "switchboard": each car reports to them and they inform the other.
  6. If a car changes route (closure, flooding), immediately tell the other car and the contact the new regrouping point.