One of the major lessons Brigadier General Ronald Rand of the U.S. Air Force took away from the tragedies of Sept. 11: Never leave home without your Blackberry. When he
evacuated his office in the Pentagon, he left his cell phone and his Blackberry behind. The cell phone would have proven useless, as circuits immediately became jammed, but he
says colleagues who had remembered to grab their handheld wireless devices were able to stay connected with family, colleagues and media.
And Ken Ferber, staff VP of corporate communications with Wellpoint, tells PR NEWS that after a recent crisis preparedness session focused on the havoc of earthquakes
(Wellpoint is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif.), he was finally able to justify Blackberry devices for himself and his staff as a necessity of conducting crisis
communications. (Rand, 703/697-6061; Ferber, [email protected]).