A Call for Civil Organizing of Your Block—
Guarding for a Dark Night of the Web

The Great Disconnection

Your phone makes an odd sound. You take a look and read a message you’ve never seen before.

“THIS IS AN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY.  THE PRESIDENT HAS DECLARED A NATIONAL CYBER EMERGENCY. ALL INTERNET AND CELLULAR PHONE COMMUNICATIONS WILL BE UNAVAILABLE FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD OF TIME BEGINNING AT 10PM EASTERN.  NO IMMEDIATE THREAT IS PRESENT.  PLEASE STAND BY FOR FURTHER COMMUNICATION.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.”

You wonder if this is for real. You check the time. It’s 9:50 PM. Only ten minutes until the shutdown begins.

Take a moment to consider. How does this make you feel? Name your worries. What concerns do you have? How might this impact you? What actions do you take? 

A version of this scenario was presented in the book Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything–Even Things That Seem Impossible Today by Jane McGonigal. Jane calls it “The Great Disconnection” as one of the scenarios raised by The Institute for the Future. She goes on to explain that this is not a far-fetched scenario. Each year for the past 5+ years, governments around the world–including democracies like India–have imposed Internet and cell phone shutdowns on populations that they govern. 

The Communications Act of 1934 authorizes the President to suspend rules and allows government control of communication facilities for national defense or security. A bi-partisan effort called Unplug the Internet Kill Switch Act of 2020 attempted to remove this authority from the President, but the bill failed to pass into law. As I write this, it is a constitutionally valid act for the President to unilaterally shutdown the internet and the cellular phone networks.

Of course, this is just one of many ways in which we could lose our internet and/or cell phone access. On October 20, 2025, numerous businesses including Lyft, Venmo, and United Airlines had to suspend services due to a massive internet outage caused by Amazon’s Web Services, the result of a technical update that failed. Cyber-criminals, cyber-terrorists, and extreme weather conditions are continuous threats in today’s world.

No matter how it happens, when you consider the ways in which you stay in touch with family, friends, and work associates, this scenario is likely very concerning. We are all quite dependent on our communication devices. Not having access to electronic communication makes us feel very vulnerable!

The good news is that there are several things that can be done to prepare for such an outage, regardless of its cause.

Power to the People

If ever there was a reason to consider organizing your community, this is a good one. Creating a Civil Emergency Response Group in your neighborhood is a great idea at this moment if you live in the USA. Consider some of the things you might prepare for with this kind of neighborhood organization.

1. Creating a Backup Communication Network. Modern walkie-talkies have ranges up to a mile. There are downloadable mesh network apps that help create Bluetooth-enabled local networks with anyone nearby (within 330 ft away). According to author McGonigal, one app that can do this is called Bridgefy. Using a series of small hops, messages can reach over great distances, even during internet, cell phone, or power outages (as long as your phone is charged). You do need people to sign up in advance, while the internet is online. After that, you have a mesh network that is independent of other technologies. There are similar apps like Signal Offline Messenger, Fire Chat, and others in your phone’s app store.
   Having a licensed HAM amateur radio operator in your communication network extends your reach from several miles to global.
2. Planning and Storing Emergency Rations. Water, Food, and Medical Supplies, These should be available for a pre-determined time. How long do you want to be without? Most experts advise on a minimum of 3 days up to two weeks. Of course, today’s survivalists often plan for as long as possible.
3. Assisting with Vulnerable Population Protection. Disabled people, elderly and undocumented immigrant neighbors all represent populations that might need assistance and/or protection during emergencies. Find out who lives near you.
4. Providing for Neighborhood Safety. Neighborhood watch and coordination with local police are two ways that communities can organize to protect themselves.
5. Assisting with Evacuation Support. Rapid, on the ground support for evacuation efforts can be crucial to saving lives. Coordination with local emergency responders can be managed with a Civil Emergency Response Group–or you could do the evacuation if there are none to coordinate with.

Cool Block Program

In 2023, my neighborhood participated in a program called Cool Block. We spent eight months in a monthly potluck get together studying emergency preparedness, water stewardship, neighborhood safety, lowering our carbon footprint, and more. In the two years since we started our Cool Block program, our neighborhood cohesion has strengthened dramatically. Text groups, mutual aid, walking clubs, movie clubs, game groups, fire circles, and so many more activities have blossomed throughout the neighborhood.

The hyper-local element means we can knock on the door of our neighbor if the Internet goes down–and we’re not meeting them for the first time. However, if we need to find out what’s happening on the other side of town, or at the hospital, or at the local school, we don’t have a fast way to do that in an outage. A local walkie-talkie or Bluetooth mesh network could be exactly what we need.

After I publish this post, I plan to let my Cool Block neighbors know about the ideas in this post. What would be helpful to our community? It sounds like an opportunity for another potluck party!

If you’d like to try out the Cool Block program or a similar one like Transition Streets, contact us at [email protected] and we’ll share what we’ve learned. If we can, we’ll be happy to lend a hand as you get started.