one of the newest and most fascinating things we're learning here about emergency preparedness out here in san francisco is something that people learned from their kids during hurricane katrina in new orleans: the importance of knowing how to text message during a crisis. people in new orleans realized that all the phone lines were jammed, including cell phone lines, and they couldn't communicate. but the youth of the city took it upon themselves to text message each other, and since texting requires less they were able to communicate where their elders couldn't since the technology is new to them. so, as i was saying to my mother last night, if you don't know how, ask your favorite 12 year old how to use the technology and you'll be prepared to communicate in the next crisis.