That's the deal with Ham radio; amateurs, enthusiasts, former SE asian jungle operators, occasional NASA relay operators, etc.

Good fun - not much chop for keeping the general public informed via cheap transister radios (although, who has those anymore?).

Our state emergancy services broadcast locally (and at strength from outside affected areas) when updates are required - they have dedicated bands and they routinely interject on the major broadcast radio networks - where fires are, when and where cyclones are expected to cross the coast, etc.

Our very local area volunteer fire units use the equivilant of ham and CB bands with reduced licences - they broadcast lightning ground strikes (at this time of year) and fire / tender / tanker updates as the season progresses (which is right now, harvest time, a lot of equipment out in tinder dry conditions subject to highly active evening lightening storms).

The iPhone / WiFi stuff is great .. but it hasn't yet passed into "considered reliable" in local culture - the networks have crashed under stress and nobody wants response to grind to a halt if a tower goes down, etc.