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One of my family members has been stuck just east of Hope, British Columbia[1] for almost two days now. There is currently no cell service, but luckily they hav

One of my family members has been stuck just east of Hope, British Columbia[1] for almost two days now. There is currently no cell service, but luckily they have a Garmin inReach so we can communicate via its SMS feature. For anybody with friends/family in the area, the BC subreddit megathread[2] on this is a good starting place to get information on evacuations, power outage status, road closures, official relevant Twitter accounts, etc. 1: https://goo.gl/maps/CXcNEUmAx8gpF5CTA https://goo.gl/maps/CXcNEUmAx8gpF5CTA 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/britishcolumbia/comments/qubkc6/floodingrain_megathread/ https://www.reddit.com/r/britishcolumbia/comments/qubkc6/flo...

emodendroket 5y ago
The Reddit thread seems to be largely given over to speculation about the complete collapse of society globally which is, in my opinion, getting just a little bit carried away and anyway not really informative.
- beebs93 5y ago
  Yeah, I noticed that a bit, too. I originally meant the megathread post itself. I try not to read too many comments in such threads on Reddit; regardless of the topic ;)
- deanCommie 5y ago
  I mean yes, but when your province experiences over a 4 month period: * Record heat wave * Record forest fires * Record rainfall * Tornadoes for the first time in history * And now record flooding It's hard not to feel a little apocalyptic. Especially while most of the people in charge and seemingly 60% of the voters still want to hand-wave these away as one-offs, and unusual, ignoring the trend or the density of unusual/record event.
  - emodendroket 5y ago
    I think things can get a lot worse without portending "Mad Max"-style scenarios.
javajosh 5y ago
That garmin is a cool toy, but pricey ($400 for the device plus $50/mo for unlimited text service). What does your family member do that they have one? It seems like the kind of thing a park ranger would have, or that someone might rent before going on a long hike in a remote area.
- beebs93 5y ago
  They frequently go camping with their family in the interior of BC so they always have one for emergencies. I agree they can be pricey, but it obviously paid for itself just in this situation alone :)
- porkloin 5y ago
  I live in a very rural area of the US, so I probably have an over-representative sample, but mostly folks I know who own one (myself included) view it at as an essential piece of backcountry safety equipment. If you spend 1 or 2 weekends per month in areas without cell signal (even recreationally, as is my case), it quickly becomes worthwhile even just as a means of emergency communication for people to contact _you_, not to mention the ability to call for rescue if you're unfortunate enough to have an accident where you need to be medivac'd.
  - fragmede 5y ago
    How many of those people have a PS5 ($400+, depending on edition), PS4 ($400 at launch) or some flavor of Xbox ($400 or so, depending on edition). I have friends who own multiple game consoles and don't consider it unrestrained opulence that owning a Garmin Inreach supposedly represents.
    - throaway46546 5y ago
      >PS5 ($400+, depending on edition) I wish.
  - JCharante 5y ago
    I heard that cell phone services near NYC were down during 9/11. If a similar event that disrupted regional cell phone towers were to happen again, a garmin inreach would allow me to stay connected right? Since it's not dependent on the infrastructure near the user (and this is assuming a regional event where cell phone services are not overloaded / down in a different country, so that you can reach the 2nd party)

emodendroket 5y ago

The Reddit thread seems to be largely given over to speculation about the complete collapse of society globally which is, in my opinion, getting just a little bit carried away and anyway not really informative.

beebs93 5y ago
Yeah, I noticed that a bit, too. I originally meant the megathread post itself. I try not to read too many comments in such threads on Reddit; regardless of the topic ;)
deanCommie 5y ago
I mean yes, but when your province experiences over a 4 month period: * Record heat wave * Record forest fires * Record rainfall * Tornadoes for the first time in history * And now record flooding It's hard not to feel a little apocalyptic. Especially while most of the people in charge and seemingly 60% of the voters still want to hand-wave these away as one-offs, and unusual, ignoring the trend or the density of unusual/record event.
- emodendroket 5y ago
  I think things can get a lot worse without portending "Mad Max"-style scenarios.

javajosh 5y ago

That garmin is a cool toy, but pricey ($400 for the device plus $50/mo for unlimited text service). What does your family member do that they have one? It seems like the kind of thing a park ranger would have, or that someone might rent before going on a long hike in a remote area.

beebs93 5y ago
They frequently go camping with their family in the interior of BC so they always have one for emergencies. I agree they can be pricey, but it obviously paid for itself just in this situation alone :)
porkloin 5y ago
I live in a very rural area of the US, so I probably have an over-representative sample, but mostly folks I know who own one (myself included) view it at as an essential piece of backcountry safety equipment. If you spend 1 or 2 weekends per month in areas without cell signal (even recreationally, as is my case), it quickly becomes worthwhile even just as a means of emergency communication for people to contact _you_, not to mention the ability to call for rescue if you're unfortunate enough to have an accident where you need to be medivac'd.
- fragmede 5y ago
  How many of those people have a PS5 ($400+, depending on edition), PS4 ($400 at launch) or some flavor of Xbox ($400 or so, depending on edition). I have friends who own multiple game consoles and don't consider it unrestrained opulence that owning a Garmin Inreach supposedly represents.
  - throaway46546 5y ago
    >PS5 ($400+, depending on edition) I wish.
- JCharante 5y ago
  I heard that cell phone services near NYC were down during 9/11. If a similar event that disrupted regional cell phone towers were to happen again, a garmin inreach would allow me to stay connected right? Since it's not dependent on the infrastructure near the user (and this is assuming a regional event where cell phone services are not overloaded / down in a different country, so that you can reach the 2nd party)