How do we know When ?

Ok , here goes some of my trade secrets , that I will pass on to others . I have seen all the posts about what to do when SHTF , but nothing really on when we will know . I am a emergency responder and I subscribe to three services which keep me updated on live events . I get pages to my cell phone that alert me to fires , tornadoes , heavy storms , major police actions , haz-mat situations and a variety of other disasters . They cost about 9$ a month for the normal subscriber or 30$ a month for the corporate ( which gives a little more info ) subscriber .
Anyone can subscribe , you just go their sites and sign up , then you will be updated on events in your area as they unfold . You can set them up to post what events you want to get pages for . I even get traffic updates . The sites are http://www.breakingnewsnetwork.com/ , http://www.incidentpage.net and http://www.1rwn.com/ .
I would suggest anyone of the 3 , they are mostly redundant , but I use all three , because sometimes one will pick up something the others don't . I have noticed that most times this gives about 30-60 mins head start on MAJOR events ( World Trade Center ) and about 2-4 hours on smaller local events . Most of your News agencies use some of these to know where to send their crews , so by the time they load up a truck , fight traffic and setup you have lost an hour at least , then it gets fed to studio , rehashed , then produced , then will hit the air . But if your not on radio/tv you won't know till too late what is/has happened .
I hope this is helpful , I live on my paging system . It does become addicting , I will leave town for pleasure and I still have to keep myself posted on my local situations .
Another cheap and easy way to follow the situations as they are happening , is to use a Smartphone , they have scanner apps that will allow you to listen in on fire/police radio live . I don't normally scan , unless I get a page for a certain event , then I will load up that county and listen as I head there , so I am prepared when I arrive on scene .

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