Why is HAM Radio Still Important?
In an age where communication is often taken for granted, it’s easy to overlook the importance of Ham Radio. I often receive questions like, “why would I need Ham Radio when I have a cell phone?” or even better are the people who say “the internet killed Ham Radio”. Let’s see how they feel about that one when they lose power, but I digress.
While, both of the above mentioned tools can be useful in an emergency, HAM Radio differs from these forms of communication in a number of ways. Probably the best reason I can give is that when the grid goes down, the HAM Bands will still be alive and very active. In fact, no matter how bad the disaster, I can almost guarantee HAM Radio will be one of the only forms of modern communication left standing.

http://offgridsurvival.com/hamradiofaq/

I've set up my HF station to receive Weather reports in case the internet goes down and I'm working on being able to send email via HF Radio without the need for internet. This would help stay in touch with other HAM Operators who have set their stations up for this purpose.