"
For communication we still plan on having our cell phones, apparently there is good cell service out there."
From personal experience - and I mean... combat experience in Bosnia...
In your case, the best (=most reliable and dependable) cellphones may well be the old Nokias from the mid-'90s, or the old Motorola 8700-8900, with the pull-out antenna.
Way back then, technology wasn't very sophisticated, so a cellphone would be just that, a wireless telephone, no camera, no fidgety gadgets, no nuthin' but a telephone
BUT
they would "get a fix" on a signal from even just one are acell, and allow you to be connected.
These days, modern smartphones are designed
for the city, where you will find a broadband cell repeated every block,
BUT
they will broadcast with extremely low power to avoid mutual interference.
So the old cellphones such as the ones mentioned above are bullet-proof. With some luck, you can find an old "carphone" with a power amplifier and an external antenna from a car 10-15 years old, it's even better because the oversize antenna (mounted on a gutter just under the roofline) will ensure a radio signal worth your NA$A.
A possible backup is a VHF or UHF radio, or even CB, provided there's a decent ham radio net in the area.
But then, truck drivers are forever logged on CB radio, and there's always plenty of them around.
A "CQ Emergency" call on the truckers' CB channel never goes unnoticed and unanswered.
Pages: 
