From the "More things change, the more they stay the same" department:

For about 15 years, I had varying degrees of responsibility for disaster planning in major corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area. This was during the time of the introduction of the cell phone but while land line phone service was still predominate.

The problem described here by Art Wach in 1944 is exactly the same problem we worried and fretted about in the 1980's and 1990's in Northern California.

Though there are numerous forms of emergency conditions in both localized and widespread areas, the ability to communicate to coordinate emergency responses is critical. We practiced procedures and had the opportunities to stress our communications systems, microwave cell towers and central telephone exchanges, for real (Loma Prieta Earthquake, October 17, 1989, 5:04 p.m. Pacific time comes to mind.)

There were regular public service announcements and corporate training sessions to drive home the concepts of  communications discipline during emergencies to adults and children. Just like Art Wach's public service ad in Sutton in 1944.