[Paul] During emergency situations, you don’t need a ham license to communicate (talk) and can listen anytime.  Main thing is to have a radio at least capable of listening and preferably being able to talk to another ham operator as needed.

[Mick] Paul is correct that in an emergency, no license is required in order to communicate via ham radio. However, I will use this opportunity to encourage everyone here to please consider getting a ham radio license and getting a radio such as the Yaesu FT-60R (there are others, but this is the radio with which I am familiar). They have a range of anywhere from 5 miles to over 50 miles (if within reach of a repeater or if you have excellent line-of-sight); and they can be used for relaying messages even across the country, if necessary. For information on ham radio, check out all the resources in the Communications section of the CORAC site.