While Hurricane Sandy may take out your electricity and your Internet connection, if you’ve got a phone signal, you can still use access Twitter via SMS. This, and a radio, can be a good way to stay up-to-date on what is going on in your area and a good way to broadcast messages out.

Text the word “START” to 40404, and Twitter will reply with the word, “YES.” If you text back your username (without the @sign), you will set yourself up to be able to send tweets via SMS. You can also choose to receive select Twitter accounts, say the National Weather Service @usNWSgov or Michael Bloomberg @NYCMayorsOffice.

The Washington Post has all the details: “ You don’t need a Twitter account to get important tweets sent to your phone. Just text the word “Follow [username]” to 40404 on a U.S.-based phone. For instance, if you want to receive tweets from @CapitalWeather and you don’t have a Twitter account, text “Follow capitalweather” to 40404.” (Via @baratunde).