I never have used gmrs for emergency, but Dad who is 80 years old has called on it for me to help him get deer out of the hollow more than once when I was hunting down the road from him through the years. Cell Phone has very Limited coverage on his farm so GMRS with a repeater covers it all. The one time he should have had it with him he did not and he broke his Tibia, he had to wait till some missed him to come looking for him. IF he had his radio with him it would not have been an issue. I ended up finding him setting on the trailer that was attached to the tractor. His broken leg would not let him operate the tractor so he was sitting on trailer till some one found him. I been thinking of putting a radio on the tractor it self because of that.