I've thought of playing around with that stuff, would be kinda fun. Do you need a ham license to use those? Though ham radio is something I've always thought would be fun too. It's an invaluable skill during a time of crisis. The biggest reason cell sites go down is due to lack of access during a power outage. Ex: huge wind storm, highways leading to the towers will be closed or blocked by trees, power will be out mostly everywhere including the cell sites, and nobody can get to them with a generator so the batteries run out.
Landlines go down mostly from cable plant issues (downed lines etc) but depending on how big the crisis is, the COs themselves may even lose power too. With CB/Ham radio there is less centralization so it just works as long as the operators have backup power for their stuff.