Go take the technician license test, its easy and cheap. It'll give you a great introduction. Then pick up a relatively cheap used handheld VHF/UHF radio and start listening to it on the local repeaters, get a feel for how it works. Then start talking. Here's one for 50 bucks: https://www.hamcity.com/store/pc/UV-...MO-10p2789.htm so it's easy to have one for your family in each car.
Handhelds are great to keep in a metal ammo can: any EMP pulse at a frequency able to get through the lid means you'll be too worried about saying "I'M ON FIRE".
After you get used to that, you can see about getting an upgraded license and picking up an old HF radio for long distance comm, and keep that protected also.
The most likely disaster scenarios are the ones like the fires going on now, civil unrest, flooding, etc., and having a ham radio handy will really help you as a source of intel as to whats going on and where.