The better answer is (I do this for a living) - is it depends.
Option 1 a If you are only doing this locally (city/county), a CB radio (least cost) may work. The people you would want to stay in contact with will need to have a radio and a base antenna installed.The CB band during storms will be limited.
Option 2: Study and obtain your ham license. Chances are there are one or more repeaters in your area that will have widearea coverage. This may be city only or county wide. Mileage varies. You’ll still need to have someone at home (or wherever) that is also licensed.
Option 3: Find a radio shop in your area that owns or can recommend a wide area commercial radio system. Many DMR and NXDN commercial systems are around, but it is a pay service. Can be a monthly charge, air time, or both. Each radio will be billed. Will only work where there is coverage.
Outside of that, you will be limited to what the cell providers in your area has for coverage. If you are really rural, it may be an independent company that has full or limited roaming agreements. Again, you’ll need to see what works where you are.
The cell “boosters” really do not provide much. The key is having a quailityexterbal antenna and a phone that supports a cradle to bring It’s signal to that external, roof (not glass) mount antenna. Local radio shops can help.
a booster will not help to bring in a signal from a tower. Remember, cellphones these day are digital and many people think it works the same as the old analog cells. Boosting a signal (either direction) that has a poor quality signal only increases the bit error rate, thus having an unusable data stream. Sure the full will see full bars, but it’s full bars of junk. Think of it like turning the volume up fully on an am radio station. You might be able to hear some audio, but it’s mostly masked by static and other distant stations.
So if only local, you have options. If you are talking about great distance, cell is your only really cost effective option. Verizon and AT&T have the most roaming agreements and built out infrastruture.