Electrical Gremlins....
anyone know of any long range portable 2 way radios?
Here Doug, read this
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/personal-radio-services-prs-keeping-touch
I haven't kept up on all the radio spec/ licensing changes, IE at least some radios have recently been required to go "narrow band" which means that many older/ used radios you might find, ebay, etc, are no longer legal, so you have to be careful.
FRS is a joke. These are very low power, require integrated antennas so you cannot use better ones, and very limited range. One way to slightly improve FRS radios is to use specially made radios for mobile or on your roof. Since FCC rules prohibit antenna improvements, these oddball designs put the transmitter and antenna in a remote unit so you can stick them up higher, remote operated with the cabling which goes into the car to the mike/ speaker.
CB is OK so long as "the skip isn't in" but but in years when propagation is high, CB also becomes a joke. Advantage is, they are CHEAP, and if you can have a base station at the home front, you can improve range with a better antenna
MURS uses higher power commercial quality radios, but there are only 5 channels available. I have no idea how "crowded" things are over that way. You MUST legally use radios approved specifically for that service
The other thing you might consider is for you and your sidekick to get your amateur licenses and use vhf/ uhf, where power is no problem. You are limited in what you can discuss, per FCC. This might not be a really big deal, because even on commercial freqs, "it's a party line" and anyone can scan and receive whatever you say.
I would avoid various "pirate" solutions. People have been caught using Marine band VHF gear "on land", and the fines aren't pretty. Likewise, being "out of band" or using commercial unlicensed gear might be ugly if you get caught, especially in range of the airport and Fairchild. Causing interference to any of "that stuff" would be bad news
Only other thing I can suggest is to motivate the locals to ***** about poor cell service. Years ago when I was workin' for Motorola, we were on our way to Othello, and I called to complain about the (then) cell service, and got dropped while doing so!!!