Hope this helps...

One place to find info would be a local ham club. Might be the best place to get first hand detail that you see and hear with your own senses. Speaking as an aspiring writer myself, it's always next to impossible to trust filtered information for vivid story detail. Here's one web resource to help you find a ham club in your area:

http://www.arrl.org/field/club/clubsearch.phtml

As a writer, you rely on your own unique point of view to tell the story. So, one suggestion is to make your ham character new and inexperienced. And thrust into a disaster situation in which he or she is being relied on to utilize radio skills with which he or she is still less than fully confident. Another idea is to get a license yourself. You wouldn't be the first "little old lady with '0' knowledge" to get a ham ticket after a bit of dedicated study. Then you'd certainly have the first hand knowledge necessary to tackle such a character. You'd BE the character. Though I pray the disaster situation wouldn't come along in the bargain. ;)

73,
Daren Bush, KD7GIB