Preparing yourself and others for an emergency
Personal resilience means being able to adapt, recover, and keep going during difficult times. A good first step is to understand what emergencies could affect you and your household.
You can start preparing with some quick planning tips:
- Check your insurance
- Does it cover emergencies such as flooding or fire?
- Talk to neighbours
- Who might need help in an emergency or during extreme weather?
- Find out what arrangements are in place
- At your workplace
- At your child’s school
- Teach children about emergencies
- Make sure they know how and when to call 999
- Learn some basic first aid
- This could help you and those around you
- Plan for pets
- Think about food, shelter, and care in an emergency
- Advice for pet owners
- Agree household contacts
- Make sure everyone knows how to reach each other during an emergency
- Plan ahead for travel
- Check the weather forecast before making long journeys
- Keep some basic kit in your car
- Blanket or extra clothes
- Water and snacks
- Phone charger
- Know your nearest Welcome Space
- A Welcome Space is a council or community venue open for residents to visit or spend time, meet other people, feel safe, find shade in hot weather and warmth in cold weather
- Find Welcome Spaces in Swindon
Build an emergency kit
Having a home emergency kit is not something most of us consider, but it can be very helpful and one of those things you wish you had in place. It can also be a fun family activity, similar to planning an evacuation route.
Things you may want to include:
- Emergency contact numbers written on paper (doctors, school, vets, friends, relatives, workplace)
- Battery-operated or wind-up torch
- Battery-operated or wind-up radio
- Small first aid kit and essential medication
- Bottled water and long-lasting snacks
- Copies of key documents such as insurance and birth certificates
- Spare glasses
- List of prescribed medicines you or your family rely on
Safely turn off utilities
It is important to know how to turn off water, gas, and electricity supplies in your home. Make sure everyone in the household knows where to find them.
- Gas
- Usually outside, near the gas meter. It is rare you would need to turn this off, but it is important to know how.
- Water
- Often under the kitchen sink, though sometimes in the downstairs bathroom. Search around if you are unsure.
- Electricity
- Controlled from the fuse board, which can be in different places. Familiarise yourself with it, especially if you move into a new home.
Register for extra support
If you or someone in your household relies on electricity, gas, or water for medical or daily needs, you can join the Priority Services Register.
This free service lets utility companies know you may need additional help during an outage or emergency.
Find out how to register on our vulnerable people in emergencies page.
Plan evacuation routes
Although most households will never need to evacuate, it is useful to spend some time thinking about it.
This could include:
- identifying the nearest and safest exits. For example, which windows could be used in a fire.
- making sure everyone knows how to escape bedrooms at night
- knowing where vital documents are kept (but only retrieve them if safe to do so)
- checking everyone understands what to do if they hear the fire alarm
- making sure the household knows what the carbon monoxide alarm means and the next steps
We are not expecting families to do fire drills at home, but for households with children it can be reassuring (and even fun) to practise what to do, just like they do at school.
More information
- Learn more about personal resilience and building an emergency kit on the Wiltshire and Swindon Prepared website
- Find out how you can be prepared as a driver
Stay prepared and informed
Remember, if you need urgent support, help is always available. Call 999 in an emergency or 101 for non-urgent situations.
For trusted updates and local information during an emergency, visit our staying informed in an emergency page.