Household emergency plan

The Be Ready preparedness page has a section headed "Make a plan", and offers a downloadable, printable household emergency plan. It suggests keeping the plan with important documents such as passports, birth certificates and insurance policies so they are easier to gather quickly if needed.

The plan covers a short list of decisions. Work out the best escape route from your home if there is a fire, and what you would do if it floods. Decide on a meeting point with family members in case you cannot return home or contact each other. Agree a backup plan with anyone who might need extra support, particularly if they live alone: for example, that if an outage happens and you cannot call, you or another trusted person will visit them in person. Speak to the neighbours of anyone you would be worried about and agree that they will check on them.

Write important phone numbers on paper and store them somewhere easy to find in a power cut: the number to report a power cut, 105 in England, Scotland and Wales, the people you would want to contact, your regular medication, the frequencies of radio stations you use for news, and insurance policy details.