Preparing for emergencies

In an emergency, go into your home, stay inside and tune in to TV or radio for information.
Call 999 if you or someone else is in immediate danger.

Emergencies can happen at any time. Being prepared reduces the impact of an emergency and the pressure on emergency services.

Follow these 5 simple steps to stay S.A.F.E.R

1. Sign up for alerts
2. Aware of local risks
3. Food and supplies ready
4. Emergency plan in place
5. Relationships built

Sign up for alerts

Register for alerts so you know what’s going on and how to protect yourself:

• sign up for Met Office email alerts to get notified of upcoming severe weather and how to stay safe
• check your flood risk and register for flood Warnings from the Environment Agency
• join the priority services register: if you’re of pension age, have children under 5 or have a disability, your utility provider can offer additional support during an outage (including bottled water deliveries, welfare calls and advice)
• follow London Borough of Barnet on social media for regular alerts
  • follow us on Facebook
  • follow us on X @BarnetCouncil
• follow Metropolitan Police Service Facebook and X @metpoliceuk
• follow London Fire Brigade Facebook and X @LondonFire
• check current alerts form:
  • UK weather warnings | Met Office
  • Flood alerts and warnings | GOV.UK
  • Weather health alerts | UKHSA data dashboard

Be aware of risks

Check Barnet’s Borough Risk Register to know the major risks in Barnet.

Think how you would manage if:

• You had to leave home suddenly for hours, days or weeks. Do you know what to bring? Can you pack it all in 10 minutes? Will you forget anything? Do you know how to turn utilities off?
• You had to stay home for three days. Do you have enough food, bottled water and medicine?
• You lost water, gas or electricity. Could you still cook or clean? How would you get information? Can you stay warm?
• You had no phone signal or Wi‑Fi. Can you contact your loved ones? Where would you meet them?

Remember: any of these could happen at the same time. For example, you may need to shelter inside during a power cut or leave your property and have no phone signal or Wi-Fi.

You can find information about protecting your home and your family from fire by visiting out fire safety page.

Food and supplies ready

Prepare a grab bag of essentials you can take if you need to leave quickly.

Essentials

• torch
• wind‑up radio
• medication and copies of prescriptions
• spare glasses
• spare keys
• change of clothes
• copies of key documents (insurance, ID, prescriptions)
• power bank
• cash or spare cards
• baby supplies
• pet supplies
• first aid kit
• toiletries including hand sanitiser
• snacks with a long shelf life

Keep at home

• 3 days’ worth of food
• bottled water (2.5 to 3 litres per person per day)

Write an emergency plan

Use this simple template to create a household emergency plan so you and loved ones know what to do in an emergency.

• agree on a safe meeting point, ideally a trusted friend or family member living just outside your immediate area
• make sure your family knows about the plan
• print copies

Build relationships

Prepared communities fare better during emergencies.

• get to know your neighbours
• take part in community events
• share information and support
• check out the London Resilience Community Toolkit

Interested in creating a plan for your community or establishing a Community Hub? Contact us at emergency.planning@barnet.gov.uk and we can support you.