Emergency kit guide: what a household really needs

1. Drinking water and water for essential uses

Store an amount appropriate to your household and local guidance. Home Resilience Check calculates a country-specific baseline and lets you model a longer planning horizon.

Why it matters: a mains-water outage can affect drinking, hand hygiene, food preparation, infant feeding, some medical equipment and sanitation. Water-quality incidents may also make tap water unsafe even when water still flows.

Keep drinking water sealed and stored according to manufacturer or local public-health guidance. During an incident, follow your water supplier or public-health authority if it issues a boil-water, do-not-drink or do-not-use notice. Non-potable water collected for gardening or toilet flushing should never be assumed safe to drink.

2. Shelf-stable food you can actually prepare

Choose foods your household normally eats and can use with the cooking methods that would remain available. Include some food that can be eaten safely without cooking because power or gas interruptions can remove normal cooking options.

Why it matters: “three days of food” is not useful if most of it needs an electric hob during a power cut. The calculator therefore separates total shelf-stable food from ready-to-eat/no-cook food.

Remember dietary needs, infant supplies and pet food separately. Rotate food through normal use rather than treating it as a permanent untouched stockpile.

3. Torch or emergency lighting

Keep battery, rechargeable or wind-up lighting where it can be found in the dark. Keep compatible batteries or charging equipment with it.

Why it matters: official guidance commonly recommends torches; relying on a phone torch can rapidly consume the same battery you need for communications.

4. Radio and more than one way to receive official updates

A battery or wind-up radio provides another information route if broadband or mobile networks fail. Know which local radio stations and official warning channels are used in your area.

Why it matters: emergency instructions can change quickly. Your plan should identify local government/emergency-management pages, utility outage channels and public-health information before you need them.

5. Phone power, cables and backup electrical energy

Keep suitable charging leads with power banks or backup energy. Recharge power banks periodically and test that they can actually charge the devices you plan to use.

Why it matters: Wh capacity alone is meaningless if the connector, charger, inverter or continuous output is unsuitable. Use the backup-power planner to model devices by watts and hours per day rather than relying on marketing claims.

6. First aid, medicines and medical continuity

Keep a household first-aid kit and maintain regular medicines in line with prescriber/pharmacist advice and local rules. Keep prescription/medication information accessible. If someone relies on electrically powered or water-dependent medical equipment, make a continuity plan with the care team or equipment provider.

Important: Home Resilience Check deliberately does not tell you how much prescription medicine to stockpile, change dosages or size batteries for medical devices.

7. Hygiene and sanitation supplies

Consider hand sanitiser, wet wipes, toilet paper, menstrual products, nappies where relevant, rubbish bags and other normal hygiene items your household uses.

Why it matters: hygiene becomes harder when mains water is interrupted. Local public-health instructions must take priority for sanitation and waste disposal.

8. Important documents, contacts and small cash reserve

Keep essential phone numbers, insurance information, emergency contacts and copies of important documents somewhere accessible. A waterproof folder or secure digital backup can reduce the risk of losing everything at once. Consider a modest amount of cash in small denominations because card terminals or ATMs may be unavailable during communications/power failures.

Privacy: you do not need to upload any of this information to Home Resilience Check. The calculator is designed to work without names, addresses or document numbers.

9. Warm layers, blankets and weather-appropriate clothing

Heating systems can fail because fuel is unavailable or because electrical controls and pumps lose power. Keep seasonally appropriate clothing and blankets and consider the needs of infants, older people and anyone who may be more vulnerable to temperature extremes.

Safety: never bring a BBQ, outdoor camping stove or portable generator indoors as an improvised heating or cooking source.

10. Baby and infant supplies

Include nappies, wipes and the feeding supplies your infant routinely needs. A water or power outage can change what is practical, so follow current local health-service guidance rather than generic internet advice. UK Prepare notes that ready-to-feed formula can be useful where water cannot be boiled or bottles sterilised; families elsewhere should check their own health authority.

11. Pet supplies

Include suitable food, water, medication if required, leads/carriers, identification and any bedding or sanitation supplies needed for the animals in your household. Identify evacuation locations that accept pets.

Why it matters: animal needs vary too much for a generic water or food assumption, which is why the calculator asks you to enter your own pet-water amount rather than guessing.

12. Household emergency plan and meeting point

Agree how household members will contact one another, who can collect children, where you will meet if you cannot return home, and who outside the affected area can act as a contact. Write essential numbers on paper.

Why it matters: a well-stocked kit cannot solve a communications failure if nobody knows the plan.

13. Grab bag / evacuation essentials

Your home kit and grab bag are not the same thing. A grab bag should be light enough to take quickly and contain only what helps you reach safety: essential documents/ID copies, medicines, phone charger/power bank, water/snacks, basic clothing, hygiene items and household-specific essentials.

Critical rule: never delay an evacuation order to gather belongings or a kit.