How to prepare yourself for when an emergency strikes

How would you prepare for an emergency? How would you cope? And what about your relatives, friends, neighbours and colleagues?

These are the questions the government wants people to ask themselves, as emergency planners warn of growing threats from heatwaves and flooding, as well as potential cyber attacks by hostile states that could cripple vital energy infrastructure.

This summer's wildfires, which scorched fields in areas including Swallowfield in Berkshire, Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and forced the closure of the A31 in the New Forest, have highlighted just how vulnerable communities can be to natural disasters.

The government says there are a number of simple but effective steps everyone can take to stay safe and better prepared should disaster strike.

Back in August, the threat of wildfires saw the government send out emergency text alerts to people's mobiles.

The siren-like alarm was so unexpected it interrupted live TV programmes and theatre shows, catching millions off guard.

While that was a deliberately dramatic move to catch attention, the government's website advises people to keep a list of items at home in case of an emergency.

It suggests you have the following close at hand:

• Battery or wind-up torch

• Portable power bank for your mobile phone

• Battery or wind-up radio to get updates during a power cut

• Spare batteries

• First aid kit

• Hand sanitiser and wet wipes for hygiene purposes when the water is off

• Bottled water – there is no standard figure as emergencies can vary in duration

• Non-perishable food such as tinned meat, fruit and vegetables plus tin opener

Prof Hannah Cloke is a climate scientist at the University of Reading and an expert in risk and resilience.

She says the idea of having enough supplies ready to keep you going for two to three days makes perfect sense.

"It is a little bit scary for some people I think, but what we really need to think about is how we can prepare better because, in preparing better, it actually becomes less scary," she says.

It is easy to think "yes I get it - but it'll never really happen to me, why bother?"

In Lisbon on business and 1,200 miles away from his wife back home in the Hampshire village of Broughton, Ricardo Evangelista thought that too.

Until that is Portugal and Spain's electricity networks collapsed.

He remembers the events of 28 April 2026 with near perfect clarity.

"Mobile phone signals and data stopped after about an hour and the office buildings' emergency generators also stopped after an hour," he says.

"Then the ATMs stopped working. Supermarkets closed down and public transport stopped working too."

Power was not fully restored for nearly 24 hours. It was the biggest blackout to hit Europe in 20 years.

Dealing with the practicalities of living in a world without electricity was one thing though.

It is a story Ricardo tells about a colleague that stands out, 18 months on from the blackout.

"We had some colleagues in the office who we sent home," he says.

"One of our colleagues lived with her parents. She left to try and make her way home. Two hours later, her father showed up in the office. When he told him that she left two hours ago he looked so worried."

Father and daughter were later reunited and all ended well - but that story and Ricardo's memory of the day the lights went out points to an uncomfortable truth.

Our society is gobbling up energy at a rate of knots.

Cyber security experts say the rapid growth of AI and the data centres that go alongside them in places like Slough and Portsmouth means our energy network is becoming increasingly vulnerable to attack from hostile states.

It is a threat our policy makers are well aware of and another reason why they want us to be able to look after ourselves if our critical infrastructure is targeted.

Rafael Nerezzi is the chief executive officer of the cyber security firm Centrii.

He says: "The digital economy that we have today isn't ready for what's happening with the geo-political.

"Today, energy is more critical than ever. We have technology companies across the country but we haven't done the work to keep them safe and secure."

The government is getting ready to launch a public awareness campaign later this year to help people prepare for emergencies.

Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones also says it will carry out the "largest UK home defence exercise in several decades" next year to ensure the UK is ready "should the worst ever happen".

Ricardo says his experience of the day the lights went out in Lisbon shows two things.

One, how reliant we have become on electricity to carry out even the most basic tasks and how quickly things can take a turn for the worst

Two, how important it is to be ready just in case calamity strikes.

He now has batteries, torches and phone chargers dotted around his house in Hampshire, saying, almost bashfully, he is now the proud owner of several wind up radios.

No doubt the government would be proud of him too.