Planning for emergencies is a bit like taking out insurance – you know you need to but you also hope you’ll never need it. And the UK government has issued a list of advice to households across the country advising everyone on exactly what they should be doing to get ready for any possible scenario – including stockpiling key essentials like batteries.
The government runs a website called Prepare.gov.uk which aims to ensure as many households as possible are ready for emergencies such as freak weather, power cuts, major accidents or ‘infrastructure failure’ as well as attacks. Among its list of key advice, the government urges households to stock up on key items including batteries for radios, spare mobile phone battery backs and battery power for any medical equipment.
The UK Prepare website says: “Get prepared for emergencies. Emergencies happen every day in the UK and across the world. They can be caused by severe weather or other natural hazards, by deliberate actions, or as a result of accidents or infrastructure failure.
“They can be events that happen quickly and are over in a few hours, or they can develop and continue over the course of several days, months, or sometimes even longer.
“Consider what supplies you and your household might need during an emergency lasting a few days, such as a power cut or water outage, or situations where you are advised to stay at home or to leave your home (evacuate) for safety reasons.
“It can be helpful to keep these items in one place in your home and ideally somewhere easy to find if the lights aren’t working – if you are escaping your house due to a fire you should not take anything with you at all. You could consider keeping items you might need to take with you if asked to leave your home quickly in a spare bag – you might hear some people call this a ‘grab bag’.”
As well as urging people to prepare documents, check smoke alarms and talk to neighbours, the government urges households to stock up on batteries and key battery powered items.
It says: “Put together an emergency kit of items at home. This could include:
“Battery or wind-up torch – torches are safer than candles. Portable power bank for charging your mobile phone. Battery or wind-up radio to get updates during a power cut – a car radio can be used, however in severe weather it might be safer to stay inside.
“Spare batteries for torches and radio and a backup battery for any medical equipment you rely on.”
Otherwise, the government also says households should stock up on tinned food, bottled water and baby supplies, if applicable.
It adds that you can build up your stockpile over time: “Rather than buying all the items at once, you could just add to your emergency kit when you are able and build it up over time.”