Get your household ready for an emergency
Whakaritea tō kāinga mō te ohotata
When disaster strikes, your life can become upended very quickly:
- Your safety is an issue, as well as the comforts you take for granted every day.
- It could be hard to travel, communicate with loved ones and get access to essential supplies, such as food and water.
It’s up to you to make sure your whānau know what to do and that you all have what you need to get through. Follow these easy steps to get your household ready.
A household emergency plan lets everyone in your household know what to do in an emergency and how to get ready. Having a plan helps make actual emergency situations less stressful.
Make a plan with your whānau to get through an emergency. Think about the things you need every day and work out what you would do if you didn't have them.
Make sure your home emergency plan also lines up with emergency plans for your work, school, and other places where you spend a lot of time.
Eight steps to include in your household plan:
- Collecting children from school
- Agree on a safe meeting place
- Sort out home and contents insurance
- Put together an emergency grab bag for home and work
- Know how to switch off your utilities
- Get your neighbours’ contact details
- Know the location of your nearest Civil Defence Centre (CDC)
- Make a note of your local radio station frequency
Fill in the form then print it out, stick it on the fridge and make sure everyone knows the plan. Or save it as a PDF and email it to your whānau.
Make sure you have considered all the needs of your household including:
- Disabled people
- Babies and young children
- Pets and other animals
Make a Plan Template - English (PDF file, 190KB)
Make a Plan Template - Te Reo Māori (PDF file, 175KB)
Make a Plan Templates in 21 other languages | Get Ready (NZ Civil Defence)
Every household’s plan will be different, because of where we live, who lives with us and who might need our help.
When you’re making your household plan, remember to include everyone. Think about the requirements of disabled people, older people, babies, young children, pets and other animals.
At home
Your house is already full of emergency items disguised as everyday things!
Your blankets, clothes, and bathroom products are all things you can use in emergencies.
Ideally, you can be self-sufficient for seven days. However, don’t forget neighbours can help each other out by sharing resources, such as gas for a camping stove.
By looking after yourself and your household, you’ll also be helping emergency services focus their limited resources on the people who are most in need of help.
Useful supplies to have at home for an emergency:
- Water – enough for every person in your household for 7 days
- Food - ideally, keep your pantry as full as you can - enough food for 7 days
- Baby food and supplies
- Medicine - make sure you have enough available. If you can get an extra copy of your prescription medicines, then do so
- Toiletries
- Pet food and supplies
- Emergency lighting e.g., torches with spare batteries. Cheap solar-powered lights can be useful as emergency lighting
- A battery-powered or wind-up radio (in case power is out or phone networks are down)
- Plain unscented bleach for treating stored water, and a way to measure it
- Emergency Toilet - a spade to dig a long-drop toilet or two sturdy buckets.
- Barbecue/camping stove and gas
- Blankets
- Emergency grab bag - have some essential supplies in an emergency grab bag by the door
In your car
Plan ahead for what you will do if you are in your car when an emergency happens. A flood, snow storm or major traffic accident could leave you stranded in your vehicle for some time.
Keep essential emergency survival items in your car. If you are driving in extreme winter conditions, add:
- a brush
- a shovel
- tire chains
- windshield scrapers, and
- warm clothing.
Store a pair of walking shoes, a waterproof jacket, essential medicines, snack food, water, a phone charger lead and a torch in your car.
Keep up to date with weather and road information when planning travel.
At work
Emergencies can happen anytime, including during business hours. You can’t predict when they will happen, but you can take actions to make your business more prepared.
Find out what the risks are and how they can impact on your business. Risks include natural hazards, health emergencies and utility failures.
If you have staff, talk to them about the risks they think are most relevant to your business.
For more information visit Emergency planning for businesses | business.govt.nz
Grab Bags or Getaway Kits
A grab bag or getaway kit is a small backpack of essential items you can grab if you need to evacuate your home or workplace with little or no warning.
It's especially important to have a grab bag if you have to walk a long way to get home during an emergency.
You can make your own bag or buy a pre-made one through the Grab & Go website.
Must-have essential items:
- Water and water purification tablets
- Snacks
- Walking shoes
- Cash
- First aid kit
- Hand sanitizer
- Face-covering or mask
- Any medication you rely on, along with a copy of the prescription
- Copies of important documents (e.g identification, prescriptions etc.)
- Rain jacket and poncho
- Warm jacket
- Emergency blanket
- Torch
- Radio (battery or wind-up)
- Notebook and pen
- Toiletries
- Baby supplies
- Pet supplies
Useful items to have:
- Portable phone charger
- Spare underwear
- Gloves
- Dust mask
- Extra batteries
- Whistle
‘Nice to have’ items:
- Entertainment (pack of cards, book, music player, etc)
- Glow sticks
- Matches
- Flash drive with photos of all the rooms and contents
- Small shovel
- Hi-vis vest
- Swiss army knife
- Waste disposal bags