Are you Ready? - Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum

Major Incidents do occur from time to time. You don’t panic when a light bulb goes out because you know how to replace it. Its always good to be prepared.

Have you ever thought what you would do if you found yourself in a situation that was out of the ordinary? For example, if you were flooded by a burst water main, if you were evacuated from your home following a gas leak in your road or you were stuck in a traffic jam for several hours during a heat wave.

Being prepared in advance means that you will deal with the issue more effectively at the time. If you know what to do in advance then you are more likely to make the right choices – and it can be very easy to prepare a plan for your home and family. Being prepared can help reduce the effects on people’s lives, reduce the need for support from others and enable you to support the vulnerable members of your street and community.

Household Preparedness | UK Emergency Preparedness

How to prepare and respond to emergencies

To help you plan for emergencies the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum has prepared a booklet that informs you of how you and your family can be better prepared. Are you Ready Booklet – Our how to prepare and respond to emergencies Guide). The aim of this guide is to provide clear practical advice to prepare for and respond to an emergency.

We are aware there may be accessibility issues with the document above. There is a plain text version of the document below.

Generic preparedness [drop down]
Evacuation [drop down]
Go in stay in tune in [drop down]
Utilities loss [drop down]
Loss of goods and services [drop down]
Flooding [drop down]
Snow/ice [drop down]
Heatwaves [drop down]
Fire [drop down]
Outdoor Fire safety [drop down]
Outdoor water safety [drop down]
Personal safety and security [drop down]
Health and wellbeing [drop down]
Know your Risk
Checklist – The interactive Quiz [to be made by website developer – using our checklist in the are you ready booklet currently]

Are you prepared?

Have you packed an evacuation bag?

Have you checked flooding risks in the area?

Example question to go here?

Your preparations are going well, congratulations! Make sure to keep all your plans and information up to date!

You have not made enough preparations. Perhaps because you don’t like to think about the subject. Remember, the more prepared you are – the better you will be able to cope, respond and recover from an emergency – explore our website to find out more and read the Are you Ready Booklet

Refine Answers

Yes No

Personal preparedness

Household Emergency , and Evacuation Plan

Create a House Emergency , and Evacuation Plan Know the location of your water, gas and electricity supplies to your home and find out how to turn them off Ensure you have insurance and know where the documents are located.

Emergency contact – ICE ‘In Case of Emergency’ Numbers

Find an ‘ICE’ partner, ICE stands for ‘In Case of an Emergency’. This is a quick and easy way for the emergency services to find the contact details of your next of kin if you are injured and unable to tell them who to contact.

This simple idea of storing the word ICE in your mobile phone address book before the name and number of the person you would want to be contacted, could be invaluable. Make sure that:

The person whose name and number you are using has agreed to be your ICE partner.
Your ICE partner has a list of people they should contact on your behalf and knows any important medical information.
If your ICE contact is deaf – type ICETEXT – then the name of your contact before saving the number.
If you want more than one ICE partner, simply save them as ICE1, ICE2 etc.

Helpful Apps to have in case of emergencies

[disclaimer recognise this content is not owned by us].

Emergency by – British Red Cross this free emergency app, can help you deal with emergencies. The app is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play. It allows you to:

First aid app is another free download that can help in emergencies. The app is available in the Microsoft store, apple app store and google play. It gives information on how to prepare for and help with first aid emergencies

Baby and Child First Aid app is also available for download. This free app is designed to keep children and babies safe. Download it from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app provides simple and easy first aid advice, and also allows you to record a child’s medication needs and any allergies.

CitizenAID – It is understandable that most people would not intuitively know what to do if confronted by a gunman, knife attacker or suspect bomb. The citizenAID App provides the guidance to learn a safe response to protect yourself and help you save the lives of others.

The ProtectUK App The App supports businesses, helping them to protect and prepare their customers, staff and premises against the threat of terrorism, whilst helping them increase their overall security. With preparation comes protection. Learn to protect and prepare with ProtectUK. All information is also accessible via https://www.protectuk.police.uk/

Gov Alerts

The gov is developing a system here’s the link to find out more information https://www.gov.uk/alerts

Grab-bag

Consider putting together a grab bag. If you’re asked to evacuate your home during an emergency a bag containing essential items could prove vital. It is not necessary to have this bag packed but you should know where to find the items in a hurry.