Emergency Preparedness Checklist

Who this is for

What a household needs ready before the power, water or roads fail. Seven short checklists cover the kit, a contacts table gives the numbers you would otherwise search for in the dark, and a locations table records where each thing is kept.

Households in areas that see storms, floods, long power cuts or wildfire warnings, and anyone who wants to be sure the torch is where they think it is.

What this helps you track

• What is already in the house, and what still has to be bought or found
• Who to ring, in one place, when the phone battery is the only one left
• Where the water shut-off, the fuse board and the emergency kit actually are
• Whether the kit is still complete after a year of borrowing from it

How to use it

1. Go round the house once with the sheet and tick what you can put your hand on now.
2. Fill the contacts table with the numbers you would need if the internet were down.
3. Write where each item lives in the locations table — the cupboard, the shelf, the car.
4. Decide the quantities yourself, based on how many people and pets you have and how long you might be cut off.
5. Buy or gather what is missing, then tick it off; keep the sheet with the kit.
6. Repeat the walk-round once a year, or after any emergency that used the kit.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How much water and food should I keep?

The sheet does not say, on purpose. The right amount depends on how many people and animals are in the house, how long your area is likely to be cut off and what you can store. Advice from the emergency services where you live is the figure to use.

Is this the same as a home emergency information sheet?

No. The information sheet records the facts of your house — shut-offs, meter locations, insurer. This one is a preparation checklist: what you have, what you need and where it is. The two are designed to sit together.

Why is there a section for the car?

A vehicle is often where people end up in an evacuation or a breakdown in bad weather, and it is usually the least prepared place in the household.

Can I add my own items?

Yes. On paper, write extra items in the margin of the list they belong to; the browser version lets you add items to any list and saves them in your own browser.