Emergency Planning

What you can do about emergencies

The best way of dealing with any emergency is to be prepared before anything ever happens.

While it is not pleasant to think of something unpleasant happening, common sense and experience show that being prepared beforehand make an emergency much easier to cope with.

Preparedness means thinking of what could happen, then thinking through, using common sense, what you and your family would need, to be able to cope with that situation.

Inform Yourselves

The first stage is to inform yourselves about past and possible future events. By looking at this website, you are taking an important first step in this process.

For more information on types of emergencies.

Family Emergency Plan

The next stage is to get together as a family and create a Family Emergency Plan.

Remember that you and your family may not all be together when an emergency occurs and it will then become important to contact one another. This is where a Family Emergency Contact Plan will be useful.

You and your family will need resources to cope with an emergency situation. We provide suggestions for Family Emergency Supplies to have available in your home.

Not all individuals can easily prepare for and cope with an emergency. Therefore, special consideration must be given to those with Special Needs if they are a part of your family or a neighbour.

If you own animals, either as pets or working animals, you will need to consider their welfare during an emergency. Click here for more information on People with Animals.

How will you and your family know that an Emergency is actually occurring? Emergencies will be notified by public information announcements through the local radio stations.

Being Prepared

By being prepared, you will have greatly increased your ability to cope with an emergency when it occurs, and be able to monitor how the emergency is developing. By being prepared and informed, you will know what you and your family should do.

Being prepared means you not only help yourself and your family, but in the initial stages of an emergency, by being self reliant, you free the emergency services resources to be targeted towards those who are most vulnerable.

Emergencies vary in scale, impact and duration. Should you find yourself in a situation that is beyond your preparedness, you should contact the relevant emergency service.

The Council works closely with the emergency services to maintain its readiness to deal with any emergency and has prepared a leaflet, A Householder’s Guide to being prepared (pdf). Click here to find out more about What the Council does about emergencies.

Helpful information can also be found in the Governments pamphlet, "Preparing for Emergencies" on the Preparing for Emergencies website.