Every home should be prepared for a civil defence emergency to help reduce the impact of a disaster.
Earthquakes, floods, storms, and volcanic eruptions can:
- Ruin your home
- Ruin your possessions
- Result in loss of life or injury
Disasters can happen quickly, and we can’t prevent them but there are steps everyone can take to reduce their impact and recover quickly. It is important to know what you must do before you have to do it.
For information about specific natural hazards and how to be prepared in a civil defence emergency contact:
For information on local civil defence alerts, support and training contact:
Your emergency plan
Every household should develop an emergency plan so you and your family know what to do when a disaster occurs. An emergency plan includes simple things like knowing where to shelter and what the local civil defence warning system is.
Develop a household civil defence plan that includes:
- Where to shelter in an earthquake, flood, or storm
- Assign someone to be responsible for checking the items in your emergency survival kit
- How to turn off gas, water, and electricity at the mains
- How to keep in contact with each other during an emergency
- How to contact your local civil defence organisation for help during an emergency
Other useful advice:
- Learn the local civil defence warning system
- Know the location of your nearest civil defence or community emergency centre
- Learn first aid - contact your local Red Cross or Order of St John office for information on courses
- Learn how to control small fires and escape large ones
- Have a small bag of essential items available for your getaway kit
- Civil Defence acronyms
Your emergency survival kit
You should have an emergency kit prepared with essential items, such as canned food and blankets, for you to access easily during a civil defence emergency. Make sure you know where to find items for your emergency survival kit if you use them for every day use.
Your emergency survival kit should contain:
- Enough food and water for three days
- Canned or dried food - check and renew every 12 months
- Can opener
- Primus or BBQ to cook on
- Bottled water (three litres per person, per day)
- First aid kit and essential medicines
- Toilet paper and rubbish bags for your emergency toilet
- Pet supplies
- Waterproof torches and spare batteries
- Radio and spare batteries – check the batteries every three months
- Emergency clothing (wind proof and rain proof)
- Sun hats
- Blankets or sleeping bags
- Strong shoes for outdoors
- Supplies for babies and small children (food, drink, clothing, toys, activities)
- Special supplies for those with disabilities, hearing aids, mobility aids, glasses
Your first aid kit
Every home should have a complete first aid kit available. Your first aid kit should be complete with all essential items as listed below. The following list of items is recommended by the Order of St John as a minimum guide suitable for a family first aid kit:
- Triangular bandages (2)
- Roller bandages – 50mm (1 roll) and 75mm (2 rolls)
- Sterile gauze – 7.5cm x 7.5 cm (2)
- Adhesive wound dressing – 6cm wide x 1m long (1 strip)
- Plaster strip dressings (1 packet)
- Adhesive tape – 25mm hypoallergenic (1 roll)
- Sterile non-adhesive pads – small (2) and large (3)
- Sterile eye pad (1)
- Eye wash container (1)
- Eye wash solution – saline steritube 30ml (1)
- Antiseptic solution – chlorhexidine steritube 30ml (4)
- Safety pins (1 card)
- Scissors (1 pair)
- Splinter forceps (1 pair)
- Disposable gloves (2 pair)
- Accident register and pencil
- First aid manual
- Card listing local emergency numbers
Your civil defence getaway kit and emergency checklist
It is important to be prepared for a disaster by having essential items ready for you to quickly take in an emergency.
Your getaway kit
Every home should have a small bag for a getaway kit, ready for evacuation. Most of the items you should have in your getaway kit are part of your emergency survival kit.
Other important items include:
- Family documents (birth and marriage certificates, drivers’ licenses, passports, family photos and insurance policies)
- Personal hygiene items (towels, soap,toothbrushes, and a change of clothes)
- Emergency Checklist (your emergency checklist is a list of the things you need to have ready and available for you to take quickly in the event of a civil defence emergency)
The emergency checklist items are:
- Emergency plan
- Emergency survival kit
- First aid kit
- Getaway kit