Prepare for Crises Today – and Feel More Secure Tomorrow

No matter whether it’s a house fire, flooding, or evacuation due to an excavated WWII bomb, making sure you’re prepared for potential emergencies puts safety and security on your side.

Being Prepared for Future Emergencies Means Less to Worry about Today

Germany is considered a safe country. But even here situations can arise where it helps to be prepared. Heavy storms or a power outage, flooding or a house fire, evacuation due to disarming of an excavated WWII bomb, or even quarantine during the pandemic: any of these can affect each and every one of us. If we prepare for such potential occurrences, we will be able to get through difficult times easier.

In order to be optimally prepared for all eventualities, the first question you should ask is: which dangers pose the biggest threat for the region where I live and need to be included in my preparations? For example, the risk posed by flooding is substantially higher for a location near a river or along the coast than it is farther away.

What Do We Mean by Emergency Preparedness Anyway?

In every emergency, being well prepared first and foremost comes down to these two things:

• Knowingwhat needs to be done.

• Having access to the supplies you need in a crisis situation.

The supplies you might need will of course vary depending on the situation. If there is a power outage, a flashlight will be what you need; if there’s a fire, you’ll need a fire extinguisher.

How Can I Prepare Myself for an Emergency Situation?

Preparedness may sound like quite a tall order. But many of these things you have probably already done without really thinking about it – and you probably did them without thinking of it as “being prepared”. If you have Band-Aids at home, a flashlight, or some extra food, you’ve actually already started being prepared.

Use the questions below to check how prepared you are for a variety of crisis situations and see if there are areas you should improve:

• Do you have extra non-perishable food supplies? What items should I have in my food stocks and how do I set them up? Read more here.

• Prepared for a possible power outage? How do I prepare food with no power or heat my home and what else do I need to consider? Read more here.

• Have a home emergency medical kit? What kind of things should I include in my home medical kit and what do I need to remember in terms of hygiene if there is a water shortage? Read more here.

• Are important documents ready at hand? Which important documents should I always have in a folder ready at hand? Read more here.

• Do you know how to stay informed? How do I receive emergency alerts and how do I stay informed of updates in an emergency? Read more here.

You will find information on a wide range of different emergency situations in the article “How to prepare for disasters?”

• put out by the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance.