Emergency guides: what to do in each case
Reviewed on
What to do before, during and after each emergency, step by step, with official sources.
- ⚡ Blackout: The most common emergency. If it lasts hours, the problem is the food in the fridge; if it lasts days, it's the cold or heat and staying in touch.
- 🕯️ No power, no fire: When there's no electricity, no gas and no safe way to light a fire. Everything in this guide works without cooking and without a flame.
- 🚱 Water outage or do-not-drink notice: It may be due to a burst main, drought or contamination of the supply. If there's a boil-water notice, tap water isn't safe without treatment.
- 🌡️ Heat wave: Heat kills more people than any other weather event in Europe. The most vulnerable are older people, babies, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses.
- ❄️ Cold snap or winter blackout: In winter, a long blackout is mostly a problem of cold. The biggest threat at home is carbon monoxide from heaters used the wrong way.
- 🌊 Flood: More than half of flood deaths happen while driving or walking through flooded areas.
- 🏚️ Earthquake: It can't be predicted. Most injuries are caused by falling objects and glass, not by the building collapsing.
- 🔥 Wildfire: If you live near woodland, fire can reach you in minutes. Leaving early saves lives; leaving late, through the smoke, is the most dangerous thing you can do.
- 🧯 House fire: From the moment the alarm sounds you may have 2 minutes or less to get out. Smoke kills more people than flames.
- 🚗 Evacuation: If the authorities tell you to leave, leave: every minute counts and the roads get jammed.
- 🚙 On the road: A breakdown, an accident or a snowfall can leave you stuck in your car for hours. The most dangerous thing is getting out on a highway without warning other drivers.
- 📡 No phone or internet: In a major emergency the networks get jammed or go down. With an agreed plan and a radio, your family can find each other without depending on phones.
- ⛰️ Lost in the wilderness: Most mountain rescues start with a long route, bad weather or nightfall. Telling someone your route is what shortens a search the most.
- 💳 Cyberattack or payment and communication outage: As in the 2026 supermarket attacks: card terminals, ATMs, the internet or the cold chain can all fail at once.