Home preparedness

Food

Choose groceries that provide sufficient energy, can be cooked quickly, do not require much water, can be eaten without cooking, and can be stored at room temperature.

Examples of good foods to have at home:

• Dry goods: Grains, cereals, pasta, rice, couscous, instant mashed potatoes, milk powder, tortillas, hard bread, crackers, salt, spices.
• Tinned foods: Tomatoes, vegetables, fruit, ready-to-eat-meals.
• High-protein: Dried or tinned meat and fish, chickpeas, beans, lentils, cheese in a tube.
• High-fat: Cooking oil, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes in oil, tapenade, peanut butter, nuts and seeds.
• Energy boosts: Fruit custard, jam, chocolate, honey, protein bars, dried fruit.
• Drinks: Coffee, tea, hot chocolate mix, blueberry and rosehip soup, fruit drinks, milk drinks. Ultra-high-temperature (UHT) drinks can be stored at room temperature and have a long shelf life as long as they are unopened.
• Food for children: Gruel, infant formula, oatmeal, tinned baby food.

Cooking without electricity

If the power goes out, the stove and oven obviously won’t work. So make sure you have alternatives for simple cooking.

• Camping stove
• Barbecue
• Fuel
• Matches

Drinking water

• You should expect to need at least three to five litres of water per person per day. Remember that pets also need water.
• Store extra drinking water in containers or bottles so that you are prepared in case of a power cut.
• Freeze water in PET bottles; this way, the bottles can serve both as ice packs and as a drinking water supply. However, do not fill the bottles completely, as they may crack when they freeze.
• Keep a water container at home so that you can collect water from a collection point.
• Boil the water if it may be contaminated. The water should be boiled until it bubbles vigorously with large bubbles.

Toilet and hygiene

It’s a good idea to have a plan for going to the toilet and washing if you’re without water for a long period, for example during a power cut. Without electricity, the water supply and sewage system won’t work.

Good to have at home:

• toilet paper
• wet wipes, hand sanitiser
• diapers, menstrual protection
• plastic bags or garbage bags
• compost bedding or sawdust
• a bucket with a lid.

At Swedish Civil Defense and Resilience Agency's website you can read more about toilet and hygiene without water or electricity

Heating

If it gets cold at home:

• Insulate floors, doors and windows.
• Dress in layers.
• Use alternative heating sources, such as a tiled stove, open fireplace, wood-burning stove or tea lights.
• Gather in one room, hang blankets over the windows and cover the floor with rugs.

Good things to have at home to keep warm:

• woollen garments
• warm and durable outerwear
• hats, gloves, scarves
• blankets
• camping mats
• sleeping bags
• candles
• tea lights
• matches
• firelighters
• alternative heat sources, such as gas or paraffin-fuelled heaters.

Communication

In a crisis, it is particularly important that you are able to access vital public information. Your local P4 station will keep you informed about the situation in society, local weather forecasts, where you can collect water, where to go if you need help, or whether an evacuation is planned.

Good to have for getting information in an emergency:

• radio powered by batteries, solar panels or a hand-crank
• car radio
• a list of important telephone numbers
• spare batteries/power bank, e.g. for your mobile phone
• phone charger to use in the car

Medicine

A month’s supply of medicines

The National Board of Health and Welfare recommends that you keep a month’s supply of medicines if you are undergoing long-term treatment with prescribed medicines, such as blood pressure or diabetes medication. This also applies to you if you use consumables over a long period that are prescribed by the health and medical services, such as stoma dressings or equipment for monitoring blood sugar levels.

Payments

1,000 SEK in cash per adult

The Riksbank recommends that all households keep 1,000 Swedish kronor in cash per adult at home, preferably in various denominations. This is meant to cover a week’s worth of purchases of essential goods.

Make sure you have multiple payment options

• Have accounts at different banks, cards from different payment card providers (such as Visa and Mastercard), and access to a mobile payment service, such as Swish.
• Have multiple options for internet connection.
• Have multiple options for electronic identification (such as BankID and a security token from your bank).
• If you usually use contactless payments (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay), you should also have your physical payment cards available. In the event of an power cut, the cards’ chip can be used to make offline payments.

Pets

Pets also need water, food, and warmth during a crisis. Here are some suggestions for what to include in your pets’ emergency kit:

• Pet food with long shelf life that can be stored at room temperature, such as dry food and canned food
• Water
• Medication
• Blankets
• Transport cage
• First-aid kit suitable for your type of pet

Prepare together with your neighbours

If you know your neighbours, you’re more likely to be able to handle a crisis effectively.

Tips to get started

• Check if there’s any interest in discussing preparedness with your neighbours, your landlord, the property owner, the housing association of the board.
• Review shared resources and spaces, and discuss how they can be used. Could you set up a shared crisis supply storage, and what should it contain?
• Could you set up a meeting room where there’s always a battery-powered radio?
• Review your communication channels. A chat group or Facebook group for the neighbourhood could be a start, as could paper lists of telephone numbers – which, of course, should be voluntary to participate in.
• Draw up a plan for how you can cope in a situation without access to electricity, water or heating. Practise cooking together on a barbecue in the courtyard or similar.
• Think about which of you who might need extra help in a crisis.