Build a Basic Information Kit
Most households have exactly one way to learn anything: the phone in their pocket. That's a single point of failure. This lesson gives you a second and a third, and writes them down.
If the internet's down, how do you find out what's actually happening? Answer that today, not then.
- Identify at least two ways to receive local information with no internet
- Set up official alerts on the phone you already carry
- Know your local radio frequencies before you need them
- Keep the whole thing usable when the battery is low
- A radio that doesn't need mains power
- Standard
- A battery or hand-crank radio, ideally one that also receives weather alerts.
- Low cost
- A basic battery AM/FM radio is inexpensive.
- Already have
- Your car radio — it works while parked, engine off, in short bursts.
- Your phone
- Standard
- With official emergency alerts switched on.
- Low cost
- Free to enable.
- Already have
- Already have it.
- Paper
- Standard
- A card with frequencies, numbers and websites.
- Low cost
- An index card.
- Already have
- Add it to your household communication card.
Never run a vehicle engine inside a garage or any enclosed space, even with the door open — engine exhaust contains carbon monoxide, which is invisible, has no smell and can kill within minutes. Treat headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion or drowsiness affecting several people as a possible carbon monoxide emergency: get everyone into fresh air immediately and call emergency services. Follow official instructions over rumour, and never delay an evacuation instruction to wait for confirmation online.
Verified guidance · Ready.gov (FEMA) — Emergency Alerts
- 01Count your current ways inWrite down every way you could learn what's happening locally right now. If the list is 'my phone', that's the gap this lesson closes.
- 02Turn on official alertsIn your phone's settings, find the emergency or government alerts section and make sure all levels are enabled. These are broadcast to the area and don't need mobile data.
- 03Find your local emergency stationsLook up the AM and FM frequencies your local authorities use for emergency broadcasts, plus your regional weather-alert channel if your country has one. Do this now — it's a two-minute search with working internet and an impossible one without.
- 04Write the frequencies on paperStation names and numbers on the card. Tape a copy to the radio itself. Preset them into the radio if it supports presets.
- 05Add the official accounts and linesYour utility's outage number and status page, your local emergency management or council alert service, your water supplier, and your local transport authority. Sign up to any text or email alert service they offer.
- 06Test the radio properlyFit the batteries, tune each frequency and check you actually receive it in your home. Thick walls and basements block signal. If reception is poor, find out where in the house it works.
- 07Plan for a low batteryLearn your phone's low-power mode. Know that a car can charge phones. Keep one charged power bank in the supplies box and treat it as the reserve, not the daily charger.
- 08Agree how you'll share itDecide who listens and how the household hears about it — one person checking at set times beats four people draining four batteries.
Verified guidance · Ready.gov (FEMA) — Emergency Alerts
- The radio picks up your emergency station inside your actual home
- Emergency alerts are enabled on every phone in the household, not just yours
- The frequency card is readable by torchlight
- Assuming a smart speaker or streaming radio counts — both need internet
- Buying a hand-crank radio and never testing whether the crank works
- Trusting a single social media account as the official source
- Leaving the car engine running to charge a phone in a garage — never do this
- Older, simpler radios usually pull in weak signals better than tiny modern ones
- Write frequencies as words too — 'ninety-three point five' reads faster in a hurry
- A pocket notebook lets you write down what you heard instead of trying to remember it