What to do in an emergency

Emergencies occur at any time of day or night, with little or no warning. Knowing what to do and being prepared is vital and there is no substitute for prevention.

Suffolk Joint Emergency Planning Unit have published a credit card sized 'fridge magnet' guide (z cards) that can be picked up from Customer Services at our Council Offices.

Central Government have produced a Preparing for Emergencies leaflet which contains information on how you can best help yourself and your family in emergencies. A lot of this is based on common sense advice and may seem obvious or familiar to you, but it has proven to save lives and mitigate the effects of disruption in the past.

In the majority of incidents, you will be advised to shelter (Go in), remain there until further advised by the emergency services (Stay in) and listen to local radio (Tune in)

  1. Go indoors - close doors, windows, pull curtains and blinds and shutdown ventilation systems if it is safe to do so, and move to the opposite side of the property away from the incident. Unless there is an obvious risk to the property, this will give you good short term protection against the vast majority of hazards.
  2. Stay indoors - until you know more about the situation and the appropriate action you need to take to protect yourself further. The action you should take will be different depending on the nature of the incident; you could put yourself at more risk by not waiting for further instructions.
  3. Tune into - local radio and television to find out more about what is happening. The local radio stations and frequencies are provided below.

Go in - Stay in - Tune in

  • BBC Radio Suffolk 95.5, 95.9, 103.9 and 104.6 FM
  • BBC Radio Cambridge 95.7 and 96.0 FM
  • BBC Radio Essex 95.3 and 103.5 FM
  • BBC Radio Norfolk 95.1 and 104.4 FM
  • Heart FM 96.4 and 97.1 FM
  • Kiss FM 105 -108 FM