A radio in the cupboard is not a plan

Most of us own a wind-up radio somewhere, usually at the back of a drawer with a dead battery inside. When a storm takes down power lines or a flood closes the roads, that radio becomes one of the most useful objects in the house — but only if it works, if you know where it is, and if everyone in your household knows how to use it. Testing is what turns a piece of kit into a genuine plan.

The principle is simple: information and contact are the two things that keep people calm and safe when normal systems fail. Mobile masts can lose power, broadband goes down with the electricity, and local radio often carries on broadcasting. Your job is to make sure you can reach both.

Test your radios once a month

Pick a regular date — the first Sunday of the month works well — and spend five minutes doing the same checks each time.

• Switch on using battery power only, with the mains lead unplugged, so you are testing the version of the radio you will actually be relying on.
• Tune to BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz long wave if your set receives it, then find your local BBC station on FM or DAB. Write those frequencies on a label stuck to the back of the set.
• Listen for a full minute rather than a second. Weak signals come and go, and you want to know whether reception is reliable in the room where you keep the radio.
• Test it in your likely listening spot. Kitchens with thick walls or metal appliances can swallow a signal that works perfectly on a windowsill upstairs.
• Try the hand crank or solar panel too. Twenty turns should give you several minutes of listening on a decent set — if it doesn't, the internal battery is probably past its best.

Note anything that needs attention in the same place each time. Patterns show up quickly: a set that only works near the window, a crank that has stiffened, a battery that drains in a week.

Batteries, chargers and the kit that keeps working

A radio is only as good as its power supply. Keep a spare set of the right batteries for each device, still in their packaging, and check the expiry date at your monthly test. Batteries left inside a radio for months can leak and destroy it, so take them out if the set will sit unused.

• Keep a charged power bank for phones and torches, and top it up on the same day you test the radio.
• Store batteries somewhere cool and dry. Cold garages shorten their life, and heat is worse.
• Wind-up and solar radios are useful, but crank handles are the first thing to fail on cheap models. Test them properly rather than trusting the label.
• If you have a car, remember it can charge a phone. A short drive with the engine running will top up a handset when the power is out.

Agree a check-in schedule before you need it

When phone networks are busy, voice calls are the first thing to struggle. Text messages are lighter on the network and often get through when a call won't, so build your plan around them. Agree something concrete with the people you care about — not "we'll keep in touch" but a schedule.

A workable version: if power or phone service goes down, everyone sends a short message at 8am and 8pm. One line is enough — where you are, that you're safe, whether you need anything. That keeps batteries and network capacity for the moments that matter.

• Choose an out-of-area contact, a friend or relative two or three counties away who can relay messages between family members.
• Agree a meeting point, such as a neighbour's front garden or the local library, in case you can't reach each other any other way.
• Save emergency numbers under clear names and write them on paper as well. If your phone dies, the paper still works.
• If you might need to contact emergency services without speaking, register for the emergency SMS service in advance — it has to be set up before you need it.

Neighbours, contacts and the paper list

The most effective emergency plan on a British street is usually a small one: three or four households who know each other's names and numbers. Swap details with the people either side of you and across the road, particularly anyone living alone, anyone with mobility problems, and anyone caring for someone else.

• Write a contact card for each household: names, mobile numbers, a landline if there is one, and any regular medical need. Keep one copy by the door and one in your emergency box.
• Ask whether anyone nearby is on the Priority Services Register, which energy and water suppliers use to identify customers who need extra help during a supply interruption. Helping someone sign up takes minutes.
• Check on the same people at the same point in any disruption — a text at 8am, a knock at the door if there's no reply by lunchtime.
• Keep a printed copy of key contacts in your emergency kit and update it twice a year, alongside your smoke alarm checks.

Making it a habit

None of this needs to be elaborate. A monthly radio test, a charged power bank, an agreed check-in time and a paper list of phone numbers will put you ahead of most households. Run it once when nothing is wrong — on a quiet Sunday, with a cup of tea — and the whole routine takes less time than boiling the kettle twice. Then, when the lights do go out or the rain arrives, you'll already know exactly what to do and who to call.