Emergency planning and resilience

Incidents which can cause disruption to everyday life happen regularly across the world. This can be the result of extreme weather, natural hazards, deliberate actions and infrastructure failure/accidents.

This could affect you in a number of ways including:

• loss of electricity, telephone signal, water or gas
• short term evacuation
• temporary community isolation 
• damage to your property
• injury, severe illness and death of members of your family or the wider community

If you or someone else is in imminent danger during an incident, please call 999.

If an incident were to take place in East Lothian, radio stations would broadcast updates and advice. During a larger scale event, a helpline may be activated which would be announced over the radio and could be listed on our website. Your local radio stations include:

• Forth One 97.3
• Radio Saltire 106.7
• East Coast FM 107.6

Additionally, depending on the scale of the emergency, Government Emergency Alerts could be used.

Current information can also be found on:

• Scottish Water
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• NHS Lothian
• Police
• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• Scottish Power
• Scottish Government flooding updates
• East of Scotland Community Risk Register
• Met Office
• Transport Scotland

It is important to have a household emergency plan. As part of this process, there are a number of things you should consider.

1. how you would get out of your building should there be a fire or flood and where would you go? For example a rest centre or family/ friends house.
2. check that your children's school has the correct contact details and talk to them on what to do in an emergency.

As part of your emergency plans, creating an emergency box is worth considering. This should be stored in a safe place and accessible within the household. 

We recommend that all households build a small emergency kit and keep it in a safe place. This will help prepare you for a wide range of emergency situations and minimise the stress or expense that unexpected events can bring.  More information is available here:  https://ready.scot/prepare/emergency-kit

If you wish to get more involved in helping your community, please contact emergencyplanning@eastlothian.gov.uk

More detailed information can be found at Ready Scotland and the UK Government ‘Get Prepared for Emergencies’ campaign.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service offer a Home Fire Safety Visit (HSFV) Self-Referral which can identify those most vulnerable during a fire or will allow you to download a personalised plan.

Floodline - 0345 988 1188

Power Cut - 105

NHS 24 - 111

Police - 101 (or 999 if an emergency)