Part of the Learn Without Limits CIC knowledge base for ALN families in Wales.

Emergency Preparedness for ALN Families in Wales: Power Cuts, Water Outages and Flooding

Published 24 October 2026

Practical preparation for families supporting children and young people with additional learning needs, disabilities or complex health needs.

A power cut can mean more than finding a torch. It can mean losing access to the only meal your child currently accepts, their communication device, a powered bed or essential medical equipment.

A burst water main can interrupt drinking water, toileting and personal care. Flooding can prevent medication collections, stop a carer reaching your home or cause a school to close unexpectedly.

The UK Government’s Be Ready guidance encourages households to prepare for interruptions to essential services [1]. For ALN families, the useful starting question is:

What would our household need if the services and routines we depend on were temporarily unavailable?

This guide builds on our earlier coverage of flooding and its effects on Welsh families. It brings together practical advice about food, water, medicines, communication and care, with contacts for Welsh utility providers.

Use it as a reference and return to one section at a time. You do not need to buy everything or arrange every conversation this week. Start with what you already have, and use existing pharmacy visits or care reviews to discuss relevant questions.

Need help with an interruption now?

  • Electricity network power cut: call 105.
  • Dŵr Cymru water emergencies: 0800 052 0130.
  • Hafren Dyfrdwy emergencies: 0800 085 8033.
  • Immediate danger to life: call 999.

Keep these numbers on paper as well as in your phone [1]–[4]. If someone depends on medical equipment or treatment, follow their individual emergency plan.

Find what you need:

Start with your family’s everyday needs

Welsh Government guidance recognises risks including flooding, extreme weather, cyber incidents and disruption to essential services [5]. Different incidents can have similar effects at home: no electricity, interrupted transport, difficulty contacting people or changes to care arrangements.

Think through an ordinary day. Which parts depend on electricity, running water, transport, internet access or another person being available?

Your list might include:

  • Preparing food, including using a microwave, blender or feeding equipment.
  • Taking medication and collecting prescriptions.
  • Using powered medical equipment, mobility equipment or a stairlift.
  • Communicating through a device or app.
  • Toileting, continence care and washing.
  • Heating, lighting and familiar sensory supports.
  • Attending school or receiving help from carers and relatives.

Include your child or young person in ways that suit their age, understanding and communication preferences. They may identify something important that an adult’s checklist misses.

Choose the most significant dependency first. Where losing a service could quickly put someone’s health at risk, ask their clinical team or equipment provider for an individual plan [6].

Food your child can safely eat

Official guidance suggests preparing for three days of disruption [1]. That is a household planning starting point, rather than a waiting period before seeking help.

For some households, an emergency food cupboard means tins, crackers and a manual tin opener. Other families must account for allergies, swallowing difficulties, sensory needs or a very restricted range of accepted foods.

An emergency food cupboard is only useful if the person can safely eat what is in it.

Think about familiar brands, textures, packaging and utensils. Check whether accepted foods can safely be eaten without heating, following their preparation and storage instructions.

If every accepted meal depends on one appliance, consider realistic alternatives before a disruption happens. Do not assume hunger will make a child accept unfamiliar food.

Where someone uses prescribed feeds, needs a particular food texture or requires thickened fluids, ask their clinical team about interruptions to electricity, water or deliveries. Follow their individual care plan.

Thrifty Lesley: useful for everyday budgeting too

Many families in our LWL community already use Thrifty Lesley for affordable meal ideas and for practising shopping, budgeting, meal planning and cooking with their teenagers.

Her No Power Meal Plan offers ideas for meals without a cooker or kettle [7]. Use it as a source of ideas rather than a ready-made seven-day emergency food list: some ingredients need refrigeration.

Alongside her wider budgeting resources, it could help you identify affordable options your household would enjoy. The published plan covers two adults for seven days, so adapt quantities and ingredients. Its listed prices are historical.

Check storage instructions, including what happens after opening. For prolonged outages, prioritise suitable foods that can safely be stored at room temperature. Smaller packs may help avoid leftovers needing refrigeration.

Follow the Food Standards Agency’s power-cut advice when deciding what remains safe [8].

Recipes can support everyday learning

Food preparation also offers opportunities to practise communication and independence.

NHS speech and language therapy guidance recommends everyday activities such as making a sandwich to practise sequencing. Photographs can support understanding of what happens “first”, “next” and “last” [9].

A written or pictured recipe can also provide opportunities to practise reading ingredients, recognising quantities and following instructions. Adapt activities to the young person’s communication, sensory and learning needs, drawing on their speech and language therapist’s advice where relevant.

Try unfamiliar meals during an ordinary, relaxed week. During an actual emergency, keeping everyone safely fed and comfortable is enough.

Water outages and essential care

A burst main or local repair can leave a household without its usual water supply, even in otherwise ordinary conditions.

Be Ready recommends three litres of drinking water per person per day, with more needed for cooking and washing [1]. For two people, three days of drinking water alone means 18 litres.

That takes money, storage space and effort to move. Build supplies gradually where possible, and consider whether people can open, lift and pour from the containers.

Think about continence products, wipes, gloves and particular toiletries too. Losing water may affect someone’s ability to manage personal care independently.

If a medical condition affects fluid intake, follow the person’s clinical advice.

Tell your water provider about medical needs before an interruption happens, especially if you would be unable to collect or carry an alternative supply.

Register for priority services

Check that your household is registered with the relevant water company, electricity network operator and energy supplier, and that their records reflect everyone’s current support needs.

For electricity, the network operator maintains local cables and deals with network power cuts. Your energy supplier is the company you pay your bills to.

Check your drinking-water provider on your water bill. It may differ from the company providing sewerage services.

Water providers

Electricity network operators

Registration is free. Contact details checked on 24 October 2026.

Unsure which electricity network serves your home? Use the postcode service at Power Cut 105. Network boundaries do not necessarily follow council boundaries.

Explain practical needs clearly. For example:

  • Someone depends on water for a medical reason.
  • You cannot collect or carry bottled water.
  • Someone uses powered medical or mobility equipment.
  • You need an accessible alternative to telephone calls.
  • An unexpected interruption would cause particular distress.

Dŵr Cymru asks medically water-dependent customers to contact it even if their hospital may already have done so [10].

Ask each organisation to confirm registration rather than assuming information has been shared. Update details when needs, addresses or contact numbers change.

Priority registration does not guarantee uninterrupted supplies, immediate water delivery or faster electricity restoration. Keep individual clinical backup arrangements in place [6], [13].

Essential medicines and powered equipment

Discuss medicines with your pharmacist

Ask how to maintain an appropriate supply if flooding, transport disruption or pharmacy closures delay collection. Discuss when to request prescriptions, possible delivery arrangements and what to do if a medicine needs refrigeration.

The appropriate amount to keep on hand depends on the medicine and the person’s circumstances. Agree arrangements with the pharmacist or prescriber.

Keep a paper record of medication names, doses, allergies and pharmacy contact details, including instructions another person would need if they had to help.

In Wales, pharmacists may be able to provide an emergency supply of some prescribed medicines. This depends on the medicine and circumstances; some medicines cannot be supplied through this route [14].

Get an individual equipment plan

Contact the relevant clinical team and equipment supplier about powered medical equipment. Include stairlifts, hoists, powered beds and mobility equipment in your planning.

Ask:

  • What happens if the electricity fails?
  • Is there a battery, and what affects its operating time?
  • Which backup arrangements are suitable?
  • Who should you contact, and when?
  • At what point would moving somewhere else become necessary?

A household power bank is not automatically suitable for medical equipment. Charging requirements and safe alternatives depend on the device and how it is used.

Follow the person’s individual plan and seek help at the agreed point [6].

Communication when digital services fail

A charged phone helps, but cannot guarantee contact if the mobile network is unavailable.

Write down essential numbers. Agree how trusted people would check on one another if calls and messages failed, without putting anyone at risk.

If a young person uses an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device or app, check what works offline. Where appropriate, prepare a familiar paper backup, such as a communication board or key words and pictures.

Make sure people supporting the young person know how their communication system is used.

Check landlines and telecare too. Digital landline services generally depend on electricity, and connected alarms may be affected. Discuss backup arrangements with the provider, including what is supported and for how long [15].

Keep a way to hear updates

Official guidance recommends a battery-powered or wind-up FM radio, with useful station frequencies written down [1].

Check reception at home and practise using the controls. Keep spare batteries where appropriate. Solar-assisted models provide another charging option, but depend on daylight.

An internet radio still needs a connection. A suitable FM radio you already own may be enough.

School closures and disrupted transport

A school may be affected even when everything at home is working normally.

Power failures, heating problems and loss of water can affect safe operation. Welsh Government guidance asks schools to plan for these interruptions, including collection arrangements [16].

Ask your school which channels it uses for urgent announcements. Keep contact details and authorised collection contacts up to date. Check its usual messages and official website.

Bookmark your council’s school closures page. The GOV.UK school closure checker directs families in Wales to local council information [17].

Check announcement dates and times. For families using school transport, confirm transport arrangements separately.

Ask in advance:

  • How will we be contacted if school closes during the day?
  • Who can collect our child if we cannot get there?
  • What happens if their usual taxi or bus cannot operate?
  • How will medication, communication equipment and care be managed while they wait?
  • What happens if phones or internet services fail?

Schools should plan how children will be kept safe if parents are delayed collecting them [16].

If closure continues, ask about accessible learning, contact with familiar staff and arrangements for support normally accessed through school. This may include meals or scheduled specialist input. Explain what your household can realistically manage.

Welsh learning continuity guidance recognises that online learning is not suitable for every learner and that schools need alternative plans [18]. During a household emergency, immediate safety and essential care come first.

Warmth, lighting and familiar routines

Keep accessible layers, blankets or sleeping bags available. Think about which familiar room would be practical to use if heating failed, taking account of mobility and care needs.

Where a health condition affects temperature regulation, ask the clinical team what precautions and action thresholds are appropriate.

Never bring barbecues, generators or outdoor cooking appliances indoors for cooking or warmth. They can cause fatal carbon monoxide poisoning [19].

Disruption can also remove familiar sounds, lighting and activities. Consider ear defenders, comfortable clothing, a preferred cup, a comfort item or a simple visual explanation.

Keep a torch accessible and check whether its brightness and controls suit the person using it.

Solar fairy lights as an extra

Solar-powered LED fairy lights, sometimes reduced in autumn garden-centre sales, may provide gentle background light without a naked flame.

They may be useful where candles create particular risks because of mobility difficulties, involuntary movements or distressed behaviour. Choose a steady setting if flashing lights cause discomfort, and secure wires away from walking routes or places where someone could become tangled.

Keep a battery torch or lantern too. Short, overcast winter days may limit solar charging. Fairy lights are an extra alongside dependable lighting for moving around and providing care.

Explain preparation calmly:

“Sometimes the electricity stops for a while. We keep this torch here so we can see.”

Avoid promises about restoration times that nobody can guarantee.

If you need to leave home

An emergency bag can reduce decisions in a stressful moment. The British Red Cross recommends preparing essentials for situations where you may need to leave home [20].

Consider medicines, communication supports, continence supplies, chargers and a short summary of care needs. Include essential information about allergies, communication and mobility.

Keep personal information secure but accessible to those who need it. Include food and supplies for pets or an assistance dog where relevant.

Think about leaving itself. Who could help with transfers? Can equipment travel with you? Would usual transport be available?

In an immediate emergency, do not delay leaving a dangerous building to collect belongings.

If the usual carer cannot reach you

Identify who has genuinely agreed to help and what they can safely do. Being nearby does not necessarily mean someone can provide personal care or manage medication.

Carers UK recommends an emergency plan and checking local support arrangements [21].

If family and friends cannot cover essential care, raise the gap with the relevant care team or local authority. A household plan can identify an unmet need, but cannot create a replacement service.

Preparation on a tight budget

Start with low-cost or free actions:

  • Write down contacts and medication details.
  • Check existing torches, radios and charging cables.
  • Discuss medicines during a pharmacy visit.
  • Confirm priority services registrations.
  • Identify suitable foods already in your normal shopping.
  • Agree realistic help with trusted people.

Add supplies gradually where possible, rotating them into everyday use before they expire.

If affordable, consider keeping a modest amount of cash for essentials in case card payments or cash machines are unavailable. There is no single appropriate amount for every household [1].

Preparation should not leave you unable to afford this week’s food or electricity.

Our earlier article on foodbanks and flood relief for families with disabled children explored pressures that can arise during disruption. Its incident-specific support details are historical, so check current arrangements directly.

Public services and infrastructure providers retain their responsibilities. Household preparation is only one part of resilience.

Where to find current information

Consider registering for Natural Resources Wales flood warnings. The service covers relevant river and coastal risks, but cannot warn about every flood, including all surface-water incidents [22].

Keep your council, school and utility provider details accessible. Check the location, date and time of updates before acting on them.

Our older flood articles provide background, rather than a live directory of relief centres or grants. For wider support, see Where to Go for ALN Help in Wales.

For fun: a winter project for curious minds

When bad weather keeps everyone indoors, an interesting project can help fill the hours.

For home-educated teenagers and young adults who enjoy electronics, bushcraft or exploring how communication works, Essex Ham’s Foundation Online amateur radio course might appeal.

It offers modules, videos and quizzes, with opportunities to ask questions. There are no live lessons or webcam requirements. The free course normally releases modules over three weeks, allowing study at convenient times [23].

A few young people in our community are interested in exploring it this winter. My own son plans to revisit it simply for fun.

Families are welcome to use LWL’s online community discussion group to compare notes and share discoveries. Check current enrolment options and any charges with the provider.

Join the conversation this winter

We will include practical family preparedness in our online community discussions and live online events this winter. Bring your questions, share what works in your household and help us identify issues that standard checklists may miss.

Join our LWL Facebook community to take part in the discussions, and check our events page for upcoming sessions and booking details.

Choose one useful first step

Start with the interruption that would cause your household the greatest difficulty.

That might mean speaking to a pharmacist, checking your water registration, preparing a paper communication board or finding one familiar meal that needs no electricity.

Build your plan gradually and revisit it when needs change. Its value comes from how well it fits the people in your home.

References

All online sources accessed 24 October 2026. “n.d.” indicates that no publication date is established here.

[1] UK Government, “Be ready for emergencies,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Be Ready guidance.

[2] National Grid Electricity Distribution, “Contact us,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Contact information.

[3] Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, “Contact,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Contact and emergency numbers.

[4] Hafren Dyfrdwy, “My priority services,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Priority services and contact information.

[5] Welsh Government, “Written statement: Statement on resilience and emergency preparedness,” Oct. 13, 2026. [Online]. Available: Welsh Government statement.

[6] UK Government, “Advice for disabled persons and carers,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Disability and care guidance.

[7] Thrifty Lesley, “No power meal plan: Muesli, kidney beans and hotdogs,” Apr. 26, 2023. [Online]. Available: No Power Meal Plan.

[8] Food Standards Agency, “Food safety in a power cut: Advice for consumers,” Jul. 26, 2023. [Online]. Available: Food safety guidance.

[9] Bedfordshire Children’s Speech and Language Therapy Service, “Developing sequencing skills,” n.d. [Online]. Available: NHS guidance PDF.

[10] Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, “Priority services,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Registration and support.

[11] Hafren Dyfrdwy, “Here to help,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Priority services information.

[12] National Grid Electricity Distribution, “Priority services,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Priority services registration.

[13] SP Energy Networks, “Priority services register,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Registration and support.

[14] Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, “Emergency supply of medication,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Emergency medication guidance.

[15] Ofcom, “Stay connected in severe weather,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Phone and broadband guidance.

[16] Welsh Government, “Emergency planning and response guidance for education and childcare settings,” updated Jun. 12, 2025. [Online]. Available: Education emergency planning guidance.

[17] UK Government, “School closures,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Find council school closure information.

[18] Welsh Government, “Learning continuity guidance,” updated Jan. 21, 2026. [Online]. Available: Learning continuity guidance.

[19] Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, “Power cuts,” updated Oct. 2, 2025. [Online]. Available: Fire and carbon monoxide safety.

[20] British Red Cross, “Prepare an emergency kit,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Emergency kit guidance.

[21] Carers UK, “Getting help in an emergency,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Emergency planning for carers.

[22] Natural Resources Wales, “Sign up to receive flood warnings,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Flood warning registration.

[23] Essex Ham, “Foundation Online: Amateur radio training,” n.d. [Online]. Available: Foundation Online course.