Young children
If you have young children
Everything gets simpler once you accept that the child is the plan.
The supplies are easy. Keeping the day feeling ordinary is the hard part, and it is also the part that works.
Formula, nappies, wipes, calpol
These are the four things that turn a manageable evening into an unmanageable one. Two weeks of formula is not stockpiling, it is normal parenting. They take up space, so buy the next size up as your buffer.
Light before dark
A cheap night light that runs on batteries, or a wind-up lantern in their room, changes a power cut from a frightening event into a strange one.
Give them a job
Children who are helping are not frightened. Hand out the torch duty, the counting the water bottles duty, the checking on the cat duty.
The card in the school bag
Names, numbers and the out-of-area contact, on paper, in the bag. Schools have plans. Your job is to make sure your child can be matched to you quickly.
Do not do this in front of them
Prepare cheerfully or prepare later. Children take the whole of their reading of an event from your face, and a frightened four year old is a much bigger problem than a dark kitchen.