Knowledge
Guides and checklists on emergency kits, water, heat and power, written for normal households that want to get through a longer outage.
You do not belong to a particular shelter. You go to the nearest one, and you find it on MCF's shelter map. Here is when shelters are actually used, what you have to bring yourself, and why the list looks familiar.
The outdoor warning signal called Hesa Fredrik sounds for seven seconds, falls silent for fourteen, and repeats for at least two minutes. Here is what it means, what to do in the first minute, and ...
On 22 September 2026, Swedish public television ran a segment called a defence engineer's tips. Here is what Oskar Björk showed, and how to do the same at home.
MCF says three to five litres per person per day. Over seven days that is 21 to 35 litres each, so a family of four needs 84 to 140 litres. Here is why a container alone never covers it, and what a...
What a Swedish housing association board is responsible for when the power or water goes, a crisis plan in five steps, and what belongs in the building itself.
Preparedness Week (Beredskapsveckan) 2026 runs from 21 to 27 September. It is the national campaign week that Sweden's Agency for Civil Defence (MCF) uses each autumn to help households get ready f...
In July 2026 the Swedish government proposed a new law that would require municipalities and regions to keep socially important services running for at least two weeks during a serious crisis or he...
Independent Swedish test site Testproffs named the Kapsel Core best in test 2026, scoring it 9.6/10 and ranking it first of eight emergency kits. Here are the scores and why it won.
An emergency bag is a single, ready-packed grab bag that carries your household's essentials for the first days of a crisis. Here is what to pack, how many bags you need, where to keep it, and why ...
Water first, then warmth and power, then information and first aid. How a defence engineer approaches home preparedness, and why priority order beats product count. Reviewed by Oskar Björk, defence...
Home preparedness in Sweden has moved from a niche concern to a mainstream expectation. This is a short, sourced overview of where it stands in 2026: what the authorities ask of households, what th...
How to prepare for a week without power or water when you live in a flat: what to prioritise, where to store it in a small space, and how to stay warm safely.
Emergency kits range from a few hundred kronor to several thousand, and the price tells you less than you would think. The useful question is not "what is the cheapest", it is "what does this actua...
"If Crisis or War Comes" is the title of the official brochure the Swedish authorities have distributed to households about how to prepare for serious crises, heightened alert and, in the worst cas...
Most households never have to evacuate. But when it happens, whether from a wildfire, a flood, a gas leak or a building fire, there is rarely time to think. The whole difference is whether you pack...
Preparedness is easy to picture as something that sits at home in a cupboard. But power cuts, storms, water problems and minor injuries do not pause for the holidays. They often find you on the roa...
Most grass and forest fires in Sweden happen in late spring and summer, when dry ground and wind can turn a spark into a fast-moving fire. You cannot control the weather, but you can lower the risk...
A water shortage rarely arrives as a dramatic event. It builds over dry months, and then one day the tap pressure drops or the municipality announces an irrigation ban. For a household it is a slow...
A heatwave is easy to underestimate. It looks like good weather, but for a household it behaves like any other crisis: the power grid is strained, water can be restricted, and the people around you...
How to plan a week of food and water for your household: how much, what keeps without a fridge, and how to treat water, built to the MCF one-week standard.
There is no official best emergency kit. Here is the measure to hold every kit against, five questions to ask, and Kapsel Core line by line.
What a home first-aid kit should contain for a week on your own, plus the medicine and hygiene that matter most when help is slow. A calm checklist, per MCF.
How to keep light and power when the grid is down: head-torches, batteries, power banks and solar. How much you need and what to avoid. Per MCF guidance.
What VMA is, how to receive it, and how to stay informed when the power and mobile network are down. A short guide to crisis communication, per MCF.
How to help an older parent or relative prepare for a week without power and water: medicine, mobility, warmth and staying reachable. A calm guide per MCF.