The first storm of the season rarely announces itself politely. It arrives as a weather warning on a Tuesday afternoon, a hurried trip to the shop for candles, and a night spent listening to something rattle in the guttering. By then, most of the useful work is either done or missed.

Homes around here have their own quirks: long driveways, older wiring, outbuildings doing double duty as storage, and lanes that flood before anyone thinks to check them. None of that is a problem if you spend a couple of hours on it in autumn. Here is what to do, in the order that makes sense.

Do the Outside Work First

Work from the outside in, and do it in daylight. Almost everything on this list is easier before the ground is sodden and the wind is up.

1. Clear the water paths. Gutters, downpipes, drain gullies and any soakaway you can find. A blocked gully turns a heavy night into a flooded utility room.
2. Walk the boundary. Fence panels, loose roof tiles, greenhouse glass, a trampoline that has never been anchored, wheelie bins that will travel. Secure or store what you can lift.
3. Look up at the trees. Branches near overhead lines are a job for your electricity supplier, not for you or a neighbour with a borrowed saw.
4. Find the stopcock. Turn it, check it moves, and show everyone in the house where it is. If it is seized, get a plumber in now rather than in January.
5. Book the boiler service and the chimney sweep. Trades fill up fast once the cold arrives, and a badly drawing flue is a genuine hazard.
6. Photograph each room and keep receipts for anything valuable. If you are unsure what your policy covers for storm damage or a freezer full of food, read the schedule or ring your insurer before you need to claim. For anything disputed or complicated, independent advice is worth the call.

Room by Room: What to Keep Where

The mistake people make is bundling everything into one box in the garage. Spread the kit around the house so that a night without power does not mean a torch hunt in the dark.

Kitchen

• Bottled water — roughly a litre per person per day, plus a little for the dog.
• A manual can opener, and food that needs no cooking: oatcakes, tinned fish, fruit, nuts, long-life milk.
• A full freezer stays cold longer than a half-empty one, so fill gaps with bread or spare ice packs.
• Matches in a sealed jar. If you have mains gas, the hob can usually be lit by hand even when the electricity is off — but never use a barbecue or camping stove indoors.

The main room

Pick the room you would actually sit in, and keep the comforts there: blankets, a battery or wind-up radio, a deck of cards, head torches for everyone, and one power bank that gets charged on the first of the month.

Hallway and under the stairs

This is the grab bag. Spare batteries, a basic first aid kit, a written list of medications, copies of important documents, a little cash — card machines and cashpoints go down with the power — and a spare set of keys for whoever checks on the house.

Bedrooms, bathroom and outbuildings

A torch on each bedside table costs almost nothing and saves a lot of stubbed toes. Keep two or three buckets handy, and if a long outage looks likely, running a bath gives you water for flushing — just be careful with small children and pets around a full tub. In the shed, store grit, salt, a shovel, sandbags and wellingtons together, in one place you can reach without a light.

Pipes, Tanks and the Cold That Finds the Gaps

Lag exposed pipes in the loft, garage and outbuildings. Insulate any cold water tank, but leave the loft floor directly beneath it uninsulated so rising warmth still reaches it. Fix dripping taps — moving water freezes more slowly than a slow drip, and a drip is often the first thing to ice up.

If you go away, leave the heating on a low background setting rather than switching it off, or drain the system properly. Ask a neighbour to look in.

If a pipe does freeze, turn off the stopcock, open the nearest cold tap, and thaw gently with warm towels or a hairdryer on a low setting, working back from the tap. Never use a blowtorch or naked flame. If a pipe bursts, shut off the water and, if it is safe to do so, the electricity at the fuse board, then call a plumber.

Draught-proofing helps, but do not block airbricks, vents or the air supply to a boiler or open fire. Suffocating a flue is far more dangerous than a cold draught.

Backup Power Without the Guesswork

Torches and head torches first, candles last and never unattended. Battery power stations are safe indoors and will run a router, a lamp and a phone charger for hours; check what yours can realistically handle before you rely on it.

Petrol and diesel generators are a different matter. They must run outdoors, well away from windows, doors and vents, and never in a garage attached to the house or a conservatory. Carbon monoxide kills quietly, so fit an alarm. Never plug a generator into a household socket to backfeed the wiring — it can injure the people repairing the lines. A proper changeover switch fitted by a qualified electrician is the only safe route.

Decide now what gets priority: the freezer, the phone, the router, or a medical device. If someone in the house depends on powered equipment, many suppliers keep a priority register for exactly this situation — ask to be added to it.

The First Hour in the Dark

1. Check whether it is just you. Look down the road, then check the fuse board for a tripped switch before assuming an outage.
2. Report it to your supplier's 24-hour line. In Great Britain, 105 is the free national number for power cuts.
3. Unplug sensitive electronics, and leave one lamp switched on so you know the moment power returns.
4. Keep the fridge and freezer closed, and gather everyone into one warm room rather than heating three.
5. Check on neighbours, particularly anyone elderly, unwell or living alone.
6. If you smell gas, leave, avoid switches and flames, and call the national gas emergency line from outside.

Neighbours, Pets and the Numbers on the Fridge

Write the list on paper, because phones die. Include your electricity supplier's outage line, the water company, the gas emergency number, the council's out-of-hours line, your plumber and electrician, the nearest pharmacy, your vet and your doctor. Add an out-of-area contact who can pass messages between family members.

Emergencies are 999 or 112, and in the UK, 111 handles non-emergency medical advice. If you or someone in the house relies on regular medication or powered equipment, speak to your GP, pharmacist or equipment supplier before winter about what to do during an outage — that is a conversation worth having while the lights are still on.

Do not forget the animals. Most rest centres cannot take pets, so know in advance who could take yours, and keep a carrier, food and a blanket where you can grab them.

A Weekend Well Spent

Almost all of this fits into one Saturday: an hour outside, an hour in the loft, a trip to the shops, and a list taped inside a kitchen cupboard door. If you want to find the gaps, test it. On a quiet afternoon, switch off the power at the fuse board for an hour and see what you reach for and cannot find.

Then close the cupboard, tell a neighbour you have spare batteries, and get on with autumn. The wind will come either way — it is simply better to meet it with a torch in reach and a plumber's number on the fridge.

Photo: Lisa Fotios / Pexels