What to do if phones and the internet are down

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

Do this now

Check whether only your connection is affected: restart the phone or router and ask a neighbour. If the outage is wide, switch on a battery or car radio and tune to Status: Verified.
Keep one phone switched on, charged and in power-saving mode, so LU-Alert warnings still reach you. Switch the other phones off to save their batteries.
Send short text messages rather than calling. Overloaded networks often pass a text when a call fails, and mobile data may be cut first to keep calls working.
In an emergency, still try Status: Verified, even if your phone shows no signal or "emergency calls only": it can use another operator's network. Never call it just to test the line.
If no call gets through, go in person to the nearest fire and rescue station, police station or hospital.
Follow your household plan. If you cannot reach each other, go to the meeting point you agreed.
Pass official news on to neighbours, especially those who are older or alone, and do not spread rumours.

Write the important numbers on paper: family, school, work, your doctor, your bank and your energy supplier. Keep one copy in your wallet and one with the kit.
Agree Status: Verified meeting points (near home, outside your neighbourhood, and a place out of town) and when to go there if you cannot reach each other.
Pick Status: Verified contact person who lives out of town, whom everyone texts or calls to say they are safe.
Agree who collects the children from school if you cannot call each other, and tell the school who may collect them.
Know the way to the nearest fire and rescue station, police station and hospital. Put it all in your household plan.

A battery or wind-up radio, FM or DAB+, with spare batteries. The car radio works too.
A charged power bank and cables for every phone.
Some cash, because card payments often stop with the network: Status: Verified per adult and Status: Verified per child. See Cards and cash machines down.
A paper map of your area, and offline maps saved on your phone.

Check that emergency alerts are switched on in the phone settings, so Cell Broadcast messages reach you even in silent mode. See Alerts and sirens.

Tell your family and your out-of-town contact that you are safe.
Recharge phones and power banks, and replace the batteries you used.
Check that your alarms and any medical devices that use the phone line or internet are working again.
Before you share what you heard during the outage, check it against official sources. See False information.
Add any number you missed to the paper list.

Make sure children know the meeting point and carry a card with the key numbers on it.
Explain in plain words that phones may not work for a while, and that the family has a plan to find each other.

If you use a personal alarm, a care phone or medical equipment that needs the phone network or the internet, ask the provider now what happens in an outage, and agree a backup with a neighbour.
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, agree with a neighbour how they will pass warnings on to you in person.

Know how you would get home without phones or transport. See Stuck away from home.

Your phone may connect to a mast in France, Belgium or Germany and then miss Luxembourg alerts. Keep the radio on as well.