Vic, I will bring up your suggestion under AOB at Lydden Parish Council meeting tonight and ask the other councillors if we can cost out 50 bunk beds and blankets, storage for same, having a contract with local plant hire firm to have lorries on standby just in case, an emergency generator (would need to be a large size for lights, about 12kW heating, refrigerator, 3kW water boiler, and cooking as we have no gas in the village hall), installing a phone line as the nearest public phone is nearly a mile away and there's no mobile signal, increasing the clerks hours to cover the extra responsibilities etc etc that you have suggested - never mind increasing the precept we would probably have to put a nought on the end of it and I think we know how that would be taken by our residents!
When it comes down to it little of this would be justifiable as it would be duplicating the responsibilities of the District and County councils and the various emergency services e.g we have two farms in the village and both are under contract to KCC to supply tractors to clear snow and other services when requested, it's not a parish council level of responsibility.
Our role is to make sure we are in contact with all these other organisations and make our facilities available when requested, and in fact our village hall is not run by the parish council but by a separate trust which is a registered charity and legally limited by its trust deeds as to what it can do - did you know that?
As for helping our parishioners in need, we are a member of
Advice Partnership for East Kent so if we hear of anyone with a particular need (in general emergencies or a one off) we can put them in touch with the right organisation to give them the appropriate help and advice.