You can lose power to your home at any time, any season, for a number of reasons. Are you prepared to face the dark when it happens?
Make a plan and share it with your family, and prepare ahead of the power outage. Here are some things you should do:
BEFORE LOSING POWER
- Stock up on illumination devices. There are countless options that are kid friendly and provide great light. Instead of candles think LED Candles, biolites, battery powered lanterns and even fairy lights. Biolite energy offers USB powered lights that will also charge your phone. Make sure you keep the power pack charged before you need it. https://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/sitelight-xl With fairy lights from amazon you can light up a whole room for just $20: https://www.amazon.com/Twinkling-LED-Fairy-String-Lights/dp/B00JT3DDJO and as long as you have AA batteries, you have light!
- Ensure you have water on hand. Especially if you live on a well where power is required to pump water. This is very important for anyone with young children on formula who normally boil their water.
- Keep cash. Power failures can affect ATMS and banks too. There is nothing like the peace of mind of having backup cash just in case.
- Have food that doesn’t require cooking. Needless to say not having electricity really makes cooking a bummer. Before you lose power, find some great recipes for no cook food and keep them in your kitchen. Here are 43 recipes to get you started: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/no-cook-dinners-raw-food-recipes
- Consider buying a gas-powered generator. If you have a house a gas powered generator can keep fridges, freezers, heaters, fans and tv’s going to get you through an outage more comfortably.
DURING AN OUTAGE
- Shower immediately. Especially if you live in an apartment building. You can use the hot water in the tank or boiler until it runs out.
- Pour water jugs. Especially if you have not followed step 2 above! Keep lots of fresh drinking water. If your outage lasts more than 24 hours, use up the ice cube trays in your freezer to make more water or make water cold.
- Locate your lights. Especially if it is daytime. Find your lights and set them in the areas you want to illuminated. Find batteries for those lights as well.
- Fill up your gas tank. Gas stations can run out of fuel during outages. Ensure that you are not without gas.
- Reduce your reliance on your cell phone. Save your charge for communicating with friends and relatives, not listening to music and playing games.