I was staring into the refrigerator looking for something to eat when the light went out.
After a few confused seconds, I realized that my whole apartment was without power. In fact, a blackout hit much of my neighborhood and lasted for the bulk of one winter night. It was a frustrating, though far from catastrophic, situation.
Still, the event left me wondering: In the age of connected devices and smart homes, how do we prepare ourselves for a power outage?
It’s a reasonable concern. Power outages can be triggered by anything from planned maintenance to a car accident to extreme weather or a natural disaster. In most cases, though, it will catch you off guard. However, with a few supplies ready to access without fumbling in the dark, a blackout might be a little easier to manage.
“The better prepared you can be before the power goes out, the better off you will be when it does go out,” says Bryan La Sota, an emergency management coordinator for the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management.
La Sota says that having a plan is important, but also notes that every plan is going to be different. “It’s really each individual looking at their needs and then building their plan,” he says. “No two people, no two families are the same.”
And remember: You don’t have to rush to buy loads of emergency items at once.
“What we like to do in my household is we take it step by step,” says La Sota, explaining that this means picking up extra batteries on one shopping trip and perhaps a few emergency food items on the next. “By doing it in pieces like that, suddenly, we have this whole kit built and we never really notice the impact because everything was bought in really small increments.”
Where to start
“Take an inventory,” says La Sota. “Understand what you need, what you have, what you don’t have.”
One of the first things I noticed is that the very powerful flashlight in my home is rechargeable. It happened to be fully charged during the power outage, but I probably should get a couple of battery-operated ones as well. Thanks to the power outage, I get most of my news and listen to radio stations on my laptop. These all need power, so even a fully charged external battery might not be able to keep them running during a lengthy outage. I might need to figure out if the old boombox still works and re-up on batteries.
For people with smart home items, there is more to consider.
“Understand that you can still operate a lot of those manually,” says La Sota. Check your user manuals beforehand so that you know how to open the garage door without power. “Even smart key locks, a lot of them have a physical key as backup,” La Sota points out. If that’s the case for you, make sure your backup key is in a place where you have easy access to it.
While there are benefits to using today’s tech-forward devices, it’s important to hang onto those old-school devices for backup. “Knowing what exists with the things you have but keeping redundant items that don’t require the same power or internet capabilities is always a good idea,” says La Sota.
Flashlights are a good place to start. La Sota advises against lighting candles during a power outage. “You need a light source, but that’s where battery-powered items are the best option,” he says. “Burning an active flame is always just an unnecessary danger because you may forget about it. It could be knocked over.”
The radio will come in handy when you can’t rely on the internet or television stations for updates. La Sota suggests getting a battery-operated NOAA weather radio, which is available at varying price points and will tune you in to updates from National Weather Service, as well as information on other hazards or emergencies. A battery-operated AM/FM radio can be helpful too for keeping up on local news reports.
When possible, pick up a few more battery-operated items as alternatives during a blackout. These can include small fans, reading lights and clocks. A few other useful items to keep in stock at home are heavy blankets and first aid supplies.
If you plan on adding a generator to your emergency kit, consider what kind is best for your home. La Sota says it’s also important to know the risks generators can pose and how to use them safely. A gas generator, he notes, should only be placed outside the home in an open-air environment. Using a generator indoors can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Be mindful that your solution isn’t creating another danger that you’re not thinking about,” says Sosa.
How to handle medication
If you use medication that must be kept cool, La Sota says to check in with your doctor or pharmacist to find out how long it can go without being stored in the refrigerator.
As for medical equipment, there may be help in times of a power outage.
“This is where it’s going to vary, depending on where an individual lives,” La Sota clarifies.
Contact your provider to see if there are programs available to provide assistance with medical equipment in the case of a power-related emergency. They might be part of a medical baseline or similar program, which also allows for additional electricity at homes where there is qualifying medical equipment. Your provider might also have a critical care battery backup program, which provides batteries to keep medical equipment charged during an outage.
If you don’t have any personal medical concerns, but know someone who might, try to check in on them. In fact, La Sota recommends checking in with neighbors during power outages. “If you have elderly neighbors or you know people in your neighborhood have medical conditions or disabilities, that would be a good first step,” he says, “to check in on them and make sure that they’re doing okay and if they have any needs.”
Plus, when you check in with neighbors, you can compare notes if anyone has heard updates on when power will be restored or information on any services, like portable charging stations during a long outage, that might be available.
Keeping your food safe
There are a few concerns with food safety during a power outage. Your refrigerator and freezer will stop working, which might lead to spoilage during longer outages. The FDA recommends keeping appliance thermometers in both the fridge and freezer so that you can monitor the temperature. It also recommends keeping ice cubes and frozen gel packs in the freezer so that you can move them to the fridge to keep items cool.
Beyond these specific food safety issues, you might encounter other problems during a blackout. For one, you might not actually be able to cook anything without power. For another, the lack of electricity might impact your water supply.
Essentially, you’ll want to have the same food and beverages on hand during a power outage that you would during an earthquake. Think non-perishables that can be prepared without heat, snacks like trail mix and granola bars and bottled water. If you’re a caffeine drinker, consider having some bottles of tea or cans of cold brew that don’t require refrigeration.
Once the power is back, you’ll need to check the thermometers in the freezer and refrigerator. The best practice here is to follow the FDA guidelines to determine which items need to be discarded and which ones are still edible.
A “recovery plan” is something that La Sota says people often overlook when planning for a power outage. Once you have power, you should check all of the devices in your home to see what is working as normal and what isn’t. Some things will need to be reset.
“We always recommend looking at the manufacturer instructions for those types of things,” he says.
When you cleaned out the fridge and made sure that your home is working as it should, you can return to life as normal.
