The Power Outage Checklist: What to Do Before, During and After

Backup power is one part of an outage plan, and the households that come through a long one comfortably are the ones that thought about water, heat, food and information as well as electricity. This is the list, in the order the problems actually arrive.

Before: the week that matters

• Test the generator under load. Not a five-minute idle. Thirty minutes with something plugged in, and confirm the transfer switch or interlock sequence while you can still see what you are doing.
• Fuel. Stabilised and rotated. Enough for your planned number of days at your actual burn rate, stored in approved containers away from living space.
• Water. One gallon per person per day, plus pets. If you are on a well, no power means no water at all, so store more. Filling the bathtub before a forecast storm gives you flush water for a couple of days.
• Charge everything. Phones, laptops, battery banks, power tool batteries and any battery power station. Do it when the forecast turns, not when the lights flicker.
• Medical devices. Know the runtime of every one and how to power it. If someone depends on electricity for oxygen, dialysis or refrigerated medication, register with your utility's medical priority list now, and have a plan that does not depend on the generator starting.
• Cash. Card readers and ATMs are electrical devices.
• A battery or crank radio. When the cell towers' backup batteries run down, NOAA Weather Radio is still transmitting.

Ready.gov's power outage page is the best short government summary of this stage, and it is updated as guidance changes.

During: the first hour

1. Confirm the scope. Check whether neighbours are dark. If it is only you, it is your panel or your service drop, and a generator is not the answer.
2. Report it. Utilities dispatch by report volume; assuming someone else called is how a street gets skipped.
3. Unplug sensitive electronics. Restoration surges damage more equipment than outages do. Leave one lamp switched on so you know when power returns.
4. Leave the fridge and freezer closed. A closed refrigerator holds safe temperature for about four hours; a full freezer for around 48. Every opening costs you.
5. Start the generator only after placing it correctly. Outdoors, at least 20 feet from the house, exhaust pointed away from every door, window and vent. This rule does not relax in the rain, and the U.S. Fire Administration's severe weather guidance explains why.

During: staying warm or cool

In winter, close off unused rooms and concentrate everyone in one space, ideally a south-facing room. Hang blankets over windows at night. Never heat a home with a gas oven, a charcoal grill or an unvented fuel-burning appliance indoors; that is the same carbon monoxide risk as the generator, without even the noise to remind you it is there. If the temperature in the house is dropping steadily and you cannot power heat, leaving for a warming shelter is the correct decision, not a defeat. The National Weather Service's winter safety guidance covers the thresholds.

In summer, the risk is heat illness, which arrives faster than people expect for infants and older adults. Move to the lowest floor, keep sun off the windows, wet cloth on the neck and wrists, and drink before feeling thirsty. If indoor temperature climbs past the mid-90s Fahrenheit, relocate.

During: water and plumbing

Well owners lose water immediately. City water usually keeps flowing but may lose pressure, and a boil-water notice can follow a pressure loss, so listen for it. In freezing weather, open cabinet doors under sinks and let a faucet drip on exterior walls: a burst pipe will cost more than everything else in the outage combined.

Day three, where plans fail

Short outages are an inconvenience. Long ones are a logistics problem, and the failure points are predictable:

• Fuel runs out and the nearby stations have no power to pump. This is the most common single failure.
• Fatigue leads to shortcuts, and the generator ends up on the porch on night three. This is when carbon monoxide deaths happen.
• Phones die because everyone charged them from the same battery bank.
• Food is eaten in the wrong order. Refrigerator first, then freezer, then shelf-stable. When in doubt, throw it out; food-borne illness during an outage is a very bad time to need a hospital.

Rotating who monitors the generator, keeping a written fuel log, and deciding in advance at what point you leave for a hotel or a relative's house all make day three ordinary rather than dangerous.

After: restoration

1. Turn off or disconnect the generator before utility power returns if you are using a manual switch or an interlock. Follow the sequence in reverse.
2. Bring large loads back one at a time. Every heat pump and refrigerator on the street restarting at once is hard on the grid too.
3. Throw out any refrigerated food that spent more than four hours above 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Refrozen food that still holds ice crystals is generally fine.
4. Refill fuel and recharge batteries within a day, while it is still on your mind.
5. Write down what did not work. That note is worth more than any article, because it is about your house.

Then, once a year, run the whole thing as a drill on a pleasant Saturday. Backup power is the only system you own that you cannot afford to test for the first time under real conditions.