Preparing for a power outage (before one starts)
The core kit
From Ready.gov and Red Cross checklists: flashlights + batteries (not candles), charged power banks for phones, water (a gallon per person per day if your water depends on electric pumps), non-perishable food for a few days, a battery or hand-crank radio, and cash (card readers die with the power).
Medication and the cold chain
If anyone in the home uses refrigerated medication (insulin is the common one), know its out-of-fridge tolerance ahead of time from your pharmacist, and have a cooler plan. For powered medical equipment, see our medical-device backup guide.
Freeze water now, thank yourself later
Frozen water bottles or gel packs stretch fridge and freezer windows during an outage (the USDA windows: ~4 hours fridge / 24–48 freezer) and become drinking water as they melt.
Know your outage tools before you need them
Bookmark your utility's outage map and reporting number now — and your address's page on our tracker, which adds an independent restoration estimate and free alerts. During a real event, enable notifications so restoration news finds you.
The five-minute household drill
Everyone in the home should be able to answer three questions in the dark: where the flashlights live (a fixed spot, not "somewhere"), where you meet if you leave (and who grabs the kit), and how you'll get news (the radio's spot and station). Walk it once — a five-minute rehearsal converts a checklist into a plan.
Know your building
Houses on wells lose water with the pump; many apartment buildings lose booster-pump water pressure and elevators too. If that's you, the Ready.gov gallon-per-person-per-day storage rule is your plumbing backup, and stairs-vs-elevator is part of the plan for anyone with mobility needs. Renters: you can't install a standby generator, but a portable power station is silent, exhaust-free, and apartment-safe.
Kids, pets, and the long evening
The kit that keeps morale up matters more than it sounds: games and books that need no power, glow sticks (kids love them and they're flame-free), pet food and water in the same three-day depth as yours, and a comfort plan for anyone who sleeps with white noise or a night light — a battery lantern covers both.
Paper survives
Print the short list your phone normally remembers: the utility's outage number and your account number, family phone numbers, and any medical essentials. A phone at 3% is a bad place to store your utility's phone number. Keep small cash with it — card readers and ATMs go down with the power.
The 48-hour warmup when a storm is forecast
When the forecast turns serious, the kit gets a head start: charge every phone, power bank, and device battery to full; freeze extra water bottles; run the dishwasher and laundry while you can; fuel the car (pumps need power) and park it out from under trees; test the flashlights you think work; and pull cash. Twenty minutes of warmup converts a scramble into a plan — and everything you charged keeps its value even if the storm misses.
Re-check on a schedule, not a memory
Kits rot quietly: batteries self-discharge, water containers age out, kids outgrow the comfort items, medications rotate. Put a twice-yearly reminder on the calendar (clock-change weekends are the classic anchor) to test lights, top charges, rotate water and food, and re-read the plan against who actually lives in the home now.
One list, on the fridge
Condense all of the above to a single printed page: kit location, drill answers, utility number + account, out-of-area contact, and the 48-hour warmup list. Preparedness that lives in one household member's head is a single point of failure — the page is the backup.
Surge protection on the return
When power returns after a big outage it can return dirty. Unplug sensitive electronics during the outage; leave one lamp on so you notice restoration.