Storm Season Power Outages and How to Get Ready for Them

As soon as the wet season comes around, a month normally doesn’t go by without bringing a storm or two along with it, and some of them are even powerful enough to bring down power lines. If during the last power outage your family had hurt themselves walking into furniture, had had to grope the walls in the dark and had complained of being hungry, you probably didn’t get your home ready enough for the blackout.

If you want to avoid having to turn your home upside down in the dark trying to find the candles and flashlights, these tips can get you ready for the next storm-caused blackout.

·         Choose a drawer or cabinet in the house where the matches and candles will be kept, and be sure to tell everyone (every adult, that is) where they are so you can reach them quickly.

·         If you prefer flashlights to candles in a power outage, don’t just buy one or two; having three or more will assure that people can do different things at the same time (go to the bathroom, eat, etc.) with enough light. Other things that work really well during these times are battery-operated or rechargeable lamps.

·         Since you’ll be using a lot of lights that run on batteries, it would only make sense that you have fresh batteries where you’ll be keeping these lights so that when the lamps or flashlights lose light, you don’t need to take batteries from toys or gadgets in the house.

·         If you cook on an electric stove (which obviously won’t work without electricity), make sure that you have a stock of food that don’t require cooking, like canned food.

·         If your refrigerator is stocked with food and the power is out for a long time, there is a risk that the food will spoil. You can prevent this for as long as possible if you freeze water-filled plastic containers beforehand, which you will use to keep the food cool until the power comes back on.

·         In pitch black surroundings, there’s always the possibility of people getting hurt. Arrange a first aid kit containing basic supplies like antiseptics, band aids and medicine for emergency situations.

·         You can still get information about the storm, news about road accessibility and warnings about evacuation even without the television if you have a battery-powered AM/FM radio within reach. 

·         It would be smart to have some money stashed in a safe place in your house to be used in case of an emergency. It’s going to be difficult to find a working ATM should the blackout affect your whole neighborhood or city.

Once you read about a storm in the weather news, be sure to put these plans into action. If you want to ensure that you can access all of your emergency supplies during a power outage, make things easier by keeping everything within reach.