Power Outage: What to do Next

While you might have had the power go out in your area several times, were you fully prepared and knew what to do during the situation? In case you missed this disaster in California: Rancho Palos Verdes  The land is sliding from excessive rain, and 140-150 homes have been asked to evacuate. The power has been turned off to their homes for days now.

Not taking the proper precautions and actions before and during a power outage can have costly consequences. Not only can the quality of life in your home change, but the safety of your family members and some of the contents and appliances could also be affected. Power outages often result from a strong winter storm, a hurricane, or other weather-related causes.

We have all become very electrically dependent, and losing that power is difficult to deal with. Many of the electronics in your home will shut down when the power isn’t available to your home’s power system. We’ve become very reliant on devices like our cell phones, laptops, electric ovens, electric water heaters, and HVAC equipment.

Losing power to medical devices like CPAPs, oxygen concentrators, and other critical life-supporting equipment is a real concern.

Other things to consider are your home alarms, basement sump pumps, carbon monoxide alarms, and garage door openers. Each unit presents its risks when not operable during a power outage. Think about your home getting flooded if the sump pump protecting your home goes out!

We can protect our families by having our homes as well prepared for outages as possible, mainly if we know from the news alerts or social media from forecasters that low temperatures, winds, and freezing rains are in store. What we, as homeowners, can’t foresee is an outage caused by what some local authorities and officials call domestic terrorism since it appears as an intentional crime. There are also vehicle accidents affecting substations and power poles where power lines come down. It could take days before your utility company can make necessary repairs.

Recent Power Grid Hit

Most of you should remember the significant power outage in Moore County, North Carolina, that started a few years ago. The outage was caused by gunfire sustained not at one power station but at two substations owned by Duke Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S. and part of the nation’s power grid.

There is still much investigative work since no suspects or a motive have been found. Still, state investigators called a state of emergency, set a curfew, and involved federal authorities, including the FBI. More on this recent localized power outage later.

Preparing before a power outage will keep you out of the dark and prevent you from scrambling to adapt to your new environment. Let’s look at ways you can prepare for a power outage and what steps or actions must be taken. Stay safe, and use these tips!

How to Be Prepared During a Power Outage

Be Prepared Beforehand

Are you prepared for a power outage? How about a power outage during a significant crisis? Not having a plan before the situation presents itself can prove costly. Here are a few ways to continue eating meals, staying warm, or dealing with injuries during a serious power outage. 

Have an Emergency First-Aid Kit on Hand

Having a first-aid kit for emergencies isn’t hard to assemble. While most power outages may not require one, you never know when you’ll need it and what effect the blackout might have on life and limb.

You want to have some first aid supplies handy since you don’t know when local or state emergency responders might be available to help specific residents. You can’t count on a swift response. General public safety is their first concern, so when they get to your area is often unknown.

Here are some basic but best first-aid kits for your home.  

Back-up Cooking Method

If you don’t have a gas stove, how do you plan on cooking meals for what could be days on end with a power outage? A camping stove is great for cooking small meals or boiling water. I have a small butane countertop stove I’ve used occasionally, and I love it. You can cook on your BBQ, but they aren’t efficient regarding boiling water. Butane Stove with extra Canisters

Stock up on Blankets

Power outages can happen not only in thunderstorms but also in wintery blizzard-like conditions. It may take a while for full power restoration in your area, so being able to keep family members warm is critical. Since most power outage situations require shelter in place, having extra blankets, a change of dry clothes, and other personal protective gear available is very important.

Storing blankets in the closet is not a bad idea. Circumstances like this will arise and remind you why you have them tucked away in the first place. 

Know What to Do When Circumstances Get Ugly

Check the Circuit Breaker

Hopefully, the power going out is due to fuses or breakers that have short-circuited in your home. This can be a much quicker problem to solve.

Check your main electrical panel and see if some breakers or fuses have caused the power to go out. Flipping a breaker switch or replacing a fuse might be all you need to do. Even if you’ve installed a power generator if the breaker has flipped or is broken, doing the necessary repairs at your home is much easier than running the generator.

Check Your Neighbors’ Homes

If your circuit breaker electrical panel was not the issue, go check on your neighbors’ houses and see if their power is out, too. If that’s the case, you are dealing with a more significant issue that may cover a larger area than your neighborhood or zip code. When all the home or street lights are out along your street, a more general outage needs to be investigated. 

Call the Electric Company

Get on the phone and call the electric company to report outages that you see around you. Remember to be patient; it might take a moment to get through. Chances are, they’ve had several calls from your neighbors already. Request an outage status report so you know how big of an issue you’re dealing with and how long it may be. 

The utility may be able to pinpoint how wide-ranging this outage is by generating an outage map based on the phone calls and reports received. That is how they get the repair crew out on the road to help restore the power as soon as possible. You don’t want to make critical decisions based on rumors you’ve heard; get the facts from those in the know.

If your power is out, you likely won’t be able to use your laptop’s browser or even watch reports on your TV from national sources like CNN or FOX News. However, if you have a battery-operated, solar, or crank radio, you may be able to stay in touch with the outside world. It’s always a great idea to have extra batteries in your home, just in case. 

Be sure and sign up your cell phones for REVERSE 911 in your city and county.

Turn off all Appliances and Lights

To avoid any power surge damage to appliances like TVs from getting zapped when the power is restored, go ahead and turn off and unplug everything. The last thing you need is to miss a future game day or have to replace some expensive home-based appliances and equipment because of power outage/restoration damage. 

If you haven’t done so already, have each item protected by a good-quality surge protector. Some are specifically designed to protect major appliances and are worth paying some extra money. If you’ve had frequent power outages where those surge protectors have already saved the day, you might want to check with the manufacturer or user manual to see if you think they will still do the job “next time.”

Grab Flashlights/Bright Lanterns

I’m not sure why, but the power seems to go out most of the time in the middle of the night. Gather up flashlights and bright lanterns, like camping lanterns, to help you have some visibility.

Try to avoid lighting candles as we used to when we were kids. Candles can cause fires if they’re knocked over or played with by children. 

Keep Refrigerator/Freezers Shut

Whatever you do, keep the refrigerator and freezer doors shut. You can’t know how long until the power is restored. It could take several days. Most freezers can store food for up to 24-36 hours or longer when the doors are shut, particularly if you have a full freezer since the frozen items help keep each other cold. 

Limit your Flushing

Sometimes, the city’s power outage will affect the water system pumps. Water can’t be pumped to your home and toilets if they aren’t working. If that happens, try to limit your flushing if at all possible. You may have to use some of your stored water to perform the flushing needed. There’s a saying I’ve heard from some plumber friends: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” Having a bucket handy to flush the body waste using stored water may be a blessing.  

Other Tips for Dealing with a Power Outage

Stay Hydrated

Have you noticed that we forget to care for ourselves during a calamity? Remember to drink plenty of liquids to stay hydrated during a power outage. The power can be out for any period, so stay hydrated. If you’re concerned about the quality of water coming through those taps, have some backup means to filter the water since boiling it may prove not easy. I like products from both Big Berkey and PortaWell.

Wintertime Power Outage

During a winter power outage, the cold affects your and your family and your home’s pipes. You don’t want your pipes freezing and bursting, especially if you’re not home. As mentioned above, don’t forget to report an outage!

Leave a small stream of water running in the kitchen sink to help with this. You can also have your pipes insulated beforehand to help prevent frozen pipes, particularly those exposed to your exterior walls. 

If your power is out for an extended number of days during the winter, storing your foods outside might even be better to prevent spoiling in your fridge or freezer if it’s cold enough. If you empty everything, leave your refrigerator doors open while the power remains off. 

Know When to Evacuate

Are you in a dangerous situation while the power is out? If so, get out for your safety! Extreme cold temperatures can be life-threatening, even inside the safety of your own home.

Go and stay with friends or family during this time. If you have options, don’t remain in such a helpless state. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

You may be familiar with the situation in Texas a year or so ago. A terrible winter storm came through, dumping hefty snow and high winds. The local power grid went down, leaving thousands of families in dire conditions.

The total time it took to restore power to large areas was longer than expected. Those managing the grid, local utilities, and other agencies were criticized for being unprepared, and families lost members due to the conditions. Who knows when you might end up as the last customer to have power back up and running? All the more reason for you and yours to be as prepared as possible.

Tips for Using a Generator

Some people are under the impression that a backup generator will keep all their electrical appliances up and running, just like normal.

Generators are great for keeping your refrigerator running, turning on a few lamps, or blowing fans, but that’s about it. 

Never plug a backup generator into a wall outlet. This can be extremely dangerous for not only your family but also the utility employee who’s working to get your power fixed. 

Dealing with an electric outage is no fun, but generators can help if used following proper safety precautions.

Blackout Events/Power Grids/Internet Fiber-Optic Sabotaged

I quote NERC: “On May 1, 2012, FERC and NERC issued a joint report on the Southwest Blackout Event on September 8, 2011. On the afternoon of September 8, 2011, an 11-minute system disturbance occurred in the Pacific Southwest, leading to cascading outages and leaving approximately 2.7 million customers without power. The outages affected parts of Arizona, southern California, and Baja California, Mexico. All of the San Diego areas lost power, with nearly 1.5 million customers losing power, some for up to 12 hours.”

I quote The New York Times, “The chain of events is not in dispute: Shortly before 1:30 a.m. on April 16, 2013, one or more people methodically cut communication cables near a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in San Jose, CA, sprayed more than 100 rifle bullets and knocked out 17 of the station’s 23 transformers before fleeing and avoiding capture.” The FBI was involved in this one as well.

I quote, CBS News “FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — People across northern Arizona couldn’t use the Internet, their cellphones or landlines for several hours Wednesday after someone vandalized a fiber-optic line that brings communications to a large part of the state, officials said.

Businesses couldn’t process credit card transactions, ATMs didn’t function, law enforcement databases were unavailable, and even weather reports were affected in an area stretching from north of Phoenix to Flagstaff, about 100 miles away.” This was in 2015, and CenturyLink was unprepared for this.

Sign Up for Reverse 911

Google your city and state followed by Reverse 911. For instance, I would put, South Jordan Utah Reverse 911. Then follow the instructions.

I live in Salt Lake County, Utah, so I would Google South Jordan, Utah, and Reverse 911. YOU MUST GOOGLE YOUR CITY.

I quote PHONE # REGISTRATION, Emergency Notification System (ENS). However, only landline numbers are automatically added because the system uses the region’s 9-1-1 database. Suppose you have an alternative telephone system provider, such as a cable network, a Voice over Internet Protocol provider (VoIP), or a cellular telephone, and would like to be notified via that provider. In that case, you must register those telephone numbers. Similarly, if you would like to receive an email notification, you must register the email addresses at which you wish to receive the notification.

“Lights Out” by Ted Koppel

Please order this book by a well-known TV reporter, Ted Koppel: “Lights Out.” It’s not a fantasy book like “One Second After.” This one is the real deal, my friends. I have the audio and have now listened to it at least 18-20 times, and I learn something new every single time.

Three Main Power Grids In The US

I quote Electric Choice: “Three separate grids come together to create the United States complex full network. There is the Eastern Grid, the Western Grid, and the Texas (ERCOT) Grid, with the Eastern Grid being the largest of the three.”

Power Outage Tips to Remember:

• Your full freezer food products won’t go bad right away; keep the door closed and rely on the generator if you have one.
• Anything battery-powered is better than not having any sources at all.
• Be sure to try to report downed power lines, if possible.
• Keep extra batteries on hand.
• Keep cell phones charged.
• Check on family members and neighbors to make sure everyone is okay, especially the most vulnerable.

What are some things we do know about the North Carolina power outage?

Because of the possible domestic terrorism element, even the White House has been involved as extra resources are put to use. Some of the gunfire damage is fairly easy to repair, but other items damaged will require pretty sophisticated repair work. Substations have some fairly large equipment pieces that can’t be easily repaired or replaced, and it could take a while to accomplish what’s needed.

Originally, over 45,000 customers were affected, but by Monday morning, they had restored power to approximately 7,000, leaving 38,000 customers subject to the cooler temperatures seen in December each year.

Substations are critical infrastructure that helps make up our nation’s power grid. Megawatts of power pass through them on their way to your neighborhood and home.

That’s one reason why solar panels for home use and even in an industrial setting are a hot topic of discussion. Some people are working to be “off the grid,” so many families, government facilities, and businesses are researching whether solar power is the answer for the future.

My only concern is what happens when the battery backups to these solar panels no longer work.

Final Word

Power outages can be extremely frustrating, and it seems they always come at the worst possible times. These are some ways to ensure you make the best of your situation. Based on your experience, what other things are important to consider when dealing with a power outage for an extended time? 

Please keep prepping, we must be diligent. May God bless this world, Linda

Copyright Images: Winter Snow Deposit photos_22397709_s-2019, Power Grid Station AdobeStock_372874217 by Lukas

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