Introduction
Why? What? When? How? A power outage is one of those things that causes almost an immediate reaction in anyone no matter how old you are, male or female. This is because the shock of the lights going out, followed by the confusion of power outages, can cause will be different every time.
You might think that after going through it a few times you might get used to it, but while that’s a good thing for dealing with the outage, you should still be very concerned. A power outage could be very risky for your home and you, and safely surveying the surroundings before acting is very important to ensure you emerge unscathed.
This article will be your guide on assessing the risks and managing certain initial issues that will prop up in order to keep yourself, your pets, and your loved ones safe.
What happened?
This is one of the most important things to ask. If the source of a power outage is anything from a heatwave, natural disaster, or something ongoing and larger than its consequence, the power outage, consider if it is even safe to continue staying in the house. If it isn’t you should consider evacuating at once, taking only what’s important with you. If it’s something else, then you should ask yourself the next question.
Your neighbors can be very helpful here too. If you have some way of communicating with those living around you, establish contact. Knowing whether or not the power outage is only affecting you, and what might’ve happened is invaluable.
Not to mention, as your neighbors might also scramble to ensure that the people in their house are safe, you might find it easier to gather at their place if you’re familiar, and that will help you keep warm and account for everyone. Remember, sharing is worth a whole lot in an emergency, so always look for ways you can help others after of course, making sure the people around you are safe and well first.
Staying Warm
The first and most obvious thing that happens after you find out that it’s not just you, and it’s not getting fixed by just flicking a few fuses, is that you start feeling really cold. While a good living place will have good and warm walls, not everyone lives in places with standard insulation, and as such, the cold will affect people at varying speeds.
If you live with someone old and frail, then they will feel the drop in heating almost right away, and the urgency of trapping heat becomes elevated. If it’s cold outside, the important thing to do right away is to save the heat you have in your house. It’s not very easy to make heat without electricity, and you’ll be surprised at how much heat you can keep trapped.
Relocate to one or two rooms, and concentrate on getting that space down. Cover the windows and the doors with blankets and make sure to cover over the key parts where drafts can enter the house. Plastic is also a fantastic material in this situation because it doesn’t compromise on light, which is warming, and is easy to apply over small cracks and seams.
I will reiterate, choose a room and stick to it. The best room in this situation is a room with as few windows and as small a land area as possible. You can make sure to use hot water bottles, and get blankets and warm clothes from the other rooms. If you have a simple tent for camping you can also use that to house your pets and more fragile individuals. They’re designed to keep body heat in and are perfect in this situation.
Staying Cool
Open all windows immediately, especially if they’re not facing the sun. The hot sun can oftentimes be worse than the breeze that might flow through, so similarly, use blankets to cover off the sun, or guide it towards certain areas.
Next, make sure to find water and stay hydrated. In many blackouts, the water will still be available so you can drink up. More than that, you can moisten clothing and wrap it around yourself which will give your body a cooling feeling and surface liquid to evaporate first.
Keeping your food fresh
Like with the other two options, the temperature of your surroundings and the nature of the electrical outage will determine how important this step is. The FDA recommends keeping food at a chilled 40 degrees to prevent most kinds of spoilage, and when the electricity goes out, so will the freezing elements of your fridge.
The absolute first thing to do in this situation is to take stock of what you have in the fridge and which items might be at greater risk of spoiling. Then, take into account how long you think the outage will go on. An hour or two and you should be concerned with other matters like conserving your cell phone battery and keeping warm. Any longer than half a day and you should be considering how you can protect the food you want to keep.
First of all, to prepare for such events in the future, make sure your appliance has a thermometer, if not install one with good ol’ tape. Freeze water containers like empty milk jugs or gel packs to use as an emergency coolant.
Then, take out all the food you might need that won’t spoil to reduce opening the doors to your fridge and freezer as much as you can. Careful though, if you empty too much of your fridge you might actually cut the duration your fridge can hold its temperature in half.
Lastly, if in doubt, throw it out. Even without our modern-day conveniences of delivery and take-out, it’s not worth keeping and taking a gamble on potentially spoiled produce. The illness that could occur is simply not worth the risk. If you have to, don’t be shy to ask around for help.
Conclusion
In essence, don’t panic, ask around first, and make sure to survey your risks before making your course of action. Always keep a level head and you will be fine. Trust us.
