How to Prepare for a Power Outage

I noticed, on Facebook, that my friends in Eagle Rock have suffered a fairly long power outage.  Bummer.  No power means no internet **gasp!**

While a power outage is rarely a life and death situation, in California,  it can be anywhere from mildly irritating to darned inconvenient. We lost power a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t get the garage door to open.  No door, no car.  No car, no going to school.  You can bet my husband found a way to get those kids to school!

But I digress.

There are things you can do, now, to prepare.  Below is a list from the ehow website:

1. Gather emergency supplies, such as candles, matches, flashlights and batteries, a battery-operated radio, a manual can opener and canned food.
2. Know the location of the fuse box or circuit breaker in your home.
3. Learn how to reset the circuit if necessary or change a blown fuse.
4. Find out ahead of time how to manually override an electric garage door.
5. Turn your refrigerator and freezer to the coldest settings if you think an outage could occur. This will help keep the food cold longer.
6. Use a surge protector to protect electrical items like your computer, TV and VCR. This can prevent a sudden surge of electricity from damaging them.
7. Have blankets or cardboard handy to cover windows in the event that the heat goes out. This will help prevent drafts.
8. Identify the most insulated room in advance; that’s where you and your family can gather if you need to stay warm.
9. Turn your thermostat to low and turn off the circuit breaker for your water heater to reduce a high demand for electricity once the power does come back on. This will help prevent an overload that can cause it to go off again.
10. Leave one light switch on so you’ll know when electricity has been restored.

Also, keep your freezer and refrigerator closed as much as possible during this time.  If the power is off for more than 2 hours, pack milk, meat fish, eggs and spoilable leftovers in a Styrofoam cooler packed with ice.  A packed freezer should keep foods good for 24-48 hours.

This is a great time to -literally- unplug.  You could try talking to your family face to face.  Play a board game.  Write a letter with paper and pen (you can scan and send it as a pdf when the power comes back on… I kid, I kid!), take a walk.