Be Ready For Long Term Power Outage with These Tips

I’ve talked about how to make a blackout kit before but now, I’m going to talk about some tips and advice to thrive during a long term blackout.

We lived 2 years off grid and it was the best time of my life. We hope to get back to the off grid life soon enough. But in the mean time, living without being attached to the main grid was not just liberating, but taught us a lot of lessons about how we use all kinds of resources, as well as how to either live without or adapt them to fit our current environment and needs.

Blackouts aren’t something new, they can happen for all kinds of reasons:

• Hurricane
• Tornado
• Wind storm
• Lightning storm
• Rolling blackouts by power companies because there’s too much of a draw on power because of AC usage or something else
• Cyberattacks
• Fallen trees
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Construction work

And various other reasons.

How might you be affected by a blackout?

• No internet
• No lights
• No heat
• No cooking
• No AC
• No power for medical devices
• Possible interruption of water and gas
• Spoiled food in fridge or freezer
• Traffic lights not working
• Cell phones could be unable to transmit due to high demand usage or simply no power to cell towers

Power outages aren’t actually that uncommon, though they tend to only last an hour or so. Some more extreme cases have lasted 3-6 hours or even a day.

The longest power outage in the US was 15 hours in Maine.

Outside of the US, Venezuela was without power for 7 days in 2019. They had many more power outages after that 7 days. The month of March in 2019, they were without power for about a total of 10 days.

You may think, “that’ll never happen here”, but our infrastructure, and to be more specific, those in power, are quite weak and full of corruption.

With the talk of our grid being unable to handle such high demands of power during extreme temps, cyberattack threats and the talk of moving to all alternative energy someday, there’s a lot to consider.

But we can be prepared!

Here’s how to be prepared for a short or long term power outage:

Food and water – this is a given for just about any emergency or disaster. However, during a blackout, we certainly don’t want to be roaming the streets or the grocery stores. If your power is out, your local grocery store may be without power as well. That means credit card machines are down, refrigeration is down, etc. They may have backup generators, but they may only last for so long, especially because gas tends not to work without power, either. So how much gas do they have on hand?

You also don’t want to be around those who are unprepared and panicking. Have at least 2 weeks of food and water on hand, but of course, more is always better.

Light sources – flashlights/headlamps, batteries (both rechargeable and disposable), candles, matches, lighters, lanterns, solar lights, etc.

Alternative cooking – even if you have a gas or propane range, I’d still recommend at least one or two alternative cooking sources. These sources might include an outdoor fire, an outdoor grill or blackstone, a coleman propane stove, solar oven or a variety of other options.

Alternative heating – the power can go out at any time, even in the winter. What sort of alternative heating sources do you have on hand? Propane heater, buddy heater, zero degree sleeping bags, wood stove and fireplace are all options. People have stayed warm without electricity for centuries. Have the fuel sources ready to go for your options, such as wood or propane.

Alternative cooling – More and more blackouts have been happening in the summer when it’s the hottest because that’s when demand is the highest because everyone is running their AC to keep cool. We lived in high desert AZ without any AC and while it’s tough, it’s possible. Get into water like an outdoor pool or fill your bathtub, get battery operated fans, stay in the shade, drink LOTS of water, hop into your car for some intermittent AC relief, throw a wet towel on your neck.

Also, cotton is a good thing in summer, it absorbs your sweat and keeps it there against your skin, helping to cool you down.

Alternative energy – Solar, wind and even thermal options are something to consider for your alternative energy needs. You can also look like generators, gas, solar, dual fuel and diesel. I love solar generators because of where I live, but we also have gas. You may decide a whole house diesel generator is right for you. Or wind. Or a combination of several options.

Begin insulating your home, install double pane windows, put up blackout curtains, seal cracks, install shade over your windows or the shade covers for windows. Make your home work for you so you don’t need so much energy.

However, you may need some type of generator if you have medical devices or other life saving devices that are truly important to keep going no matter whether there’s power or not.

Entertainment – don’t forget about entertainment! I say it all the time but it’s so vitally important, especially for kids. Get a battery powered DVD player, board games, crafts, books, journals and much more. Keep your morale up. Plus, you won’t always be running around crazy, in fact, if you’re properly prepared, you won’t have much all to do except play board games!

Hygiene and cleaning – How will you continue to use the restroom? Wash clothing? Bathe yourself? Consider a compost toilet, this way you’re not having to flush a toilet and use precious water resources. Consider hand washing dishes. Hand washing clothing in 5 gallon buckets, a bathtub or having an energy efficient washer if you’re able to power it, then drying on a clothes line. We used to have to boil water for showers and baths, but we also had a tankless heater which worked wonders and ran on propane. Many options out there.

Well power – if your well runs on electricity, how will you continue to pump water without electricity? Hand pump? Solar? Generator? Wind? Consider these options.

Transportation – most gas stations have backup generators, however, not always and they wouldn’t last forever. Depending on the length of the power outage, you may need to either store extra gas for your vehicle (but you may only be able to store so much depending on your situation) or have an alternative means of transportation. A bike can definitely be a good option, you could even get an ebike and potentially charge it with solar panels depending on the wattage. Of course, there are always horses, if that’s an option. Or our good ol’ feet. Or skates.

Communication – cell towers could either be overloaded with everyone trying to use them at once, or they could simply be out of service after a certain period of time. What alternative communication options do you have? There’s amateur ham radio, GMRS, walkie talkies and of course smoke signals and carrier pigeons. Whatever options you choose, make sure everyone is on the same page and knows exactly how to use the radios or other communication options.

You can get your ham radio license by taking this amazing online course.

Community – having a strong community can be a huge asset to you in everyday, as well as en emergency or disaster. When there was a wildfire right behind our home, we were texting our neighbors and we were able to inform a couple neighbors who weren’t home about the fire. We kept each other informed and gave advice when needed, we also comforted each other.

Community is huge and shouldn’t be ignored. Not sure how to grow community? Start with a wave and a ‘hi’ to your neighbors.

Simply put, look at everything you use electricity for, even our water and gas can be interrupted because of a power outage. Maybe not right away, but it’s a possibility if it’s extended long enough. How long is ‘long enough’, that really depends on the provider.

We can all survive and thrive without electricity. We’ve really only had electricity for 100 years. How did people used to live without it? We can do it, we just need to come to terms with slight changes to the way we would operate everyday.

We can’t control when the power goes out, but we can control how prepared we are to handle it.