Power Outage Survival Kit + Preparedness Checklist

Build your power outage survival kit

A power outage survival kit keeps your household self-sufficient for the 72 hours most outages never reach but every family should plan for. Tap each item as you check it off. Your progress is saved on this device.

What to do in a power outage: hour 1 through restoration

The first hour is when most mistakes get made, and the last hour (when power returns) is when surge damage happens. The steps in between are straightforward if you know them ahead of time.

1. 1

   First 5 minutes

   Verify the outage is not just your home: check a breaker, look at a neighbor’s porch light. Report the outage to your utility by phone or text (their website is also down). Note the time. Enable phone battery saver mode now, not later.

2. 2

   First hour

   Turn off major appliances that were running (dishwasher, oven, AC) so they do not all surge when power returns. Move the most perishable food into a pre-chilled cooler. Keep the fridge and freezer closed otherwise. Check on neighbors who rely on medical equipment or are elderly.

3. 3

   First 24 hours

   Use your lights, not candles. Use your phone sparingly, not as a flashlight. If the outage is expected to last, follow the fridge rule: a closed fridge stays safe about 4 hours, a full freezer about 48. Start non-electric temperature management for the season (layers in winter, shaded rooms and hydration in summer).

4. 4

   Day 2 to day 3

   Discard perishables that have been above 40°F for more than 2 hours. If cold weather pushes indoor temperatures below 55°F, or hot weather pushes them above 85°F, consider relocating vulnerable household members to a warming or cooling center. Keep monitoring WEA and your utility’s restoration estimate.

5. 5

   When power returns

   Turn appliances back on one at a time over 10 to 15 minutes to avoid a cascade that trips your panel. Check every refrigerator and freezer item individually: when in doubt, throw it out. Reset clocks, the WiFi router, and the modem. Document any damage from power surges for insurance.

Hot weather outage vs cold weather outage

Season changes the stakes more than outage length does. A 24-hour outage in mild weather is an inconvenience. A 24-hour outage in a heat dome or a deep freeze is a medical emergency for vulnerable household members.

Do I need a generator?

For most households in most places, a well-stocked power outage kit handles the 72 hours an outage is statistically likely to last. A generator becomes worth the cost, complexity, and fuel storage in three specific cases:

• Someone in your household depends on medical equipment (CPAP, oxygen concentrator, home dialysis).
• You live in an area where multi-day outages are routine (rural, wildfire PSPS zones, extreme-weather corridors).
• You rely on a well pump for water, because no power means no water beyond your storage.

Safety non-negotiables for any generator:

• Never run a generator indoors, in a garage, or within 20 feet of any window, door, or vent. Carbon monoxide kills quickly.
• Store fuel in approved containers outside the home, in a cool, ventilated area, well away from ignition sources.
• Plug appliances directly into the generator using heavy-duty outdoor-rated cords, or have an electrician install a transfer switch. Never back-feed through a wall outlet.

Power outage alerts for your address

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) still work during outages as long as cell towers have backup power, which they usually do for the first 8 to 24 hours. WEA is how the National Weather Service issues the winter storm warnings, heat advisories, and high wind warnings that tend to precede outages.

WEA is enabled by default on most phones, but it is worth verifying:

• iPhone:Settings → Notifications → scroll to Government Alerts and enable every category.
• Android:Settings → Notifications → Wireless Emergency Alerts and enable every category.

WEA tells you severe weather is coming. Your utility tells you power is out. BeAware layers both on top of the FEMA risk data for your exact address, so you see a single coherent picture instead of three apps and a phone tree.

Outage duration and what it means

Outage length changes what you need to do. Use this table to calibrate your response as the hours tick by.

Power outage preparedness FAQ

Sources

The safety guidance on this page follows these sources. Where our wording differs from theirs, theirs is correct.

• Power Outages — Ready.gov

  Supports: the refrigerator and freezer timings quoted on this page — Ready.gov states "The refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours" — and the generator and carbon-monoxide guidance: "Use a generator, but ONLY outdoors and away from windows" and "Do not use a gas stove or oven to heat your home."

Deep dives from our article library

Each of these goes deeper on a single part of power-outage preparedness than a single page allows.

Complete Power Outage Survival Guide

Pillar article for this topic. Goes deeper on every section on this page, with concrete household-size math and a seasonal preparation calendar.

Food Storage During Power Outages

The 4-hour fridge window and 48-hour freezer window explained item by item. Exactly which foods to save first, which to discard immediately, and which survive longer than you think.

Generator vs. Power Station: Which Is Best for Winter Outages?

Real capacity math, runtime data, and cold-weather performance metrics. The "do I need a generator?" section above, with the actual spreadsheet.

Winter Power Outage Survival: Essential Items Checklist

Winter-specific gear beyond the generic checklist above. What a post-Uri Texas household actually needed versus what the big-box "emergency kit" included.

How to Create a Backup Power Plan for Winter Storms

Most backup power plans fail within 12 hours. A multi-day winter strategy: prioritization, sequencing, and cold-weather fuel storage.

Non-Electric Alternatives for Daily Life

Can openers, hand tools, French presses, analog clocks. The manual substitutions that keep a household functional when the grid does not.