longer-term power outages
The recent ice storm in central Ontario made this possibility a reality for tens of thousands of people.
Were you caught unprepared by the damage and power outages caused by the ice storm in central Ontario in March - April? If so, you’re not alone.
If you were fine for your days without power, that’s awesome, and well done! You can take this as a reminder of what you did well, and hopefully find some useful suggestions in case you need them in future.
Many people were not ready for what happened, and likely many were not as ready as they thought. To help prevent that from happening again, here is a list of ways to prepare for a similar occurrence, listed by need, with a short blurb for each. The majority of the items in the lists are readily found in the home and/or are easy to get ahead of time.
This is key - if there’s no power, and you are low on gas, and the gas stations near you have no power so are closed, and you have no money and can’t use a bank card to pay for anything because stores don’t have power, you are not going to be able to go and get things after the storm or outage. This is why it is called preparation, with the “pre” meaning before.
I do not have generators on the list. Those are great to have, and will definitely be helpful, but for most will require not just the original financial outlay to acquire it, but getting it properly installed, getting and maintaining fuel for it, and - most importantly - knowing how to use it, how much you can plug into it, and how long you can run it. If you are willing to do all of that, go for it; they really are a big help.
Water
You need to have water on hand for at least a few days for everyone in your household, OR have the knowledge and skill to get it (ideally you’ll have both).
One of the easiest things to do is to keep a few of the “water company” jugs on hand, and rotate through them so none sit for ages in your house. There are a host of other ways to store or acquire water, including but not limited to the following list. NOTE that many of them require purifying the water somehow before it’s safe to consume.
Storage and acquisition: large barrels, rain barrels hooked up to downspouts, single-use water bottles, freezer bags (i.e., put water in sturdy zippered bags and freeze them), snow, ponds, streams, springs
Purification: boiling, filtering (e.g., gravity or pump filters you’d have for camping), tablets, bleach
Food
You need the same relative amount food as water: at least a few days for everyone in your household.
If there’s no power, it’s a lot easier to eat things that do not need to be cooked, such as cereal, sandwiches, crackers, granola / snack / meal bars, canned goods, baked goods (though these generally do not store well), dried fruit, nuts, and just about anything else reasonably nutritious that your household will eat.
If you want to cook things, you need to know how to use your cooking appliances without power - practise before you are in the middle of an outage. Things like barbecues and camping stoves need to be used in a ventilated and preferably outdoor area. This past outage, there were quite a few fires because people used these things improperly and inside (same for generators - they go outside!). That being said, if you know what you’re doing, it’s great to have hot food, as it boosts morale as well as warming you up. So, barbecues, camping stoves, outdoor wood fires (in a proper pit), on an indoor wood stove, are all good options.
One important thing to remember is that without power, your refrigerator and freezer are not working to keep things cold. If you need to get into them, keep the “open-door” time to a minimum. After about two days, depending on your appliances and your house temperature, you will likely need to find another way to keep things cold. During the ice storm outage, putting things in coolers and putting those outside in the ice and snow worked well!
Shelter (including heat)
This is based on the assumption that you have some sort of building in which you are living; if not, there is a whole slew of other considerations for all the topics on this list, and this article is not detailed enough to cover them.
When people read “shelter” they often think of buildings (house, apartment, condo), and while shelter does include these, that only scratches the surface. In the recent ice storm, many people got pretty cold in their homes. Heat, or keeping people warm, is an often-overlooked component of shelter within a house or other building. If you have a wood stove or a fireplace (even a gas one), that’s an excellent source of heat, as long as you know how to use it (are we sensing a theme yet?).
Other ways to stay warm include wearing layers, wearing slippers or other footwear, toques, blankets, sleeping bags, even reflective emergency blankets if you get that cold. Depending how long the outage is and how cold it is, staying off cold floors to sleep, blocking off unused parts of the house, sleeping in higher-up areas like lofts (remember, heat rises), covering windows / doors / drafty spots / even walls with blankets, all help to keep heat in an area and/or keep people warm. Even a candle can provide some extra heat, as well as light.
Power outages when it’s hot out are more rare, but if they happen, you need to stay cool. Shaded areas, staying hydrated, covering windows so sun doesn’t warm things up, lying on cool surfaces - essentially a lot of things opposite to those above for staying warm!
A note on sump pumps: There were a lot of people who found out during this power outage just how wet their basements would be without a sump pump. There is essentially only one option if you have a sump pump in your home, and that is to have a back-up power source (solar, battery, generator, something). Otherwise, you will be looking at much work choices (bale out buckets for days, let the basement flood, or move somewhere without a sump pump).
Light
Without power, your source of light is the sun. If you want to see or do anything when it is not daylight, or if you’re somewhere without windows, you will need other sources of light.
There are many options here, and they all have pros and cons. Candles are great because they give off heat as well as light, and they have a positive effect on morale, likely a holdover from pre-electricity times; however, than can be a fire hazard so must be used with proper care (e.g., candleholders, for one).
Flashlights, headlamps, lanterns, work lights, fires, are all other sources of light. Most require a power source, so either have lots of extra batteries of the correct size around, or get items that you can charge another way - choices include wind-up, solar power, USB cables, shaking (not the best but could entertain a young child and keep them busy).
Cleanliness
This is important (and often overlooked) when preparing for a power outage for any length of time. It helps to lessen the need for first aid (see 5 below), as well as keeping a higher standard of health and morale.
We Canadians are generally pretty fortunate when it comes to water - we have a lot of it per capita. It may not be filtered or clean all the time, but it’s there. So for cleaning, we tend to overuse it and not know what to do without quantities of it.
Keeping the humans clean is important, so your water calculations will need to include enough potable water for your household to brush teeth, occasionally wash hands, maintain personal cleanliness, and clean dishes at some point (if you use reusable ones and the power is out long enough). Cleaning your house only gets onto the list if the outage is for weeks, unless you are really messy (which is a bad idea in this situation).
Everyone should have a small bottle, or every sink should have a small bottle, for toothbrushing water. A spray bottle of water uses much less than pouring for washing hands or face. If you want to clean elsewhere, a damp washcloth with soap is much better than wasting water pouring it over yourself. If you get to the point that you need to clean your hair, there are some natural oils that work well, or you can use dry shampoo / leave-in conditioner; or you can join the “no-poo” movement and just brush your hair daily!
Cleaning dishes and utensils can be done camping style - with a small bowl of water for washing, another for rinsing, and some cloths for drying. I will admit that after arguing with my teenagers for a few days, when my husband said we should just get paper plates and wooden cutlery, I caved. It was easier, and they went in the wood stove when they were too dirty to keep using. I did still clean all the other stuff we used for cooking, though. BUT there was quite a bit of wiping things with cloth or paper towels as opposed to washing everything.
First Aid / Medications / Health
You should already have a first aid kit appropriate for your household. If you do not, get one. Start with things like band-aids, alcohol wipes, gauze, gloves, and go on from there. There are a lot of options, both for types of things to add, and within any given type, so there is a lot of personal preference in this.
If possible, have spares of any important personal medication or other health needs. You should also have personal hygiene needs beyond the basics listed under cleanliness, such as pads and tampons, contact lenses and solution, glasses (they fit better here than elsewhere), and anything else your household requires (if there are things that make life easier without power, they can go here too).
Health means maintaining health, which means any vitamins, minerals, supplements you take, as well as generally taking care of yourself. Avoiding injury is also important - burns are a particular one to be careful of without power, as there are so many more occasions in which you may be using fire.
Transportation
During a longer-term power outage, you are probably going to want to get out of your home, for variety and avoiding cabin fever if nothing else; assuming it is safe to do so. With the long day of crashing trees and branches in the ice storm, there were times it wasn’t safe to be outside!
Transportation can be anything from walking next door to check on a neighbour, to driving out of town a longer distance to get supplies, bring supplies to someone, or even stay with someone if it becomes warranted. In order to do those things, you need to be fit to walk, run, bike, paddle, carry / travois; and you need enough fuel or charge in a powered vehicle to get it where you need to go (and back). So keeping yourself fit, keeping your vehicle at half-full, and having extra fuel available, are good ways to be prepared.
Communication
This is another often-overlooked aspect of being prepared for a longer power outage - you are going to want to get in touch with others. Reasons include letting family and friends know you’re alright (or need help), checking on those family and friends, finding out when your utility company expects to have power back to you, knowing how widespread the outage is, or knowing if you can head into the nearest town because it’s up and running.
Local safety issues such as fires, roads that are washed out, downed power lines (there were many during the ice storm), people stuck in their homes, are all things that would be very useful to know.
You cannot always rely on cell coverage, but it is generally pretty good as towers are spaced apart. Wifi can be used if you can power yours (here, a generator is really helpful!), or use someone else’s. Satellite phones are less expensive than they used to be, as are decent walkie-talkies for short distances. You can get very inexpensive radios, or even get into ham radio operation if you are so inclined. However, all of these options require that you charge them beforehand and/or have a power source to (re)charge them - such as power banks, that are themselves charged before the outage!
Knowledge
In case you’ve missed it in the last several items, you really do need to know things as well as have gear.
It is completely useless to have a five-thousand-dollar generator that could power your house, if you’ve never taken it out of the box, put fuel in it, and figured out how to use it. The same goes for all the gear mentioned above, which is why you always, always, practise with gear when things are fine and dandy, rather than first using it in an emergency.
Knowledge also includes knowing your home, where things are stored, how to fix minor things that go wrong, and what (and who) in your home or area is useful in a given situation.
It also includes skills. If you have never barbecued, try it. If you don’t know how to use a water filter, learn. If you have a radio, know how to find stations. If you have no idea what to do with anything in a first aid kit beyond a band-aid, take a first aid course.
Yet another upside to having knowledge is that you will feel better about your situation, and be more able to deal with things rather than panic.
Entertainment
This is at the bottom of the list for humans, but it still makes the cut. If the power is out, and your needs are met, tempers fray and bored people are more fractious.
Entertainment is for pleasure, to boost morale, to build camaraderie, and so on. Board games, card games, camp-type games, books, crafts, art, puzzles, are all great options. It certainly helps if your household, or most of it, knows how to do / play some of them, but teaching others is a great way to spend time together too.
Animal Care
If you have any animals, including pets or livestock, you need to look after them as well - it’s part of being their owner. You chose to have them, therefore you have the responsibility to provide for their needs.
This means that you need to have shelter, water, and food for them as well. The situations for animals can vary widely, but having a full trough or extra water jug for them is a good start. If it’s cold out, like during the ice storm, you will need to break ice on outdoor water regularly. Many farmers have a separate generator (or more than one) for their barn(s).
Shelters are generally already in place, but make sure they are in working condition after whatever made the power go out - there were a lot of trees down on structures in the ice storm, for example, so structures need to be checked. Shelter also includes bedding for those animals that need it (e.g., shavings or straw in stalls or cages), and possibly blankets for animals that live outside or will be outside for longer than usual.
You should have enough food, and any medication or other needs, for a minimum of three days, and ideally a week, if there is the possibility of a power outage, as you may not be able to go get it a day or two in. My feed store was closed for four days during the ice storm, and ran out of several things because the time to place the week’s order came and went during that four days - an accident of timing that was by no means their fault, but it did happen.