What to do in the first hour of a power outage

Minutes 0–5: work out how big it is

Look outside. If your neighbours have lights, the fault is probably inside your home — check your consumer unit or breaker panel for a tripped breaker before calling anyone.

If the street is dark, report it to your utility. They generally cannot fix what nobody has told them about, and reported outages are how restoration gets prioritised.

Minutes 5–15: protect the phone

Your phone is your radio, your torch, and your way of telling people you're fine. Treat its battery as the scarce resource it now is: turn the screen brightness down, switch on low-power mode, and stop using it as a flashlight if you own an actual flashlight.

This is the moment you find out whether the power bank in the drawer was ever charged. It usually wasn't.

Minutes 15–60: food, appliances, and heat

Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors shut. U.S. food-safety guidance is that a closed refrigerator holds a safe temperature for about four hours, a full freezer for about 48 hours, and a half-full freezer for about 24 hours. Perishable food that has been above 40°F (4°C) for more than two hours should be discarded — and when you're unsure about an item, throw it out rather than taste it.

Unplug or switch off sensitive electronics and anything that was running when the power failed, so a surge on restoration doesn't take them with it. Leave one lamp switched on so you know the moment the supply returns.

In cold weather, close off rooms you aren't using and layer clothing rather than heating the whole house. Never run a generator, camp stove, charcoal grill, or any fuel-burning appliance indoors, in a garage, or near a window — carbon monoxide from these is a genuine and recurring cause of deaths during outages.

Afterwards: the five-minute version of preparedness

Almost everything that would have made the outage easier is a small, boring task you could do on a Tuesday: charge the power bank, find the flashlight, write down one out-of-area phone number on paper, know where the water shut-off is.

Preparedness is mostly household admin wearing a slightly alarming jacket. None of it requires a bunker, and most of it doesn't require buying anything.