PREPARING YOUR HOMESTEAD
​FOR A POSSIBLE POWER OUTAGE

It seems that more and more often we hear on the news that thousands of people have been without power for an extended period of days, due to a bad storm, be it in Summer or Winter. So it seems to us that it's wise to be prepared for this possibility.

As you think about your own preparedness, keep this in mind:

To survive, you need:  

• ​water
• food
• shelter (from both extreme heat & cold).

It's also helpful to have:​

• lighting
• an alternative toilet
• first aid supplies
• a means of communication

all of which add to your safety.

Bear recommends, "Find a spouse who is REALLY paranoid about safety.
​That way you are safe too."

What to do when you know a storm
​that might knock out the power
​is coming your way:

1. ATMs won't work
and banks won't be open,
so get cash
(we recommend
​having more than this):

2. Gas stations won't be operational,
so fill up your car.

3. Stores will be closed, so...

While you're out filling the car, consider if you need to get:

• canned food (that doesn't need refrigeration, added water, or to be cooked, such as: soups, baked beans, refried beans, canned tuna).
• drinking water
• batteries for lights and radios
• pet or baby supplies
• medications

It's best to always have extras of these things on hand, because if you wait until the day before a big storm, everyone else may be trying to buy them too, and the store may run out. Do what you can.

Bear says sleep is your friend...
​it's good to be well rested before an emergency.

4. If you can't get water from the faucet, do you have enough
​for drinking, cooking, and cleaning?

We store larger amounts of emergency water in our basement, but when a storm is coming, we fill this beverage cooler because it would be easier to use than hauling water upstairs.

We make sure the cat bowls are filled to capacity...

​

We water the plants...

And make sure our water filter is full...

We use our Berkey Water Filter to filter our everyday drinking water, but we also bought it because it would be great to have in an emergency. It can filter stream water or water from our rain barrels so that it is safe to drink.

Experts seem to agree
that you should have at least
one gallon of water per adult per day
in an emergency:
2 quarts for drinking
and 2 for cooking & cleaning

(You'll need more if you live where it's hot, ​or will be doing a lot of physical labor, etc.)

WILL YOU HAVE WATER during A POWER OUTAGE?

From Theresa:

• I was chagrined to realize that I didn't know whether our water supply would continue during a power outage. I didn't really understand how water got to our faucets. Isn't it sad that we don't know where these most basic resources come from?
• I turned on our water during a brief outage once, and it worked, but I didn't understand why.
• I talked to a plumber I knew and admitted my ignorance. We live in a village with a water tower, so he explained that the water reaches our house simply through gravity, from the water falling down the tower into the underground pipes that transport it to our houses.
• So our water would continue flowing during a power outage, until the water tower emptied out.
• Then electricity would be needed to pump more water to the top of the tower. Some towns keep back-up generators for this, but I don't know if ours has one.

So if your power actually does go out, consider filling other water containers while the water is still flowing, before it potentially runs out. Containers may include:

• the bathtub
• the clothes washer
• coolers, pots, pans, etc. if you need to use them.

5. If your water won't run, you might want to...

Wash dishes:

If you don't have water for a week, do you really want those dirty dishes sitting there? Think of the smell...

Do the laundry:

... same thing with dirty undies and socks. (Theresa notes- that would be Bear's socks, mine don't stink.) (From Bear- I beg to differ...)

Clean the liter boxes
(or do whatever your animal companions need):

Someone's thinking of the children.

Clean yourself:
​

Is this shot really necessary?

Bear has to ask... is this Theresa preparing for a storm,
​or is it just her fiendish way
​ of getting him to help clean the house & take a shower?

6. Refrigerators and Freezers ​Won't Work:

REFRIGERATORS:

• Once the power goes out, don't open the door!
• Keep as much cold air inside as you can so the food will last the longest.
• Before the storm hits, we remove any food from the refrigerator that doesn't really need to be cold, so we can eat it during an outage. This includes bread, butter, fresh fruit, etc.
• Keeping the door closed is only supposed to keep the food in a refrigerator from spoiling for about four hours
  (per FoodSafety.gov. It would probably be less if it's really hot outside).
• So we also put a couple frozen gallon jugs of water in our refrigerator to help keep it cold longer in the event of an outage. 
• In the Winter, you could keep a couple extra jugs outside so they stay frozen, and keep switching them with the jugs in the refrigerator as they thaw. We haven't had to try this yet, so can't say if two frozen jugs would be enough to keep a refrigerator cold and the food safe to eat.

Bear thought singing: Hello refrig my old friend, I hope to open you again...

FREEZERS:

• Freezers will stay colder longer if they are full, so if yours aren't, you can fill plastic bags with water...

• ...then put the bags in the empty spaces in your freezer.

• But be careful! I did this once and the bags had frozen into place in such a way that I couldn't easily remove them.
• If an outage occurs, don't open the doors!

IMPORTANT FOOD SAFETY INFORMATION:

When the Power Comes Back On:  How do you know if the food in your refrigerator or freezer is safe to eat?
We've printed out the information available on the FoodSafety.gov website
and keep it in our emergency file for reference:  Food Safety in Power Outages

7.  If it's a Winter storm, you might also:

Make sure you have enough wood in the house to keep the fire going (see our page on our Wonderful Wood Stove)...

Make sure you know where your shovels and deicing equipment are (such as salt or ashes to spread on icy sidewalks).

Learn how to Keep Your Pipes from Freezing: We have a wood stove to heat the house, and under most conditions I don't think we need to worry about our pipes freezing (at least they haven't yet on days when only the woodstove is going). But we like to be prepared, so we also have on hand instructions on how to drain the pipes in our house to keep them from freezing. They are from this book, which also has lots of other good emergency preparedness advice presented in a way that does not induce panic:

Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient when the Unexpected Happens

by Kathy Harrison

8. And for any emergency situation, it's good to have:

Alternative lighting options: Here we have, going clockwise, starting with the kerosene lamp, a battery powered lantern, a candle in a holder that has a handle and a glass chimney (helps with drafts and makes it safer to carry around), a battery powered book light that sits up by itself in addition to clipping to a book, a solar powered flashlight, and a solar powered headlamp. Make sure you know where they are before it gets dark.

A headlamp that angles down is particularly helpful, as it illuminates whatever you need to be working on in front of you and leaves your hands free. We use them for more than emergencies. This one is from Hybridlight and can be charged with a usb port or with solar power. We also like their solar powered flashlights, which are supposed to stay charged for 7 years in storage.
​

A weather radio and/or AM/FM radio so you know what's going on:

Extra food supplies (for yourself & animals) and/or or a well-stocked pantry:

A composting toilet:  Theresa built this one weekend (the one on the left in the left photo), and is constantly surprised that none of our guests ask us why we have two toilets in the bathroom. The composting one is basically a wooden box built around a 5 gallon bucket, with a toilet lid attached on top (photo on the right). You could also just use a five gallon bucket if you needed to, but the box makes it much more comfortable to sit on. To help keep the smell down, it's best to sprinkle some organic material on top of the waste every time you go to the bathroom, such as sawdust, leaves, pine needles, or ash from the wood stove. If you don't have a system to compost the waste, and only use the composting toilet for a day or two, you could just bury the waste, or flush it down the toilet when the water is running again. Some people use heavy duty trash bags in the bucket, but that sounds like a mistake waiting to happen. 

If you don't have a composting toilet, you can buy a bucket with a toilet lid on it for emergency or temporary use. They are available through emergency supply companies and are also sold with hunting supplies.

Note also that you can flush a normal toilet by dumping a large bucket of water down it. However, this is a bad idea if water is in short supply. Once our water stopped working right before a suspected Winter storm of the decade hit (there was a problem with the underground pipes that was unrelated to the weather), and we tried melting snow to be able to flush the toilet. We found that it takes an amazing amount of snow to melt into even a small amount of water, and that no matter how clean the snow looks, it has lots of small debris in it. Now we know.

Composting emergency toilet is on the left.

The emergency toilet is basically a box built around a 5 gallon bucket.

Sorry, Bear drew the line here and refused to model the composting toilet for you...

9. Keep Your
Emergency To Do List
​Handy...

We keep our to do list for power outages, along with the emergency evacuation list, in this drawer near our front door, so it is always handy. When we know a storm is coming, it's much easier to just look at the list as a reminder, than to try to think of all the things we should do to prepare.

Click to get a copy of the above list (minus photos) that you can store someplace handy. It's a Word file, so you can also modify it to suit your needs:

Prepare for an Expected Power Outage

If you are prepared for an emergency,
then you don't need to worry about one so much.
​Be safe out there!