It is a fact of life that the lights will suddenly go out from time to time, leaving us in the dark.
Often, these power outages have an obvious cause, such as a storm. However, there are times when the power suddenly fails for no apparent reason.
We all have been through enough power outages that I think it is safe to say that no one reading this would panic and not know what to do in an outage.
However, when faced with a sudden power outage, there is one thing that we should all be doing first.
Is It A Local Grid Failure Or EMP/CME?
Whenever the power goes out, I ask myself whether the outage is a simple grid problem or an EMP, CME, cyber terrorism, or another nationwide grid-down event.
So far, every power outage I’ve been through has been short-lived and not apocalyptic, but I do take a few minutes to check the scope of the problem.
As soon as the power fails, I do what most of us do. I pull out my phone and get online to check on the outage.
If the cellular network is still active, which it should be, that would indicate that the outage is probably not due to an EMP. It does not, however, rule out a CME, cyber terrorism, or a physical attack on the grid.
Related: The First Steps You Should Take Immediately After a CME
These events would not be evident until you get information from outside your area.
As long as you can access the internet through your phone and the cellular data network, you should be able to determine the scope of the outage within a few minutes.
In addition, social media apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok can be good resources because people will post updates almost immediately.
For example, if the outage is nationwide, a flood of people will post what they see in their area. You should see a massive volume of posts from around the country.
Of course, if every electronic device you own no longer works immediately after the power fails, it’s a safe bet that you’ve experienced the wrath of an EMP.
Once you know the situation, it’s time to take a few more immediate steps.
Make Sure Your Family Is Safe
It may seem like this should be the first thing we would do, but whether the outage is local or nationwide will determine our next steps regarding locating our family.
Reuniting after an EMP will look much different than a typical local outage, and it’s best to have all the information before implementing the appropriate emergency plan.
Hopefully, you have an emergency plan for various grid-down situations, from local outages to planet-wide grid failures. The important thing is that everyone knows what to do and how to reunite during an emergency.
During a localized power outage, getting everyone in the family back home shouldn’t have any issues.
The same would be true during most grid-down scenarios unless an EMP disables vehicles. In this case, getting home would have to be done on foot, which would take considerably longer.
Once your family is safe, it’s time to prepare for the days ahead.
Secure More Water Resources
Unless you know that the power will be restored within a day or so, you should use the first hours of the outage to fill more water containers or buckets.
You can buy specialized water bags designed to fit in a bathtub. These bags are filled with water which you can pump out as needed.
Since the average bathtub holds around 40 gallons of water, filling one up would mean that you will have ten days worth of water for a family of four.
⇒ The Awesome DIY Device That Turns Air Into Fresh Water
Even if you have ample water stores, you should use water still in the pipes for as long as possible.
After a while, the pumps will stop pumping, and your taps will run dry, so taking advantage of this for as long as possible is important.
Get Ready For The Dark Hours
I am guilty of not pulling out my blackout kit until the sun sinks below the horizon.
However, it is an excellent habit to immediately grab your blackout kit and get set up for the night, even if you suspect the power outage will only last a few hours.
Use the daylight hours to preposition lanterns, headlamps, and flashlights so no one is fumbling around in the dark looking for anything when the sun goes down.
Activate Your Communications Plan
Regardless of whether the outage is due to something as serious as an EMP or as simple as a downed branch, you should activate your emergency comms plan.
Even if it is a local outage and you are not facing an SHTF situation, it is good practice to establish and maintain comms without the luxury of grid power.
Here you can learn a simple and inexpensive way that you can maintain the continuity of comms after a power grid failure or EMP.
You can also listen to shortwave radio broadcasts, which can tell you the extent of the outage.
Check On Your Neighbors
You should always be checking on your neighbors that are vulnerable or elderly, regardless of how long the outage is expected to last.
Even a simple power outage can be problematic for some people during temperature extremes, and if you can offer some help, you definitely should.
One thing that I like to do is to use every power outage as a dry run for an actual SHTF scenario.
Then, I assess all the elements of my emergency plans and supplies and see where improvements can be made.
Constant self-assessment and improvement are crucial to our continued development as preppers and survivalists, and times when the grid is down, are good opportunities.
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by activate your coms plan with (children’s radios ? )
I mean you should be attending a Radio course like Brush Beater offers a few times a year. He covers everything from how to use one to how to be a covert operator with it. He wrote a book the guerrilla guide to the baofeng radio by nc scout
Grid down is something that happens often enough around here. solar with battery back up is about all you can hope for that’s going to work.
We use the tried and true Native American smoke signal art on the prairie here.
Have AI try to decipher that type of old school tech. I think modern preppers get too wrapped up in what if’s and forget to smell the roses and coffee too.
if it’s serious enough – the only reason I’d be bothering to “check on” the neighbors would be to organize a “neighborhood watch” – get ready for the looters and worse ….
there’ll be initial resistance and lack of interest in participation – best to be getting the ball rolling in the correct direction – as the reports of retail looting intensify and first residential neighborhood raping by looter gangs begin >>> the swing over to mutual defense will solidify
Like in the movie, every which way but loose, put granny with a shotgun sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch. That is your basic home security, maybe a dawg or two as backup:)
she dies quickly
Master elite preppy, is a double negative or positive depending on your persuasion.
The biggest problem we all will face in an EMP is determining when and who we are going to allow ourselves to help. I am constantly looking around our country neighborhood sizing up each family and their needs to see who will be at my door first because they have not prepared. Then I do a dry run in my mind on how I might best handle these contacts insofar as help. I can’t afford to help everyone and deplete my own family’s stockpile. This is just a fact of life. You or them situation. It”s far more difficult than most people think to have a neighbor at your door with an infant or small kids begging for food and assistance. You best figure out ahead of time how you’re going to handle this all important problem that surely will be knocking at your door eventually.
Sign on door says “We are cannibals. Skinny people need not apply. Females preferred (YUM!)”
Dirty bird, eating females, a real “Macho Man.” Sung by American disco group “The Village People” of course.
How long do you think the fresh meat will be walking up to your door?
I got a yule log for Wilbur, BOHICA!
Given the content of this piece should it not be titled, “the first things (plural) you should do in the event of a power outtage”? I mean “grid failure” is subjective … is it grid down, grid interruption, grid overload, rolling grid blackout or what? Furthermore, the outtage must occur prior to one having to determine if a total grid failure has occurred. The article seemed-to acknowledge that fact yet it implied something else in the title. And finally, one must determine, and do, different things based upon time of day or night when the outtage occurs. For instance, a daytime rush hour clear blue sky outtage while stuck on the interstate would require a completely different immediate action response than would an outtage that happened in the middle of a hot summer night while one’s family was sleeping peacefully with the air-conditioning running and the ceiling fans circulating …. when something makes you wake-up and realize that the HVAC is off and the fans have come to a stop. Any number of different time and seasonal scenarios would elicit different “first” responses.
For the liberals; Just go an bend over to kiss your a*s goodbye! The rest of us have some preps ready to survive. Yes a country boy shall survive. Eh-haw, Geronimo!
you think republicans prepare lol.
Another Macho Liberal Man to the rescue, no thanks, political racist!
Oh yeah, at least in California in the disasters mentioned or perceived, the liberal Blacks won’t get their electronic reparations from uncle Newscum.
The reparations in Cali is a joke. That slave issue was caused by their African monarchy. They sold their own people and others into slavery.
Also, the Demoncrats caused the Civil War cotton plantation slavery too. Along with inventing the KKK, gun laws against the free Blacks of the South.
Which makes no sense in today’s enlightened society, Blacks still vote for Demoncrats.
If anything the Blacks should go after the Demoncrats for reparations, not all of us American taxpayers.
Most don’t know the republican party then voted for freeing slaves, giving citizenship, and voting rights–dems voted against all three.
Who really cares whether we have an electric grid or not?
So people can play their internet gammer stuff, play on social media or watch the garbage on regular and cable TV channels.
Why not start reading non-AI influenced physical books again.
Do we need really need to be on a smartphone every second of the day?
Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what is real and practical in our daily lives.
Then worry about some liberal green technology go awry.
The controllers and influencers of society would have to get real jobs to survive. The nonsense they have made upon our society. Don’t drink their woke kool-aid of bud lite and other woke garbage either.
I don’t have a cell/smart phone, I still have two bookcases of books to read, I read every day(gave away 400 books once) but, I love my Roku.
True crime/discovery plus is awesome.
God bless and have a great day.
Too many of these fake Macho studs think they are going to save us little women.
Yeah come lay down Macho, we’ll cut your grape nuts off at night while you sleep!
God bless the meek.
Nobody wants to save your old ass
It depends upon where I am and what season it is. If home, the first thing I do is report the outage to the electric company. If I’m not the first to call in, I’ll get an automated response telling me the area of the outage, and sometimes estimated outage times.
If others in my household are not home and not in the outage area, I’ll call them to alert them of the outage, in case they see only flashing lights on the drive home instead of working stoplights.
Next comes the season. If it’s the cold part of the year, but not cold enough to keep the woodstove going all the time, I assess if I need to start a fire. If so, fire making is next.
After going through a multi day outage some years back, I decided to keep a solar light on each floor/story of the house. I also keep one by my bed. If it’s stating to get dark, I’ll keep one of those lights with me.
Next is food/meal planning. Was I cooking something when the outage happened? If we’re in for a longish outage, what’s my plan with food in the fridge and freezer? This can vary, again based on season. During cold parts of the year, I can shovel snow into sturdy plastic bags and put in the freezer or fridge. During hot parts, I can think about what to use up first before it goes bad, or if I need to consider canning some fresh foods.
Next, I check on friends and neighbors. If they had the outage occur at the same time, they likely have been doing similar checks in their households, and we can see if anyone needs help. Even if the answer is no, they’re good, there’s still that inexplicable comfort that someone thought enough to call and check in.
If any need help, then my next step could be any number of things.
If I’m out and about when the outage occurs, I might not even be aware it’s happening. If I do see there’s an outage, I’d call a neighbor to see if it’s on our street, too, and depending upon that answer, I’d make my plan.
Not outage-related but similar enough as far as thinking goes happened when my spouse called me on my cell phone while I was out and about, and he was home. Possibility of a tornado, which is super rare at our current location.
I was just far enough away that the skies looked fine. I had just finished shopping, and the owners were locking the door when Hubs called. I told them what he told me. One of them called his wife, and yes, the tornado watch was in their location, too.
On the drive home, I looked for places I could pull over if need be. The roadway I was on had lots of swales, so I could lie down in one of those if necessary.
The sky turned blacker tinged with green the closer I got to home. I made a mental checklist of what would need to be tied down or moved into the barn and hoped time would permit that.
I got home to find Hubs had tied down everything he couldn’t easily move into the barn.
We went down cellar to wait it out. After about fifteen minutes, things cleared. No tornado formed, and we untied everything.
It was easy enough for us to grab a flashlight and solar light as we headed down cellar. Easy to grab some good and water, too.
What you do first often is largely dependent upon how have you prepared before the outage. The one simple act of my placing a Luci light in a central location on each floor of the house made it easy. Having some water and shelf stable foods within reach makes it easy.
For an EMP, it’s hard to say what will work and what won’t. One can make a best guess and likely be surprised both by what stops working and what keeps chugging along.
Treating each outage as a chance to hone one’s outage skills is wise. It may not completely prepare you for a major, long-term event, but ideally it’ll give you confidence to take the situation as it comes.
I lost water for 4 weeks (pipes froze and busted) and I had 30 gallon drums filled in the garage….it is just me now, but, that was a life saver.
My husband and I made two trips to the container store on Saturdays when the drums were $10–what a deal!!!
I had no power for 4 days and I offered lots of meats and foods to a Mennonite to share with his church and family,
Instead, he brought his generator and I paid for his time and gas and the use of the gen.
Then the winds came; still have tarps on the roof and no roofer to take this check off my hands!!!
There are things that we just can’t get ready for—like one of 10 houses needing roofers and plumbers bombarded with zillions of families with busted pipes.
You obviously do not comprehend the concept of prepping. Whether Texas, New York, California, or where ever, being ready for a power outage, or other issue, expecting the government to save you, and only you, is not a wise move. Yes, our infrastructure has seen better days, but that does not mean that it is totally shot and needs a massive overhaul. It does mean that selective improvements should be made. If you desire to be guaranteed electricity, it would be more beneficial to concentrate on an off-grid solution rather than to rely on a government or corporate solution. Electricity may be a public utility, but the companies supplying the power over the lines should bear a huge portion of the cost of repair. Those repairs can be passed to the people that use the lines. Just like toll roads, the people that use them pay the most for the use.
Expecting the government to do the right thing is a waste of time. Even when they have a “good idea”, it is conceived with graft in mind.
Lisa,
I guess I hit a nerve. And, you are aptly proving that you are NOT prepared for anything. Anytime someone calls you out, you resort to your indoctrinated deflection. You are incapable of having a meaningful conversation, or a valid rebuttal, on anything directed at you. The good news is, most people here are respectful of people’s right to free speech. Some have called for people to be banned from the site, but all comments are welcomed from me. It gives me a chance to see if someone can truly contribute worthwhile information, of if they are just paid actors trying to get a rise. You, and a couple of others that have been posting here quite frequently recently, make me want to read the older articles and posts when good, knowledgeable people had valid input.
So, Left Coast Chuck, if you are still with us, PLEASE comment so Lisa will understand how great it is when people engage in meaningful dialog.
So quick question for everyone here. Provided you could ONLY head to a city…..which city would YOU go to after an EMP or a SHTF scenario? And why?
Indulge me…I have my thoughts on this, and some of my friends say I’m crazy for thinking it. I’ll divulge afterwards.
It depends a bit on your definition of ‘a city’. Also dependent on where I am at the time of the event. Given a population of 12,000 or more being acceptible, I would head for Branson, Missouri.
The city is in the Ozarks and as a country entertainment location boasts a large number of craftspeople that demonstrate historic skills and make and sell products they make. To me, this means that there is a large pool of skills that would be of great help as the country’s infrastructure falls apart. I think it would be fairly easy to set up a common market where people could obtain versions of pretty much whatever they need to survive an extended period of now power or other infrastructure components.
The climate is varied enough to make grown most types of crops in open gardens, and with moderate efforts of erecting greenhouses just about anything could be grown. Heavily wooded around the area would supply firewood, along with good food foraging.
While some of the surrounding area can have pretty rocky soil, there are large areas that are arable. With the streams in the area irrigation would not be too difficult.
It is a tourist city, but if a major event, such as an EMP/HEMP attack that takes down the electrical grid and then the rest of the infrastructure fails, people that do not live in the city and surrounding area are going to try to get to their homes, thereby reducing the daily population. This means that most of the supplies used to service the tourists will then be available to the locals. They will not last long but should give those that are preparedness-minded a bit of a cushion until they get their plans in place or get joined-up with other local preppers.
There are many other reasons I chose Branson, but if it is considered too small for the scenario I would choose Springfield Missouri. Basically for the same reasons.
Now, if the intent was to go to a city with a large population, then I would head for the closest major metropolitan are that has a fairly dense downtown area with quite a few highrise buildings. There would need to be several parks in the area, with at least some of them having natural water sources such as ponds, lakes, streams, etc.
It would be best if there were several suburban area around the city proper, and areas that produce food products. With cooperative agreements those staying in the city can mine it for the things those outside the city want and need, but cannot obtain through retail channels that have disappeared with the loss of our infrastructure. In return, the areas that can produce food and other ‘country’ products can trade those items to those in the city that cannot obtain what they want and need due to infrastructure failures.
Now, many people say that staying in a city is a death sentence, and if one does not have a very good plan, has scouted the area thoroughly, and made decisions on how they would go about staying safe, and have enough food and water at hand to get them through at least a couple of months holed up somewhere with the least chance of being discovered and the best chance of defending themselves and destroying the attackers so they cannot lead a larger, more prepared group to attack them.
Just my opinion.
Anty you sick twisted freak, how are ya? It has been a longtime, where did you go?
What city would we go to? The city where the rioting and looting occur regularly? Ain’t gonna happen. I will be home with my family and our animals. Will be well armed to protect what we have.
Im in Western Australia, so have a different range of cities to choose.
A city is more than 10,000 people – that’s too many for me! I would rather head somewhere under 1,000 people, but let’s play the game… a city it is.
I’d choose Albany – it meets your 10,000 people rule (there’s only about 5 cities outside of metropolitan Perth, but within a two day drive of Perth)… It’s got good rainfall, populated with primarily experienced rural and ex farming folk, with a high level independence. It’s got a satellite university campus and a high level of education (compared to other ‘cities’ like Bunbury or Geraldton), and strong independence (being so far from Perth). It has deep harbour, and related infrastructure, and is a good natural port. There’s a reason it was the original settlement of this state of any note, and has remained a central city for the agricultural industry. Plenty of services and housing, used to operating remotely from the Big Smoke and loads of highly qualified and skilled people, with a vibrant arts, music, food production, forestry and community engagement system.
Why do we have these people ruining a great website? Are these individual trolls without a job to do? Could we be reading only one psycho using different names to play games here?
Bipolar Trolls here, seem to be crazy or mentally unstable persons. “Abby Normal,” ??
When the people who have NOT prepared come to my door begging the first thing I will say them is ” OMG I am so glad you are here. Did you come to save me? I hope you have some food and water because I haven’t eaten in days and am almost out of the water that was in the toilet tank”.
The only ones I won’t turn away are IMMEDIATE family. Some have prepared some haven’t and that bunch has even laughed at and ridiculed me. Want to stay here? ( I have a pretty good bug in place) then those that I let stay who laughed at me will have the tougher jobs. At least for a while. And EVERYONE will have to work, even me, before they eat. What’s the old saying? “Gas, grass or ass nobody rides for free”. Well sort of applies anyway. Lol. And all of us who are peppers need to make sure nobody gets into your home if you do decide to help that mom with kids. What’s the chance she is NOT alone and has someone hiding you can’t see until you open the door or has someone “at home” who will come back later and steal your stuff and maybe kill you for it? Sorry if that’s cynical or hard nose but ME and my family come FIRST. You CAN prep without others knowing unless you are building a 1000 sq ft bunker in the backyard or something. If you buy a particular soup buy an extra can and store it somewhere. You’d be surprised the number of places you can store stuff that you may not normally think of. If it’s your intention to barter for stuff you have GOT to be careful of WHAT you barter and WHO you barter with as well as WHERE you do your bartering. Never do it at home. Personally I would never barter for ammo because that ammo I traded to someone for a few cans of veggies or whatever might be used against me later. As for WHO you barter with that’s something only you can decide on. If you trust them go ahead but be careful anyway. Just remember folks when the SHTF people will throw the rule book out in order to survive BECAUSE they didn’t prepare. People from the cities will bee line to the country because “they have all the food”. So the closer you live to these cities the more likely you are to be “invaded” BY the city dwellers. And they will play by a whole different rule book. Look at what’s happening today in the cities especially the ones controlled by dems/libs. THAT is a fact not just my opinion.
I will always look after my key list of people who are important to me, safety in numbers and all of that.
But I won’t designate jobs based on how much shit they gave me before SHTF, that breeds resentment. They are probably already feeling stupid for not believing you in the first place, no need to heap coals on that.
Assign jobs based on a fair model, skills and capability. Buckets of shit need to be carried? That can be a punishment but save that for someone who does something stupid TODAY not three years ago. And if no one is deserving of a punishment share that shit around, and make it a fast easy job that then exempts the person from some other tasks.
If you are sitting in your armchair with a gun across your lap, gloating about your knowledge and demanding everyone do stuff… you will not wake up one morning.
Was sitting here reading this article about the power going out with my coffee this morning and guess what! The power went out for no apparent reason! I thought now isn’t this special, but was out for only a few seconds kinda ironic.
Like the idea of using your phone to check the status of the outage geographically. I have lived in hurricane country the past 25 years. Power outages are common, and for the last decade getting online (or failing to be able to) is a good way to gauge the level of the problem.
Immediately following the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 I turned on the TV. No signal. Hopped in my car and turned on the radio. No signal there either. Radio came back within 5 minutes. TV was back an hour or two later, where the world, was watching what to them looked like the SF Bay Area was destroyed. There were some dramatic destruction, but most of the area sustained no significant damage.
Good reminder to discuss with my sons what to do if all cars on the road suddenly die and they are out and about.
First thing is to buy a pure sine wave 2000 watt inverter. This will convert your car’s 12 volt system to 120 volts for running your house circuits modestly, like the refrigerator and some small things like TV and LED lights.
Bring your car over to the house, open the hood and connect your inverter with jumper cables following the directions; plug in a strong extension cord and run it inside, plug in your fridge-freezer and perhaps whatever else you for minimal need.
Start your car, turn on your inverter, increase the engine idle speed a bit using a stick between the accelerator and the seat which you adjust appropriately, and you’ll use the setup as needed to keep your food safe!
If you know how, throw all the breakers off in your main circuit panel, especially the main breaker! Take a stout extension cord and cut off the female end…strip the insulation off 1 inch and add one of the end to the ground busbar along the side of the box and the other to any breaker. Plug this into your inverter and now you can select whatever circuit you need on that side when you flip that breaker on. The advantage of this is that you can now use your furnace!!!
A furnace, oil or gas, doesn’t need much electricity…just a spark to ignite the fuel, a small pump for oil, and a blower or small pump to spread the wonderful heat around!
Of course, you do not need to run the system all the time, cycle among the most critical appliances and, since you’ve had the sense to bring in your solar-powered lawn lights, you don’t have to run the car all the time…conserve gas.
Your inverter system can be used to power electric tools anywhere your car or tractor can go…Possibly even powering the gas pump at you friendly local gas station (though I haven’t checked on this).
One problem is that most submersible well pumps need 220 volts (both sides of the circuit board) and you might have to work around this, like a more powerful inverter.
bear in mind that appliances that start under load (working instantly) there is a ‘surge” voltage that must be considered, so don’t go cheap on your inverter…you’ll hate yourself SO much when the chips are down! Heavy users, like heat pumps and big air conditioners are a luxury you’ll have to do without also clothes dryers… sorry., Small window ones are OK on their own, microwave is a great option.
If it can work on a 15 amp breaker it is OK
The reason for the pure sine wave inverter is that the cheaper ones produce modified sine wave (pulses of energy) in a choppy form which will damage your fridge and other sensitive appliances…obviously NOT a toaster, which you shouldn’t be using anyway.
Good luck with this, BUT DO IT NOW, NOT WHEN IT IS A CRISIS!
First thing to do after a power grid failure?
My answer was to play “Boom Boom – Out Go The Lights” by Pat Travers???
At least it’s a good start on the road to the 18th century.
Hey Robert, do you think you could make a YouTube video that would demonstrate this scenario and educate us on how to do this? There are a lot of people who are interested in prepping that don’t have these skills. I’d appreciate watching someone do an exact demonstration that you are describing.