Power Grid Down: A Step-by-Step Guide to Keeping Your Family Safe

Age of the Wires, Without the Extra Statistics

A lot of the U.S. transmission system has been in service for decades. The Department of Energy's 2015 Quadrennial Technology Review reported that 70 percent of power transformers are 25 years or older, 60 percent of circuit breakers are 30 years or older, and 70 percent of transmission lines are 25 years or older. The American Society of Civil Engineers still quotes those figures on its energy infrastructure page.

An earlier version of this article added three claims we are not standing behind: that Winter Storm Uri cut power to 4.5 million Texas homes and killed 246 people, that a 2024 CrowdStrike update crashed power utilities nationwide, and that the average American now loses power for 8 hours a year, up from 2. Those lines are removed. Outages happen for storms, equipment failure, and other reasons. Your plan does not need a national average to be worth doing.

Sources: DOE Quadrennial Technology Review, 2015, section 3F and the ASCE energy card.

The First Hour

See whether the outage is only your house. Check a neighbor's lights or a streetlight. If it is only you, look at the breaker panel.
Unplug sensitive electronics so a surge does not damage them when power returns.
If you were warned ahead of time, set the fridge and freezer as cold as they go before the outage starts.
If you are on a well, or you are not sure the utility pumps will keep running, fill pots and jugs while water still flows. Ready.gov uses one gallon per person per day as the planning amount.
Put flashlights, the radio, and the phone battery where you can find them.
Check on anyone who depends on powered medical equipment, and on neighbors who might.

Food in the Fridge and Freezer

Ready.gov's power-outage page gives the times to remember:

A refrigerator keeps food cold for about 4 hours if you do not open the door.
A full freezer keeps its temperature for about 48 hours if the door stays closed.
Throw out perishable food that has been at 40°F or warmer.

Group frozen packages together so they keep each other cold. If you know a storm is coming, freeze containers of water ahead of time and use them as ice. Eat the food that will spoil first. After the cold window, move to food that was never in the fridge.

Cold Weather

Winter outages are when a dark house becomes dangerous. Ready.gov's winter-weather guidance says storms can last hours or days and can interrupt heat, power, and communications at the same time.

Close off rooms you are not using and gather in one room.
Wear layers, including a hat, and use sleeping bags.
A fireplace or wood stove is appropriate if you already have one and you vent it correctly.
Never heat the house with a gas oven or stovetop.
Generators stay outdoors, at least 20 feet from doors and windows. The same 20-foot rule is on Ready.gov's power-outage page. Do not run a generator in a garage, even with the door open.
Put a carbon monoxide detector on every level of the home.
Hypothermia, a body temperature below 95°F, is an emergency. Know the signs: shivering, confusion, fumbling hands, drowsiness.

Hot Weather

Heat hurts children and older adults first. Drink water before you are very thirsty. A wet cloth on the neck helps. The lowest floor of the house is usually the coolest. If the indoor heat is dangerous, a library, mall, or official cooling center is a reasonable place to go until the power returns.

Phones and Batteries

A charged power bank carries you through a day or two of careful phone use. A car charger works if the engine is outdoors, not idling in a closed garage. A small solar charger is slow and still useful. Lower the screen brightness, and skip video while the battery is your only power.

Cell service may continue for a while on a site's backup power and then stop. Texting uses less of a crowded network than a voice call. A NOAA weather radio does not need the cell network. Handheld radios do not either. For the family plan itself, see the communication article: a paper meeting point matters more than the app you meant to download later.

Longer Outages

Portable power stations can run lights and charge phones if you sized them for that. A fuel generator can run more, with the outdoor rule above, fuel in approved containers, and no homemade connection into the house wiring unless an electrician installed a transfer switch.

What StorehousePrep Can Do Without a Signal

The medical guide, your saved roadmap progress, and family drills are on the device. PrepAI answers from a model you download ahead of time, so it can run without a live connection after that download. News and live prices need the network. The supply tracker is a worksheet for the food and water you enter. It does not, by itself, keep the fridge cold.

"The whole app works with no internet" was too broad. Download the pieces you care about while the lights are on.

Do These While You Still Have Power

Keep a power bank charged
Put a NOAA radio and spare batteries in a known drawer
Know where the breaker panel is
Decide which fridge food you will eat first
Store at least three days of water
Keep the car from sitting on empty during storm season
Write the meeting point on paper
Download a PrepAI model if you want offline answers

The next outage does not need a national trend line. It needs the radio, the water, and the rule about the generator.