There you are, scrolling through Netflix, unable to decide what to watch when suddenly, your world goes black! No light from the television or computer, nothing. With the light from your cell phone guiding you, you make your way over to the window and look outside. All the buildings around you are dark too. Oh crap, this can’t be good.
Power failure. Okay, the electricity will come back on in a minute, right?
A minute later, you lift your phone to scroll through Facebook, only to realize the battery has less than fifty percent battery left.
You reach for the charging cord and stop…no power. Crap.
A short walk will help kill the time, yeah! But you’re on the tenth floor of your building. Crap, no elevator either. You don’t want to walk down the stairs lit only by emergency lighting, just to have to walk back up later. So you decide to go to bed early, maybe the power will be back on when you wake up.
But when you wake up, shivering a few hours later, there’s still no power and no heat. The wind is coming out of the north, blowing against your balcony door and your apartment is getting cold.
What do you do?
So many people have dismissed this scenario without considering it. Many people found themselves wishing they hadn’t.
Breakfast on a barbeque?
Take the big power failure of 2003. Not everyone was prepared for 12 hours without electricity. Some were at a loss for how they would feed their family. Restaurants were without power too, so there was no help there. I was lucky. We lived on the ground floor of our apartment building and had a barbeque. Bacon had already thawed, so we had breakfast for lunch, and many of our closest neighbours popped by to see how we were cooking. The smell of bacon drew them in more than their curiosity, I’m sure. They were all surprised to see my cast iron fry pans. A few even asked if I’d cook for them after I was done, if they supplied the food!
We weren’t really inconvenienced at all because we had a “Plan B”. If the power were to go out, we’d simply cook on the barbeque. We already had the cast iron pans, because I love cooking on them, but they stood up to the flames better than any Teflon coated pan could have.
Things really got fun when an irritated neighbour with no sense of humour called the fire department on me, claiming my barbeque was up against the building. It wasn’t. I knew the regs. When the fire department showed up, they verified that the grill was more than far enough away from the building and expressed a little envy over the burgers that I was, by then, grilling.
Except for that one neighbour, I was the hit of the building. Our side, at least.
But I was lucky to live on the ground floor, and prepared. Not everyone was.
Do you know how you would cook in a power failure that lasted more than four hours? Do you have a backup plan? If you live in an apartment building, do you know what the rules are in your building for barbeques or camp stoves? If you have a house, even a rental, what would be your backup plan? If you have a family, you can’t just throw your hands in the air. They’re relying on YOU to know what to do.
Time for Plan B
A 4-hour power failure is a good wake-up call. Consider plan B for cooking, communication, water and flushing the toilet. Brainstorm on paper. Get your family involved in your brainstorming. Discuss alternatives to your everyday lives. What will you do if there is a large scale power failure that results in your family getting sent home from work or school? (Assuming we ever get to go back to life as we knew it, but that’s another post for another time) Do you have a back-up, charged battery for your cell phone, or some other way to reach out for help if the need arose? Do you have a solar power bank you can draw on, or perhaps a generator?
Even apartment dwellers can usually find space to store water. While I try and discourage single-use plastic water bottles, a case of 12 or 24 stashed under a bed is better than no saved water at all. If your circumstances are such that you have 4 in your family, and you have room to store a case of bottled water under each bed - do it. It’s better to have it when you need it, than to take the moral high ground and make your children go thirsty needlessly.
What’s under your bed?
When you have the water taken care of, assume 4 gallons (for drinking) per person and pet per day, then turn your attention to food. Make a list of what your family likes, figure 3 days of food and take steps to set that aside. Under beds are frequently overlooked as storage spaces, as is the bottom of closets. Storage tubs that fit under beds can be purchased at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Canadian Tire or any local hardware store that you prefer. You can store 3 days of shelf-stable food in one of those, put it on top of the case of water that you’ve already stashed away, and you’re two steps closer to providing for your family in case of an emergency. Oh, and if your emergency food stash includes canned goods, don’t forget a can opener!
I live out in the woods now, and the weather is a concern most especially in the winter. We don’t get as much snow as we used to when we moved here, but we do get more erratic storms. Today, for instance 8” of snow was predicted. I spent almost my entire day shovelling the driveway (twice!) and I can tell you we got much closer to a foot of snowfall. Combine that with wicked wind gusts and there was a lot of potential for a power failure. Not surprising with all the trees that grow close to the power lines.
Transformers - not the fun kind
Last year, our local power company sent out crews to take down any and all trees growing within a certain distance of power lines. Makes sense, even if I do hate the mess they left behind. However, no one foresaw a local transformer blowing up one evening. Some of us were without power for far, far longer than we liked, because the power company had to order a new transformer up from Southern Ontario. The kicker of all this is that power companies don’t keep spares around. Why? Cost and availability.
Transformers, depending on the type, could cost anywhere from $7,300.00 to $325,000.00 for the high voltage ones. There are a mere 11 companies in the United States that make different types of transformers for a variety of applications, but not all high voltage. In low-demand conditions, an order for a high-voltage transformer takes 12-24 months from order to delivery for a domestically manufactured unit. But the number of companies that produce high-voltage units are declining. Their profit margins are ruled by more in-demand products, parts and services. High-voltage, powerful transformers are expensive, so smaller power companies, like ours, can’t afford to have one or two sitting around “just in case”.
So all of this is to warn you that the power might not come back on “shortly”. It might be days. It’s up to you to be forward-thinking, creative and plan ahead for you and your family. Brainstorming and planning now could save you a world of hurt in the future.
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