Step one: Fill everything. Tub, pots, buckets, bottles. You have maybe 45 minutes of water pressure left. That’s the cleanest water you’ll see for a while.
Step two: Confirm the scope. Your house, your block, or your whole region? Battery radio or car radio tells you what you’re dealing with. Starlink Mini gives you full details if you have it.
Step three: Send one text to family with your status. Then put the phone in low power mode. Cell towers may not last long.
Step four: Fridge and freezer stay shut. Snap a photo of both interiors so you don’t have to guess. Eat in order: fridge first, freezer second, pantry last.
Step five: Stay out of stores. Whatever’s in your pantry is the plan. If this is a big event, everyone else is about to panic. Avoid crowds.
Step six: Shrink your living space. One small room, blankets over windows and doorways. Critical in winter, similar approach for extreme heat.
Step seven: Combustion stays outside. Generators, grills, camp stoves. Carbon monoxide kills more people in blackouts than anything else. This one is life or death.
Step eight: Run dark and quiet. Don’t be the brightest, loudest house on the street. That makes you the most interesting house. Generator during the day, blackout curtains at night.
Step nine: Get comms up. Cell towers may fail within a day or two. Battery radio for info in, GMRS for local family communication out.
Step ten: In a big blackout, nobody is coming to help you. Plan accordingly.
A few things worth knowing:
Blackouts historically last hours to a few days, but the 2003 Northeast blackout affected 55 million people and the 2021 Texas grid failure killed over 200 people. Big events do happen. And likely will happen with more frequency.
A whole house generator is great, but a small portable generator with 3 to 5 gallons of stabilized fuel plus a portable power station covers most scenarios and doesn’t announce itself to the whole neighborhood.
Water heaters hold 40 to 80 gallons of usable water. Learn how to drain yours from the bottom valve. That’s a free reservoir most people forget.
Practice this before you need it. A weekend without power at home tells you exactly where your gaps are.
Step one: Fill everything. Tub, pots, buckets, bottles. You have maybe 45 minutes of water pressure left. That's the cleanest water you'll see for a while.
Step two: Confirm the scope. Your house, your block, or your whole region? Battery radio or car radio tells you what you're… pic.twitter.com/cRMr1y3XKb
— Rob Benson (@BuckhornCliffs) July 6, 2026
h/t telling it straight