Power outages are becoming increasingly more common throughout the country. Weather, failure of systems operations, a lack of fuel, vandalism and other causes are to blame. Although this situation may be beyond your control, there is a lot that you can do to ensure that your family, you, and your home are safeguarded during such times. Here is what you can do:
Install Emergency Lights
Yes, flashlights and other backup sources of light are important, but these do have their limitations. For one thing, they only illuminate a small area. For areas such as living rooms or bedrooms where people congregate you will need something a little stronger.
The best option here is emergency power units as these automatically turn on when the power cuts out. Not only are these lights powerful but as they are mounted on the wall, they cast a wider beam over the room. Make it a point to invest in at least one of these.
Guarantee Safety Backups
During a power outage, your fire alarms and other safety systems can go offline. This is pretty scary considering that the risk of a fire is quite high with everyone using candles and other flammable sources indoors. To ensure that your home and family are still connected, use Mircom SLA batteries as backup power sources for these alarms. This will keep everything up and running for as long as you need them.
Prepare for Water Cuts
There is a good chance that your access to municipality water will be cut off during such outages. Therefore, your first order of business should be to fill your bathtub with water. Look for clean buckets, bottles, or anything else that can be filled up as well.
Create an Emergency Kit
The last thing that you need to do is to stumble around in the dark for things that you may need during a blackout. This is why you should have an emergency kit with candles, matches, flashlights, batteries, etc. It is a good idea to store bottled water and non-perishable food items as well.
In a separate kit you may want to pack board games, activity books, and non-perishable snacks. This will come in handy with little kids.
Store Food Properly
One of the first things that you should do is to make sure that your food doesn’t go bad. Any food that you are planning on eating in the next few hours can be kept in the fridge. Everything else should be moved to the freezer. Place a strip of tape over the freezer door and place a note on it to remind everyone to not open the door.
Unplug All Electronics
Power surges are quite common during repairs. These can do quite a bit of damage to your electronics, however. This is why you should unplug everything – from your refrigerator and microwave to your TV and Wi-Fi. They will not be affected then.
These are the top tips and guidelines that you should follow to ensure that you are safeguarded during a blackout. Take these steps and you and your family will be able to get through this situation without any trouble at all.