Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Navigating Our First Serious Power Outage
Last weekend, following another brief but powerful windstorm, we were left without power. Although we’ve had our power go out for a couple of hours here and there since moving to our house, this was the first time that we and a large section of our neighbors were left sans electricity for several hours. And while we were fortunate to have power back after about 15 hours, others in our city had to wait multiple days.
This experience not only taught us a few things about our home but also got us thinking about how to deal with such issues going forward.
Our First(ish) Power Outage as Homeowners: What We Learned
Our First(ish) Power Outage as Homeowners: What We Learned
The Importance of Flashlights (and Candles)
You always hear how it’s vital to have flashlights around the house in the event of a power outage, but you may not realize just how imperative they can be until it happens. It’s one thing if you’re house loses power and you still have ambient light from other sources — it’s quite another when the entire block is dark and your house is pitch black.
Thankfully, we not only had a few small flashlights around the house but, since our power went out before nightfall, we also had some time to find them before it got too dark. We also made use of some other useful lights we had, such as a headlamp we got from T-Mobile and a Mickey-shaped ring light. I actually clipped this to my shirt, which made it easy to find my away around my house, while also making me look a bit like Tony Stark (seen below).
In addition to those more powerful light sources, we lit a couple of candles when we were just staying in a single room. For the most part, this was enough for us while we were hanging out and allowed us to save the batteries on our flashlights.
The Garage Door
When we decided we should probably go get some supplies, we realized that we’d never actually used our electric garage door opener in manual mode. Having seen the red lever on it before, I assumed that pulling this was the solution for switching to that option. Indeed, that proved correct and the entire process was quite simple — although we did need to grab the step stool in order to push the door open all the way.
I will admit that I was surprised that, once the power came back on, the garage door was right back to working with our clickers (I would have thought some re-engagement step was necessary). All in all, this small fear about getting our car out of the garage turned out to be a non-issue.
Saving Our Fridge Items
One of the biggest bummers of power outtages is that there’s the chance of your food spoiling in the fridge. Since our EveryPlate deliveries come on Thursdays and this was Sunday, we still had a decent number of items in our refrigerator (along with some other staples).
As time passed and the scope of the outages became clear, I started to Google how long we could expect the items in our fridge and freezer to remain safe. I did know that you’re not supposed to open them in a bid to keep them cold for as long as possible, but I wasn’t sure how much time we had. From what I read, it seemed as though the turning point was between four and six hours.
With that in mind, as the night went on, we decided to head out for ice. Worried that demand for bagged ice would be high, I tried to think of what the best option might be. What I came up with was Buc-ee’s — and that’s for two reasons. First, looking at the outage map, it seemed as though the north side of Springfield was largely spared. With Buc-ee’s being up north, I was confident they’d have power themselves, which is key. Secondly, I remembered from my visits to the shop that they had at least a dozen ice freezers outside, so I figured there was no way they’d run out.
When we arrived, before I headed in, I did check to make sure there was at least one bag available. The first two freezers I checked were locked, but the third was stacked to the brim with bags. So, I went in, paid, and was on my way.
At home, we took two large insulated shoppers’ bags we have (one of which happens to be from Buc-ee’s) and filled them with ice before putting in our various refrigerated items. Furthermore, we put those bags in the basement where it would be a bit cooler.
As for the freezer, we figured we had more time there, so we didn’t worry about those items. Plus, there were less important items in there overall — except for the Cold Stone ice cream we made sure to eat right away.
Having a Plan (Even If You Don’t End Up Needing It)
When we woke up on Monday morning, we started to sketch out a plan for how we’d move forward with work and homelife. This seemed as though it would be even more necessary as a tweet from our utilities company said that, while the number of customers without power had declined from 37,000 to 14,000, they anticipated it could be Thursday before everyone was back online.
Our initial plan would have seen my wife taking a couple of our home devices with her to work to charge and then coming home at lunch to swap them out. In the meantime, I would have headed for a coffee shop for a little bit to charge my laptop and use their WiFi for work. I’d then return before our dog got too lonely and warm. To that latter point, I needed to spend some time in the basement with her.
Thankfully, 15 minutes before my wife left for work and set these plans in motion, our power was restored. After waiting a few minutes to ensure that it would indeed stay on, we went about plugging our devices back in, unloading the food on ice, and enjoying the sweet A/C.
In looking back at our experience in this power outage, there’s no question that it could have been a lot worse. For one, as mentioned, our 15 hours was a far cry from friends of ours who were without electricity for three full days. Plus, although it was pretty toasty on the day we lost power, the storm did cool things down and it wasn’t too hot overnight (with power then coming back in the morning before it warmed back up).
Because of this, this experience actually served as a helpful “dry run” for future emergencies where we may have to endure longer outages. To prepare for those, we’ll definitely want to be more mindful of where we keep our flashlights. We may also want to have some sort of battery-powered fans on hand. As far as things we did right, our ice plan worked well and could theoretically be lengthened (as long as we could continue to get more ice).
All in all, while I hope our next major power outage doesn’t happen any time soon, when it does arrive, I feel like we’ll be much better equipped to handle it.
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