Summer may best be known for lounging poolside, family vacations, and neighborhood barbecues, but there's a darker side to summer, too - electric grid blackouts and brownouts.
While blackouts can occur any time of the year, high winds from hurricanes and strong summer thunderstorms can knock out electrical lines, and high temperatures can create demand that overloads the electrical grid, causing blackouts like the one that occurred in the dog days of August in 2003 and affected an estimated 50 million people in Canada, Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.
Here are a few tips on how you can prepare your home and office to safely navigate a blackout:
1. Keep a flashlight in each room of your house and in your office. Keep plenty of batteries on hand, too, or consider light sticks or a motion-powered flashlight that does not need batteries.
2. Keep candles and/or oil lamps on hand for light. Don't forget matches! Also, do not light candles and/or oil lamps if there is a possibility of a gas leak in your home.
3. Keep the emergency numbers for your utility companies handy in case you need to call.
4. Keep an ice chest readily available to store medications that must remain cold. Store ice packs in your freezer and ready for the ice chest.
5. If you use electricity for your water, such as a well with an electric pump, have enough water available to last a couple of days. You should have at least a gallon of drinking water a day for each person in your house for drinking and cooking. Non-potable water uses, such as water for flushing toilets, can be met with water from rain catchment barrels.
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6. Have sustainably sourced disposable utensils and dinnerware on hand so you do not need to use water to wash dishes.
7. Keep the pantry stocked with some easy-to-open, non-perishable foods that require no cooking.
8. If you want to have a backup generator, make sure it is installed by a licensed professional who can assist with your local building department to see if a permit is needed.
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9. If you have an outdoor gas grill keep the gas tank full. A propane grill (and stove, firelogs, firepit, etc.) can be a handy to cook while the power is down. Learn more: PropaneCT.com/outdoor-propane
10. Keep a household first aid kit and a disaster preparedness backpack kit (the American Red Cross offers this kit for sale) in case something happens.
11. Have a household disaster plan that you and your family can follow if something occurs.
(Tips adapted from the U.S. Department of Energy article: https://www.energy.gov/.../how-prepare-your-home-blackout)
